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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 31 December
2004
(1) Cameron’s Corner is the point where the Australia’s
New South Wales, Queensland and South Australian state borders
meet. The residents can welcome in the New Year at midnight
New South Wales summer time, cross the border to see the new
year in again half-an-hour later on South Australian summer
time and a further half hour later in Queensland, which stays
on standard time all year. (The question was: "How are
the people living near Cameron’s Corner (in the Australian
state New South Wales) able to welcome in each New Year three
times?")
(2) Seven thousand police were on duty in Times Square, New
York, on New Year’s Eve, 1999.
(3) The first baby to be born after midnight on New Year’s
Eve is more likely to be male, and similarly for whatever
the day and time. The ratio of male to female babies is 105:100.
(4) An anagram of “a year to shut down” is “year
two thousand” . (The question was: "New Year’s
Day of what year was expected to see computers crash because
of the millennium bug? The answer is an anagram of “A
year to shut down” (4, 3, 8) ")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 24 December
2004
Answers to last week’s Christmas trivia:
(1) The present appearance of Santa Claus was largely originated
by an artist employed by Coca-Cola.
(2) On Christmas Day, 1914, German and British soldiers held
an impromptu truce across their enemy lines to shake hands,
exchange gifts and play soccer for 24 hours, then went back
to shooting each other.
(3) Good King Wenceslas wasn’t a good king. He wasn’t
even a king, only a duke. (Sydney Daily Telegraph 25-12-03)
(4) An anagram of “Starry hype. Many wrap merchandise”
is “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 17 December
2004
(1) The special rooms that Iran Air planes have between the
toilets and the first-class lounge are prayer rooms for Muslims.
(2) The airline that deliberately misspells its name in Australian
telephone directories is Qantas. It has an entry under Quantas,
as we always expect a “q” to be followed by a
“u”.
(3) The passenger capacity of the aircraft Laima, which set
an Atlantic crossing record on 21 August 1998, was nil. It
was the smallest aircraft to cross the Atlantic, with a wingspan
of 3m and a weight of 13kg including 5kg of fuel.
(4) “I land earliest” is an anagram of Delta
Airlines.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 10 December
2004
(1) Most Cook Islanders live in New Zealand. Only 19 000
of them live in the Cook Islands, compared with 40 000 in
New Zealand; 10 000 live in Australia. (Question was: "Where
do most Cook Islands nationals live?")
(2) The Canary Islands are named after animals. The Latin
name was Insularia Canaria, meaning Islands of Dogs.
(3) There are 363 sheep per person in the Falkland Islands.
(4) The anagram of “bends under capitalist force”
(5, 9, 5, 6) is “Cuban President Fidel Castro”.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 3 December
2004
(1) Rain last fell in Antarctica’s “Dry Valleys”
several million years ago, so (b) (more than a year ago) was
the correct answer. (Question was: "When did rain last
fall in Antarctica's "Dry Valleys"? (a) probably
this week, as a day without rain there is rare (b) more than
a year ago (c) approximately 20 years ago"
(2) It has never been known to rain in Chile’s Calama.
(Absolute Trivia).
(3) Clouds fly higher during the day than in the night. (Absolute
Trivia)
(4) The country’s name that is an anagram of “battering
IRA” is Great Britain.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 26 November 2004
(1) The only two countries that are doubly landlocked (ie they have
no access to the sea, and neither do the country or countries that surround
them) are Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan.
(2) The official name of North Korea is the Democratic People’s
Republic of North Korea
(3) The world’s most-discussed topic, and our topic for this week,
is the weather.
(4) The US city’s name that is an anagram of wanker is Newark.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 19 November 2004
(1) Rock Reef Pass, Everglades, Florida, USA, claims to be the world’s
lowest pass. It is two metres high. (Question was: "How high is
the world's lowest pass? (a) less than 500 metres (b) about 50 metres
(c) more than 1000 metres")
(2) The world’s longest mountain range, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge,
is rarely seen because it is under water. (Question was: "Why is
most of the world's longest mountain range rarely seen?")
(3) All 10 of the USA’s highest mountains are in Alaska. (Question
was: "All 10 of the USA's highest mountains are in the same state.
Which state is this?")
(4) The anagram of “Ultra Asia” is “Australia”.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 12 November 2004
Answers to last week’s questions on travelling by air:
(1) The name of the 747 with the longer top deck was originally the "stretched
upper deck" or "SUD" version. Why was this name changed
to "extended upper deck"?
"SUD" is the medical acronym for "sudden unexplained death".
(2) How many people are in the air right now? (a) more than 5000 (b)
about 35 000 (c) more than 60 000. The correct answers are (a) and (c).
The are more than one million in the air at any given time.
(3) Jean Pilâtre became the first man to fly when he
soared over Paris in a balloon. What other flying record did
he set? He was the first to be killed in a flying accident.
(“Can Elephants Swim?”)
(4) On a flight across America in 1976 a hijacker drew a
gun and took the stewardess hostage, saying "Take me
to Detroit." Until he took over the plane, what was its
destination? Detroit. After the stewardess said "We're
already going to Detroit," the hijacker said "Oh,
good" and returned to his seat.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 5 November 2004
Last week’s questions were on travel by water.
(1) Question was: "If a plane flies from above the Atlantic Ocean
to above the Pacific Ocean it flies from east to west. But if a ship
sails from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean via the Panama Canal
it sails through the canal from west to east. How can this be?"
Answer: It is best to look at a map. The country Panama runs almost east-west.
It joins North America at its western end and South America at its eastern
end. The Panama Canal cuts the country from northwest to south east. Shipping
from the east does almost a U-turn as it enters the canal at the northwest
end and the reverse as it exits.
(2) Question was: "Why is the most common dimension for large ships
at or just under 305m long by 33.5m wide?"
Answer: Those are the maximum dimensions for a ship to pass through the Panama
Canal. (Lonely Planet’s Central America)
(3) No ships can berth at Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean—they
must anchor 200m off-shore. Cars are transferred ashore by rowing boat
(on two whale-boats).
(4) Question was: "The Intermarine Company on the River Magra at
Ameglia, Italy, secured an $8 million contract in 1981 to build a minesweeper
and three military launches for the Malaysian government. Why were the
four vessels completed but not delivered?"
Answer: It was only after the huge craft were completed that the builders recalled
the Colombiera Bridge spanned the river between their shipyards and the sea,
and that none of the vessels could pass under it. (Return of Heroic Failures)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 29 October
2004
For three of last week’s trivia questions on travel
by road we used the Guinness Book of Records.
(1) There are 66 traffic lanes at the junction of highways
5, 22 and 27 in Orange County.
(2) You would have been wise to select a number less than
66 for the number of traffic lanes that Italy’s Vicolo
della Virilita boasts. It has one lane only. That is 43cm
wide, the world's narrowest street.
(3) No major towns are linked to Papua New Guinea’s
capital, Port Moresby, by road. You can fly, go by sea or
walk.
(4) How long would it take to stroll down to a friend's place
at the other end of Yonge Street, Toronto? (a) about two minutes
(b) over an hour (c) a month or more. Two of those answers
are correct, namely (b) and (c). It would take you two months,
if you strolled for 30km a day. Yonge Street is 1896km long.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 22 October
2004
Answers to last week’s questions about country borders:
(1) Fifteen countries share a border with China.
(2) These countries are Mongolia, Russia, North Korea, Macau,
Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
(3) Five of those names end in the same four letters, namely
“stan”.
(4) The name of the world’s most heavily militarised
border is the DMZ – Demilitarised Zone – between
North and South Korea.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 15 October
2004
Answers to last week’s questions about cities:
(1) The world’s quietest city is Venice, thanks to
being car-free.
(2) Ethiopia's holy city, Axum, was linked to southern Arabia
by caravan routes via its port, Adulis. Why would tourists
now have some difficulty visiting Adulis? Because it is buried.
(3) The principal city in the Gaza Strip is Gaza.
(4) In the Mercer Human Resource Consulting’s quality
of life surveys for both 2002 and 2003, the name of the city
that finished first starts with the last letter of the alphabet.
It’s Zurich.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 8 October
2004
1) What is the only continent on which corn is not grown?
(2) Which continent has the highest average elevation?
(3) Which is the driest continent?
(4) Which is the windiest continent?
The answer to each question is the same: Antarctica.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 1 October
2004
Answers to last week’s questions on continents:
(1) Istanbul, in Turkey, is on two continents – part
in Europe and part in Asia. (Question was: What city is on
two continents?)
(2) One of the 54 African countries, Liberia, has not been
ruled by a foreign power. (Book of Answers.) (Question was:
Of the 54 countries that make up the African continent, how
many have not been ruled by a foreign power?)
(3) Only one continent—Antarctica —has no land
below sea level.
(4) The unusual spelling feature common to the names of every
continent (taking North and South America as America) is its
first letter is the same as its last.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 24 September
2004
Answers to last week’s questions on waterfalls:
(1) Each second in a very wet season, 13 million litres of
water flows over Iguazu Falls.
(2) In a very dry season, the flow is zero.
(3) The Guaira Falls, on the Parana River between Paraguay
and Brazil, are no longer the world’s largest waterfall
because they are now under water. This follows the completion
20 years ago of the Itaipu Dam. (Reader's Digest Book of Facts)
(4) A famous North American landmark that is constantly moving
backwards is Niagara Falls.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 17 September
2004
(1) What do Baku, Bandar Seri Begawan, Ouagadougo, Bujumbura,
Nuuk, Tegucigalpa, Nidjamena Yamoussoukra, Antananarivo and
Paramaribo have in common? They are all capital cities (of
Azerbaijan, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Greenland,
Honduras, Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Surinam).
(2) The name Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, means “you
never sleep”. (The question was: "What does the
name Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, mean? (a) meeting place
of the tribes (b) you never sleep (c) boil your carrots in
the wet season")
(3) The most southerly capital city is Wellington, New Zealand.
(4) The most northerly capital city is Reyjavik, Iceland.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 10 September
2004
(1) The Olympic flame crossed the equator on 25 May 2000 for
the first time since 1956.
(2) Of the Brunei delegation to the 1988 Olympic Games, 100%
were officials. Brunei sent one official and no athletes.
The official participated in the march past at the opening
ceremony.
(3) Equestrian events are the most dangerous in the Olympic
Games.
(4) The five Olympic rings represent each continent and at
least one of the colours is found on the flag of each country
represented. (Question was: "What do the number and colours
of the Olympic rings represent?")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 3 September
2004
1) Besides being the names of Olympic Games cities, Amsterdam,
Athens, Atlanta, Berlin and Rome are also cities in the American
state of Georgia.
(2) The only city to have been awarded the summer Olympics
three times is Athens.
(3) The smallest country in size and population to have hosted
a modern Olympics is Greece.
(4) This year’s Olympic Games marathon events started
in Marathon.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 27 August
2004
(1) The country with more fresh water than any other is Canada.
(2) Monaco has the world’s shortest coastline. (The
question was "What country has the shortest coastline,
a grand total of three kilometres? If you’d like a clue,
it’s in Europe.")
(3) 75% of the world’s fresh water is stored as ice.
(4) When we asked last week for the name of the world’s
highest lake, we suggested this question was impossible. And
it is. According to the Guinness Book of Records, this lake
has no name. It’s in Tibet.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 20 August
2004
(1) The country with the most emigrants is Mexico.
(2) The world’s highest country, when defined as the
country with the highest lowest point, is Lesotho.
(3) The largest former British colony is the USA.
(4) Mongolia used to be the world’s largest land-locked
country. It has not changed in size, but has lost its title
to Kazakhstan since the demise of the USSR.
If you knew the answer to just one of those questions, you
deserve a high distinction.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 13 August
2004
(1) The only human-eating creature known to have inhabited
a Pacific island is man.
(2) The island off Cape York where Captain Cook claimed possession
of Australia’s east coast in 1770 is Possession Island.
(3) Assuming you could ascend at a rate of five metres a
minute, the time it would take you to climb to the equivalent
of the highest point on the Ashmore and Cartier Islands is
half a minute. Their summit is 2.4 metres above sea level.
(Question was: " Assuming you could ascend at a rate
of five metres a minute, approximately how long would it take
to climb to the equivalent of the highest point on the Ashmore
and Cartier Islands? ".)
(4) No country owns Tory Island off the north-west coast
of Northern Ireland. It is an independent kingdom.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 6 August 2004
1) Our site visitor from Iran would have known that it was
previously called Persia and before that it was Iran.
(2) The small republic surrounded by Italy is Communal Democratic
Implementation Republic of the Italian People’s Independent
Movement of San Marino.
(The question was: " A small republic surrounded by Italy
basks under the full name of Communal Democratic Implementation
Republic of the Italian People’s Independent Movement
of … . The … represents two words by which it
is most commonly known. What are these two words?")
(3) Twelve of the 14 countries (or 13 of 15 if we count “America”)
that begin with the letter”a” also end with “a”.
The two that don’t conform are Afghanistan and Azerbaijan.
The others are Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra,
Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia,
Aruba, Australia and Austria. Three of the four US states
beginning with “a” also end in “a”
(Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas).
(4) After gaining independence from Britain, Gambia changed
its name to The Gambia.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 30 July 2004
(1) The world’s shortest town name is Å.
(2) There are 85 letters in the world’s longest place
name. I would type it for you here, except that I have other
commitments. It’s in New Zealand.
(3) The London suburb Knightsbridge name has a record six
consecutive consonants.
(4) The town that most Alabama residents call “brilliant”
is Brilliant. Brilliant!
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
23 July 2004
(1) Some Norwegian houses still have grass growing on their
roofs to assist insulation. (Question was : "Why do some
people in northern Norway regularly water their roofs?")
(2) When Olav V was 36th in line of succession to the British
throne in the 1980s he was already king—king of Norway.
(Question was : "Olav V was 36th in line of succession
to the British throne in the 1980s. What were his chances
of being king?)
(3) Besides being first names of people, ALF and EVE are
the airport codes for the Norwegian airport Alfa and Evenes.
And if you’re into airport codes that are people’s
names, here are some more: ABE, BUD, BOB, JOE, MIA, DAN and
FLO. (Question was: Besides being familiar first names, you
could see ALF and EVE printed many times as you tour Norway
by air. Why is this?)
(4) The furthest north you can travel to by car is North
Cape, Norway
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
16 July 2004
(1) Faulconbridge, a town in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney,
has the longest town name in the English language without
a letter repeated. It also has half the letters of the alphabet
and all the vowels. (Question was: "What is special about
the Blue Mountains town name Faulconbridge?")
(2) What is significant about the spelling of the Victorian
town names Colignan and Nangiloc? Each is the reverse of the
other.
(3) Quaama is a town near Bega, on the south coast of the
Australian state New South Wales.
(4) Zanthus, Zillmere, Zilzie and Zuytdorp are all Australian
towns.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
9 July 2004
Trivia questions were about capital cities:
(1) Burkina Faso’s capital city’s name, Ouagadougou,
has eight vowels but only three consonants.
(2) Vatican City has no restaurants or bars. You may know
of other such cities.
(3) The capital city of Latvia, Riga, was the largest city
in Sweden in 1630. Latvia has had the honour of being ruled
by and thus part of Germany, Denmark, Poland, Sweden and Russia.
(The trivia question was "In 1630, Riga, present capital
of Latvia, was the largest city in where? (a) Russia (b) Germany
(c) Sweden")
(4) Brasilia is the South American capital city laid out
in the shape of a plane.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
2 July 2004
(1) What is a wat? In Thailand, it’s a Buddhist temple.
(2) If you plead guilty to drug charges in Thailand, your
sentence can be halved. If it were a life sentence, it gets
“halved” to 50 years.
(3) Krungthep Maha Nakorn, Amarn Rattanakosindra, Mahindrayudha,
Mahadilokpop Noparatana Rajdhani Mahasathan, Amorn Piman Avatarn
Satit, Sakkatultiya Vishnukarn Prasit is the official name
for the capital city of Thailand, Bangkok.
(4) After having been published since 1831, The Sydney Morning
Herald put news on its front page for the first time in April
1944. Until then, the front page carried classified advertisements.
(The question was "What did The Sydney Morning Herald
put on its front page for the first time in April 1944, after
having been published since 1831?")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
25 June 2004
(1) It is grammatically correct to say “we is”
when you announce that We is a town on the Indonesian island
Pulau. Another possibility is to state that “we”
is a pronoun.
(2) The flags of Indonesia and Monaco are identical.
(3) The first American consumer product to be sold in Russia
was Pepsi-Cola.
(4) The most expensive property on the Monopoly board is
“Boardwalk” in the US version and Mayfair in the
British.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
18 June 2004
(1) If you add the word “Hill” or “Hills”
to Baulkham, Box, Castle, Mays, McGraths, Quakers, Rouse or
Seven you get the name of a Sydney suburb.
(2) The two forms of transport you would use to get from Orlando,
Florida, to the Sea of Tranquillity are car and space vehicle.
The Sea of Tranquility is on the moon. (The question was "What
two forms of transport would you use to get from Orlando,
Florida, to the Sea of Tranquillity?")
(3) The smallest number of colours needed for a world map
so that no adjoining countries are the same colour is four.
(4) The name of the stretch of land separating North and South
Korea is the Demilitarised Zone. This is incongruous because
it is the world’s most heavily militartised border.
(The question was "What is incongruous about the name
of the world’s most heavily militarised border?")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
11 June 2004
(1) The name of the Sydney suburb Lilli Pilli means “tree
with little edible berries”.
(2) The world’s quietest city is Venice. Plenty of
people but no road traffic.
(3) The two cities that are least likely to be visited by
99% of the Australian population are Mecca and Medina in Saudi
Arabia. (The question was "What two cities (in the one
country) are least likely to be visited by 99% of the Australian
population?" About 1% of the Australian population is
Muslim and only Muslims can visit Mecca and Medina.)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
4 June 2004
(1) India’s flag contains a picture of a wheel.
(2) The country Lesotho is completely surrounded by South
Africa.
(3) Of the Sydney suburb names that have a compass direction
as the first word, eg North Strathfield, there are more “Norths”
than all the “Easts”, “Souths” and
“Wests” combined (North has 20, East 6, South
8 and West 4).
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 28 May 2004
(1) The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the world’s widest
largest-scale and heaviest single arch bridge.
(2) The Sydney suburb named after a main meal is Breakfast
Point.
(3) On our home page Alan appears to be getting a drink
from a mural in Hillsdale.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 21 May 2004
(1) Australian stockbroker Rene Rivkin has sold 100 of his
cars; some of the remaining five may have to go too.
(2) In the northern Sydney suburb of Warrawee you can turn
left into Eulbertie Avenue then left out of it into Eulbertie
Avenue because Eulbertie Avenue comes to a T-intersection
where the cross street in both directions bears the same name.
(See photo under North | Warrawee.)
(3) The “trouble-decker” that serves Sydenham
(click on “South) on most Sundays is an Atlantean bus
from the bus museum. It earned its nickname by causing lengthy
strikes when the government tried to introduce one-man double-decker
operation. Some clever people noticed that the question had
twelve consecutive words beginning with “s”. [The
question had been: “trouble-decker” of Sydney
serves Sydenham (southern Sydney suburb) some Sundays. So,
see Suburbs/South for what is it?]
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 14 May 2004
(1) The Sydney suburb’s name with eight vowels, all
the same vowel, is Woolloomooloo.
(2) Most of the streets in Castlecrag have names beginning
with “The”.
(3) Warrawee is an Aboriginal word meaning “stop here”.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 7 May 2004
(1) In the original Watsons Bay lighthouse picture (now replaced)
two photos were joined together. One of them was taken from
a higher position on the ground behind the lighthouse.
(2) What do Clare, Dacey, Erskine, Forest, Glades, Gran,
Hammond, Hurst, Kelly, Matra, Oak, Orange, Regent, Rose, Schey,
Varro and Wentworth have in common? They all have “ville”
as their suffix for the name of a Sydney suburb.
(3) Zetland is Sydney’s last suburb alphabetically.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 30 April
2004
(1) Over 90% of overseas arrivals settling in Blacktown in
the first half of the last decade were from non-English-speaking
countries.
(2) Alan ran into former Anglican Church head Sir Marcus
Loane while walking in Warrawee on 21 April.
(3) You can’t match (or at least we hope you won’t
try to match) Alan’s feat of doing a particular two-kilometre
walk in Wolli Creek because it was through the tunnel of the
Sydney Airport railway line before it was opened to trains.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 23 April
2004
(1) Two Sydney suburb names beginning with “The”
are The Rocks and The Spit.
(2) Mount Trefle is in Nielsen Park, Vaucluse, a neighbouring
suburb of Watsons Bay. Justin of Canberra reported that the
“mountain” is 47.7 metres high and named after
a former Minister for Lands from 1912-15.
(3) The suburb name with “a” as every second
letter is Tamarama.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
16 April 2004
(1) The streets featured in Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph
appeared under the heading Sydney’s Best Streets”.
(2) Kirribilli Avenue, Kirribilli, is home to Prime Minister
John Howard.
(3) Lachlan Murdoch sold his house in Billyard Avenue, Kirribilli,
to Russell Crowe.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
9 April 2004
(1) There were 131 candidates for the City of Rockdale local
government elections on 27 March.
(2) The name of the lookout on the Pacific Highway at Turramurra
is "The Lookout".
(3) The nearest car ferry to the centre of Sydney is only
10km away at Mortlake.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending 2 April 2004
(1) Ms Forrest has the ideal surname for a Greens party candidate.
(2) South Wentworthville is the longest Sydney suburb name.
(3) Ian Thorpe has bought a home in Burraneer.
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