The QI Quiz Thread

Um, to prove we not hopelessly lost geeks by showing our knowledge of others areas besides Starwars?

 

Wait! There is something outside of SW???????!!!! NOooooooooooooooooooooo!



The last few questions have been about age.

 

Adam

 

Correct! Well done, go-away!

In Ancient Greece, what colour was the sky?

 

I think there was a violet hue to it due to some of the gasses that were prevelent in the sky.



It was not blue like we have it in the current climate though

 

Ooh, someone doesn't want to lose 10 points

Violet is not right though

 

arse



I know it's a blue based colour.



It's not green is it due to ionised copper in the stratosphere?

 

"I know it's a blue-based colour"

Oooh, can you elaborate before losing 10 points

 

Blue based


A colour which has blue make up part of it.


e.g Green = Blue + Yellow

Violet = Blue + Red



etc.....

 

Ahh I see

having consulted the game manager, I'm afraid it's gonna be a 10 point penalty for repeated claims that "blue" is involved

 

The sky in Ancient Greece was whatever colour it wanted to be.

 

If your going to be pedantic just because the Ancient greeks didn't have a word of "blue" then I'm not playing









most "blue" colours were refered to as being greenish yellow.


I was an independant adjudicator to have another look at my marks as I'm calling



SHENANIGANS

 

ooh, have 5 metaphysical points

 

i also feel the need to point out that it was the Greeks use of predominantly 4 colours that actually lead historians to believe that Red/Green colourblindness was indemic in greek society.


This is now discounted due to the ways that they used colours in their frescos (something a colourblind person struggles to do effectively) however there is still a strong belief that Plato was clourblind as he often refered to the sky as being bronze coloured.


Bronze as we all know is brownish in colour and browns and greys are often what colourblind people pick up as a substitute for the main colour they are meant to be seeing.

 

And you get your points back!!

The answer is "bronze", not because of the colourblind issue (which is quite interesting by the way), but for the fact that the Greeks simply didn't have a word for blue. They used the word for "bronze" to describe the colour of the sky. Even Homer said it was "bronze-coloured" Well done!

Name a green mammal

 

Loads of mammals have grey or even blue coloured skin/fur but non are actually truely green.



However the sloth can often appear to have green fur but this is due to algal growth and has nothing to do with the physiology of the animal itself.

 

Technically it's only one type of sloth, but 5 points for the corrects answer. Surprisingly there are no green mammals, although there are green examples of all other groups of animals, birds, reptiles, insects etc

So, what happens to your voice when you inhale helium?

 

Nothing happens to you voice but the helium changes the speed of the sound of the voice. (see below)


Helium is much lighter than air. Because of this, the speed of sound is much higher in helium. When you inhale helium you increase the speed of the sound of your voice. The shape of your vocal tract doesn't change. If you increase the speed of a sound you also increase the wavelength. However, on the way to the ear the sound travels thru air again and the wavelength goes back to normal. It's not the change in frequency that gives you the squeaky voice but a change in pitch. The sound has the same frequencies but helium causes a shift in your timbre. This means the higher frequencies are getting a higher enhancement than normal so the pitch changes. The end result? You sound like a chipmunk.



I had to get the correct discription for this as I knew I would badly put it forwards otherwise

 

I'm going to give you the points for correctly stating that the timbre of the voice changes, but it's another minus 10 for stating that the pitch changes, as that is not true.

You can prove this with the help of a karaoke machine (I often wondered what would happen and so tried it myself).

If you sing a song without helium, you are (if you can sing ) in tune. IF helium changed the pitch of your voice, you would be out of tune when you sang. This does not happen which shows that helium will change the sound and timbre of your voice, but not the pitch

Which animals were present at the birth of Jesus?

 

Hmmmm, a tricky one.

I assume it's not the obvious answer, since I'm sure not all the animals listed as present were all there at the exact time of Jesus' birth.


Must check the Bible

 

I'd check a source that actually has some basis in fact then

 

I think it's safe to say that the Bible is an acceptable source of information for a question like this

 

Well, since it's unlikely Jesus was even actually born in a stable with animals around, the Bible is the best source of that false information


After all, if you want the most accurate account of a lie, go to the original source.

 

Perhaps you should read it, Richie. See what it actually says before accusing it of lying

 

I read genesis once.




After I'd stopped laughing I went and read a believable book.



I think it was called the Hungry Caterpiller