Quiz #21: It's a kind of magic
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Q 1 What is the most common form of colour blindness?
A Deuteranomaly
About 5% of the population has trouble with red-green hue discrimination - 4.63% are male, while 0.36% are female.
Total colour blindness is known as Achromatopsia and it affects only 0.00003% of the male population.
Many on-line tests are unreliable due to colour shifts in the computer screen.
Q 2 What company invented the Betamax video tape format?
A Sony
Some will remember the Betamax (or Beta) format as being superior in quality to the JVC's VHS format. The Quizmaster certainly does.
What you might not know is that Sony are still producing and selling the tapes, but will stop next month (March 2016) after more than 40 years.
Q 3 How fast was the Concorde passenger plane?
A 2,180 km/h
That is mach 2.04 - just over twice the speed of sound. Nothing much to say about this wonderful aircraft, just watch:
Q 4 Only one mammal can fly. What is it?
A The Bat
Many people believe that all bats carry rabies. This is not true - many wild animals carry rabies, and bats generally do not bite humans.
The saliva of the vampire bat contains a substance known as Draculan, named after Count Dracula. It stops the blood clotting. Vampire bats do not prey on humans.
Q 5 What year was the Great Fire of London?
A 1666
On Sunday 2 September a fire broke our in a bakery in Pudding Lane. The owner, Thomas Farynor, claimed to have put the fire out by about 10pm, but by 1am there was an inferno. It spread and continued burning until Wednesday 5 September.
Oil on panel Dutch School painting depicting the Great Fire Of London. The painting shows the blaze on the Tuesday night - two days after it began. Photo: Ben Sunderland / CC-BY
Q 6 In the Harry Potter books, what did Dumbledore teach before becoming headmaster of Hogwarts?
A Transfiguration
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was professor of Transfiguration. Richard Harris played the role of Dumbledore in the first two films before being replaced by Michael Gambon, although Sir Ian McKellen was also offered the role.
Q 7 How many regular party balloons are required to lift a person?
A 10,000
One litre of helium lifts about 1.11 grams, so 901 litres is need to lift 1kg. The average human weighs 70kg, so would need roughly 10,000 balloons.
In the Pixar movie UP, Carl Fredricksen ties thousands of balloons to his house so he can fly to South America.
Q 8 Who was the first U.S. president over all 50 states?
A Eisenhower
The 50th state was Hawaii, and it entered the union in August 1959. This was during Eisenhower's second term, making him the first President of all 50 states.
Q 9 The Wellington department store Kirkcaldie & Stains recently closed. When did it start trading?
A 1863
Kirks, as it was frequently called, was founded in 1863 by John Kirkcaldie and Robert Stains. It closed on 16 January 2016, after being sold to the David Jones company.
Q 10 Which is the most conductive metal?
A Silver
In order of conductivity, silver, copper, gold and then aluminium. The main problem with silver is that it tarnishes easily, and is quite expensive compared with copper.