General Knowledge Quiz

[Peter Mugridge]

Serpent, Southern, Crises, Cold, Moisture, Showers, Islands, Clouds and 15 other assorted names are what?

 

[DaleCooper]

Mares (maria?) on the moon.

 

[Strat-tastic]

Terms used on the shipping forecast.

 

[Calthrop]

Something to do with fortune-telling by means of Tarot cards??

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Mares (maria?) on the moon.

Yes Dale, the spacecraft is yours.

 

[DaleCooper]

Next question:

The Ann Alexander and the Essex were two ships that suffered the same unusual fate. What happened to them?

 

[theageofthetra]

They were both sunk by the whales that their crews had injured.

 

[DaleCooper]

They were both sunk by the whales that their crews had injured.

That's right, they were both sunk by sperm whales.

Your turn...

 

[DaleCooper]

This is a quiz waiting for a question. Anyone...?

 

[A Challenge]

What is the maximum number of points played needed to win a set in a match of tennis (for the sake of the argument the first) without deuces or a tiebreak?

Sorry, this is a bit wordy, hope you understand it

 

[me123]

Well, in the first set there can be no more than twelve games before a tie-break is called - the winner would win 7-5 (winning the last set from 6-5). Assuming there are no deuces, there would be no more than six points per game (all games would be won G-30 or better). Multiplying them together gives you 72 distinct points as a maximum.

As you say, this assumes that there are no deuces and no tie-breaks. A point is classified as the first serve of the point to the moment where a point is won by a player - which may take multiple serves (lets, faults). But with these rules, there shouldn't be any more than 72 distinct points.

 

[A Challenge]

Well done, all the logic there was all correct. Very quick as well 12 minutes!

 

[me123]

A document called "The Tau Manifesto", first published in 2010, makes what proposal?

 

[DaleCooper]

Is it connected with the star Tau Ceti, perhaps proposing a manned mission?

 

[me123]

I'm afraid it's a lot less exciting than that.

 

[DaleCooper]

Is the proposal to replace the 20th letter of the alphabet (Tt) with the Greek letter Tau (Ττ)?

 

[me123]

You're quite close in one way. It's to do with replacing something with the Greek letter τ.

 

[DaleCooper]

Use of the Greek letter τ instead of gender specific titles such as Mr, Ms etc.

 

[krus_aragon]

I seem to recall that it proposes using tau instead of pi (3.1415926...) for mathematical purposes, tau being twice the value of pi. This tidies up the relationship between circumference and radius of a circle (τr instead of 2πr), but doesn't do much for other relationships, such as the area of a circle (τr²/2 versus πr²).

 

[me123]

Oops, forgot about this! Sorry for stalling the thread.

Use of the Greek letter τ instead of gender specific titles such as Mr, Ms etc.

Inspired by the suggestion to use the pronoun "ze", but unfortunately not true.

I seem to recall that it proposes using tau instead of pi (3.1415926...) for mathematical purposes, tau being twice the value of pi. This tidies up the relationship between circumference and radius of a circle (τr instead of 2πr), but doesn't do much for other relationships, such as the area of a circle (τr²/2 versus πr²).

This is correct. The tau manifesto states that pi is wrong, and the correct value should be twice pi (what they call tau). It does make a lot of sense - particularly when you start to look at trig functions. (And, FWIW, A=τr²/2 may be more unwieldy but is logical when you look at the derivation of the formula).

Anyway, over tau you.

 

[DaleCooper]

It would make a mess of Euler's identity (e^iπ+1=0)

also τr (tau*r) looks very like π, why didn't they choose a more distinctive letter?

 

[me123]

e^iτ = 1.

τ was chosen from the Greek word τoρνoς (from which we derive the word turn) and was deliberately picked to have a visual similarity to π.

 

[krus_aragon]

Next round:

Why might the residents of Llanfihangel-tre'r-beirdd, Anglesey have had special cause for celebration exactly four weeks ago?

 

[deltic1989]

Hmm I gave up smoking exactly 4 weeks ago. Could this have something to do with it? Do they make e-liquids there? I have been using rather a lot.

 

[krus_aragon]

Hmm I gave up smoking exactly 4 weeks ago. Could this have something to do with it? Do they make e-liquids there? I have been using rather a lot.

No, (although a relative of mine has been writing a book on Anglesey's tobacco industry).

One might say that this question is a tangent of the previous one.

 

[krus_aragon]

To keep things rolling: there is special significance to the date (now) four weeks and a day ago.

 

[TheEdge]

Well four weeks and one day ago was Pi day (3.14)

 

[DaleCooper]

Apparently it was also "Steak and BJ Day".

 

[DaleCooper]

...and I've just remembered another reason not to use Tau.

 

[A Challenge]

I like that photo DaleCooper, I think I may reuse that!