Quizzes & Puzzles 19

Some new problems with which to exercise the brain. But first a look at answers and solutions to Quizzes & Puzzles 18. New problems below the image (cartoon).

Answer to Quiz 18:1

What are the local names of the following countries:

• Hungary?

• Bhutan?

• Finland?

• Japan?

• Hungary – Magyarország – (Language: Hungarian)

• Bhutan – Druk Yul – (Language: Dzongkha)

• Finland – Suomi – (Language: Finnish)

• Japan - Nihon or Nippon – (Language: Japanese)

Answer to Quiz 18:2

E=mc^2

This must be the world's most famous equation. But what is it and what does it mean?

Popularly, it is Einstein's formula of relativity. More precisely it is a part of his theory of special relativity. It says that the energy (of a body) equals the product of the mass (of the same body) and the square of the speed of light.

Answer to Quiz 18:3

Who was the Sultan who was the legendary opponent of Richard Cœur-de-Lion (Richard Lionheart). This Sultan founded a de facto Empire, covering Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia and Yemen.

His name please?

His name was Salāh ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb [صلاح الدين يوسف بن ايوب], in the West popularly called “Saladin”. He founded the Ayyubid dynasty, which ruled Egypt (and more) from 1174 to 1254, when the Ayyubids were officially replaced with the peculiar Mamluks.

You can read more about Saladin and his dynasty in Saladin & The Ayyubid Dynasty - Saladin's Eagle, and Saladin's Citadel.

@Adobe101 answered correctly to Quiz 2 & 3.

Answer to Quiz 18:4

You have all heard about the famous Templars – the most famous knights in Christendom. Sometimes one can see the popular name of their order misspelt. So, how should it be, where should it be “s”? Of the expressions below, only one is correct; which one?

• The Knight Templars

• The Knights Templars

• The Knights Templar

The last is the correct spelling: “Knights Templar”.

Answer to Quiz 18:5

Where can we find “solar plexus”?

In the front of the body, in the middle, below the ribs. It is a complex system of nerves, radiating out like a sun (from which the name derives). “Gut feeling” comes from nerves and ganglia in solar plexus.

Popularly, the region around is sometimes called solar plexus, as in a case of receiving “a blow to the solar plexus”, but strictly, scientifically, the name applies only to the network of nerves and ganglia. However, if we should be really scientific, the latter is more correctly referred to as “celiac plexus”.

Answer to Quiz 18:6

If you eat green potatoes, you risk to be poisoned, which in extreme cases can lead to death. What is the poison present in green potatoes called?

The poison is solanine, and it is naturally present in all plants of the nightshade family. The family includes several plants of which parts are used for food, such as potato, tomato, eggplant, goji berries, bell peppers, paprika, cayenne and chili pepper (and related peppers), ...

Some people are allergic to nightshades and must avoid them. However, there is no general reason to avoid them because of solanine, the levels are normally too low to be harmful. The exception is potatoes being green. The green colour is not solanine, it is chlorophyll, but they develop in the same time. So, if a potato is exposed to sunlight, it develops chlorophyll and becomes green, and then its normally low level of solanine increases as well. The rule is, never eat a potato of which a part is green.

And now some new exercises for brain & memory...

Let's have a theme again. This time all answers are numbers. All questions ask “how many” something.

Quiz 19:1

How many chemical elements are liquid in room temperature?

Quiz 19:2

How many wives had Henry VIII of England? Extra point if you can name some of them.

Quiz 19:3

How many seats has the Swedish Academy, the body appointing the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature? I ask for seats, not members, because seats are sometimes vacant – so another way to ask the same would be to say: how many members do they have if no seat is vacant?

Quiz 19:4

How many were the initial Knights Templar, according to legend?

Quiz 19:5

How many were the Muses of Greek mythology?

Quiz 19:6

In poker, how many different combinations of “full hand” are possible?

Quiz 19:7

How many steps are there between life and death, according to old Egyptian lore?

Quiz 19:8

Only a handful countries have been world-champions in football (soccer). How many?

Extra follow-up question: which ones?

You'll find answers and solutions in the next “Quizzes & Puzzles”.

Quizzes & Puzzles has its own label in my Index, where all issues of the series can be found.

In my INDEX, you can find all my writings on Read.Cash, sorted by topic.

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(Cartoon by Christian Dorn/Pixabay, CC0/Public Domain.)