Skeptics Café

1. 2/3: You know that you do not have Bag B (two black marbles) so there are three possibilities
You chose Bag A, first white marble. The other marble will be white
You chose Bag A, second white marble. The other marble will be white
You chose Bag C, the white marble. The other marble will be black
So 2 out of 3 possibilities are white.
Why not 1/2? You are selecting marbles, not bags.

2. 6 hectares

3. 0.06%

4. (a) green 22 cents; (b) blue 17 cents; (c) yellow 50 cents; (d) red 18 cents

5. a. Everton b. Liverpool c. Watford, Spurs, Norwich

6. The cone section is about 4% bigger than the sphere.
Cone section: You can use the formula for the frustrum of a cone.
Assuming that the shape has been achieved by cutting the top off a whole cone. This “original” cone must have been 40 cm high.
The formula for the volume of a cone is 1/3 X π x (radius of base squared) x height
So volume of the cone section = volume of the original cone – volume of the conical tip

= 1/3 X π x (20 x 20) x 40 – 1/3 X π x (10 x 10) x 20

= 1/3 X π x (1600 – 2000)

= 4667 π cubic centimetres

Sphere: The volume of a sphere is given by the formula 4/3 X π x (radius of sphere cubed)

= 4/3 X π x (15 X 15 X 15)

= 4/3 X π x (15 X 15 X 15)

= 4/3 X π x (3375)

= 4500 π cubic centimetres

7. Andrew and Dolly Gould live in Brisbane; Brian and Edna Hedges live in Sydney, and Colin and Flo Jacobs hail from Perth.

8. a. red, b. black, c. purple, d. black

9. 2 of diamonds, 3 of hearts, 6 of clubs, 8 of spades, 9 of hearts

10. A up B down C down D up E up

1. 5

2. c

3. E, D, C, B, A, G, F, H

4. (C) – as much water in the milk/water mixture as milk in the water/milk mixture

5. 50 kg: Most people assume the potatoes now weigh about 98 kg. But the potatoes now weigh just 50 kg! If you are wondering why, here is one way to look at it: Since 99% of the original 100 kg of potatoes is water, the remaining 1% (ie. 1 kg) of the original potatoes is actual potato “stuff”. Since the potato stuff doesn’t evaporate, it remains one kg. Now, after dehydration the potatoes are 98% water (which implies 2% of potato stuff). Since we know 2% of the potatoes (ie. the potato stuff) weigh one kg, 100% of the potatoes must weigh 50 times the weight of the potato stuff, which gives us 50 kg.

6. Beth is closest to the finish, followed by Emma, Carla, Alice, and Dianne.

7. 59

8. 30 km/h

9. 28

10. 2 ways

1. A. Michael Douglas; B. Sting; C. (Old Time) Dancing; D. Africa; E. Tasmania; F. Princes, Highway 1 or Geelong Road / Western, Highway 8, or Ballarat Road

2. Endeavour and Resolution

3. Silicon Valley

4. Treasure Island

5. February 2005

6. Giant Spider

7. The Kelly Gang shot three policemen

8. Betty (Cooper), Veronica (Lodge)

9. Beijing (formerly Peking)

10. Zambesi

HARDER:

11. Punctation combining exclamation mark and question mark. 

12. Originally Punctuation marks, but used for Fast Forward or Reverse symbols.

13. Cross Country running

14. All bushrangers

15. Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia

16. Aircraft escape slide

17. Infection from being bitten by a pet monkey

18. Starved himself to death

19. Frederick, hit by a cricket ball

20. Henry Fonda, Kathryn Hepburn

1. Garbled use of the English language, from Mrs Malaprop in a play by Sheridan

2. Michael Keaton – Michael Douglas; Angie Dickinson – Angeline Brown; Judy Garland – Frances Ethel Gumm; Bono – Paul Hewson; Brigitte Bardot – Camille Javal; Ben Kingsley – Krishna Bhanji; Meg Ryan – Margaret Hyra; Cary Grant – Archibald Leach

3. Baht

4. Don Beach

5. Frankenstein

6. Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer

7. They derive from real people’s names

8. Frederick Forsyth

9. Either inert gases or noble gases

10. Bob the Builder

HARDER:

11. The Jabberwock

12. 63

13. It’s shaped like a picnic basket

14. To honour Hawaii’s friendship with the British. NOTE: Hawaii was never a British possession.

15. Coppersmith / copper worker

16. Oldest Everest climber

17. The planet Venus

18. Prince Phillip / Duke of Edinburgh

19. The first shot in both wars was fired there

20. Kolkata (formerly Calcutta)

1. Any four of: Senegal, Swaziland, South Africa, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia

2. David Niven – The Moon’s A Balloon; Peter Ustinov – Dear Me; Errol Flynn – My Wicked, Wicked Ways; Michael Caine – What’s It All About?; Peter Fonda – Don’t Tell Dad; Leonard Nimoy – I Am Not Spock; Sir Alec Guinness – The Diary of a Retiring Actor

3. Trevor Chappell

4. Carp

5. George and Mildred (Roper)

6. Scrabble

7. Alfred

8. North America (American Civil War)

9. Klute (1971); Coming Home (1978)

10. Poseidon
HARDER: (YOU MIGHT WANT TO LOOK THESE UP)

11. Seventh Day Adventist

12. Turkish Delight

13. Schaffhausen is in (then neutral) Switzerland, not Germany

14. Albert Einstein & Leo Szilard, Refrigerator

15. To get him elected to Parliament / political reasons / or similar

16. 8

17. Nebraska

18. TV Themes (Inspector Morse / Lewis / Endeavour)

19. Surveying the D Day beaches

20. Victoria

1. A. Loch Dub (Lock doob); B. Gretna Green; C. Brigadoon

2. Rum, Pineapple juice, Coconut flavour

3. Jupiter

4. Fred Bassett

5. Chile

6. A woman scorned

7. Mickey Mouse

8. Edgar Allen Poe

9. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

10. Brisbane

HARDER:

11. Watergate’s “Deep Throat”

12. Plato

13. 1992

14. (roughly) cubic

15. 22

16. Games of Chess

17. 158

18. 29 years 5 months

19. Guinea

20. First solo return trip to the South Pole

1. Inoperable
2. Tenuous
3. Tentacles
4. Staccato
5. Important
6. Pie dish
7. Tin Pan Alley

1. The inside scoop
2. Sophisticate
3. Ready to rumble
4. Supercilious
5. Bellicose
6. Impeccable
7. Bordello