What Does the Moon Smell Like?: 151 Astounding Science Quizzes (3 page)

engine — one that didn’t need a spark, or electricity, to run. He spent more than a decade developing his revolutionary engine, and finally unveiled it at the RACING

1900 World’s Fair in Paris. Aside from the engineers and motoring buffs who came to see his engine,

INTO

members of the general public were also drawn to Diesel’s demonstrations: they followed their noses.

THE

FUTURE

What smell drew the public to Diesel’s

demonstrations?

a) Diesel fuel

b) french fries

c) gunpowder

d) perfume

17

A Different Kind of Engine

What smell drew the public to Diesel’s

A

demonstrations?

a) Diesel fuel

b) french fries

RACING

c) gunpowder

d) perfume

INTO

THE

CORRECT ANSWER:

FUTURE

b) french fries

Diesel was using peanut oil in his engine, and the combusting oil smelled enough like french fries to attract people looking for food. Some of them must have been disappointed, but the hungry engineers and motor fans in the crowd were amazed. No one had ever seen an engine running on straight peanut oil before. Petroleum-based fuels were expensive at the time, and Dr. Diesel envisioned his engines running on cheaper, easier-to-get, vegetable oils. More than 100 years after Diesel’s demonstration, about half the vehicles in Europe are diesel, but instead of vegetable oils, they run on a fuel made from petro-leum. Diesel invented the engine that bears his name, but not the fuel, which was concocted long after he’d died.

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SNACK ATTACK:

AFTERNOON MUNCHIES

The World’s First Popcorn Lovers

When the afternoon munchies hit, you might find Q

yourself craving a fresh, hot, crunchy snack. While the microwave pops the kernels, imagine a Stone Age family, squatting around a cooking fire long ago — at least 10,000 years ago. Do you feel the heat of the fire? Do you smell the woodsy smoke? Do you hear a familiar sound, so eerily similar to the popping coming from your microwave? They may not have

had microwaves, but Stone Age people did have popcorn, and they knew how to pop it. The Aboriginal peoples of North America were the world’s first popcorn lovers.

What did Aboriginal peoples do with popcorn?

a) make popcorn beer

b) make popcorn soup

c) perform a ceremonial dance with popcorn garlands on their heads

d) all of the above

19

The World’s First Popcorn Lovers

What did Aboriginal peoples do with popcorn?

A

a) make popcorn beer

b) make popcorn soup

c) perform a ceremonial dance with popcorn garlands on SNACK

their heads

d) all of the above

ATTACK:

AFTERNOON

CORRECT ANSWER:

d) all of the above

Popcorn probably originated in what is now Mexico, MUNCHIES

and spread from there. Many native peoples ate it as a snack. Some made popcorn soup, and some even

brewed popcorn beer! Popcorn garlands adorned the heads of Aztec maidens during ceremonial dances, and decorated the statues of their gods. Some people were so into it, they were even buried with it. One-thousand-year-old popcorn kernels, so well preserved that they still could have been popped, have been found in tombs in Peru. Now there’s a snack to die for.

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Your Candy Bar Eating Style

If you like candy bars, you probably find yourself reaching for one in the afternoon or early evening.

Q

That’s the most popular time of day to indulge in a chocolate bar. Why? Common sense says that it

SNACK

could be because we need a little extra fuel to get us through to dinner. Even though many candy bar

ATT

lovers eat them at around the same time of day,
how
ACK:

we go about indulging depends on our eating style.

AFTERNOON

Seriously. According to a Canadian survey . . .

Women are twice as likely as men to eat a chocolate bar by . . .

MUNCHIES

a) breaking it into smaller pieces before eating it b) taking progressively bigger bites, saving the biggest bite for last

c) using a knife and fork

d) wolfing it down in a few big bites

21

Your Candy Bar Eating Style

Women are twice as likely as men to eat a chocolate bar by . . .

A

a) breaking it into smaller pieces before eating it b) taking progressively bigger bites, saving the biggest SNACK

bite for last

c) using a knife and fork

ATT

d) wolfing it down in a few big bites

ACK:

AFTERNOON

CORRECT ANSWER:

a) breaking it into smaller pieces before eating it MUNCHIES

Apparently, some women have a love/guilt relationship with chocolate, so they break off a small piece to eat and plan to save the rest for later. As if! According to Krystyna Sieciechowicz, an anthropologist who studies our relationship with food, women think that breaking up the bar is a more feminine way to

indulge, and some do it because they like to savour each little morsel, slowly, one after the other. Not so for the men in the survey: two out of five reported wolfing their bar down in just a few big bites. Many males also like to take progressively bigger bites, saving the biggest bite for last. Eating a candy bar with a knife and fork is a very rare style found mostly among England’s upper class, or upper class

wannabes.

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An Equal Opportunity Snack

More women than men are crazy about chocolate,

but potato chips are an equal opportunity snack, Q

craved by females and males alike. In English-speak-ing countries, they’re one of the most popular snacks SNACK

by any other name. Translation? French fries are called chips, and chips are called crisps in England.

ATT

It’s even more confusing in Australia, New Zealand, ACK:

and South Africa, where both chips and fries are AFTERNOON

simply called chips. You’re probably thinking, “Yeah, yeah, I know that.” But what else do you know about potato chips, or crisps?

MUNCHIES

Who invented potato chips?

a) a mother who loved her deep fryer

b) a scientist working for a food giant

c) an ornery chef making fun of a customer

d) an unemployed actor living at home with his parents 23

An Equal Opportunity Snack

Who invented potato chips?

A

a) a mother who loved her deep fryer

b) a scientist working for a food giant

c) an ornery chef making fun of a customer

SNACK

d) an unemployed actor living at home with his parents ATTACK:

CORRECT ANSWER:

AFTERNOON

c) an ornery chef making fun of a customer

The story goes that potato chips were invented about 150 years ago at a posh resort, Moon Lake Lodge, in MUNCHIES

Saratoga Springs, New York, by a chef bent on pay-back. When a fussy diner dared to send back his fried potatoes, claiming that they were too thick and soggy, the ornery chef decided to serve up just what the customer ordered. He fried paper-thin spud slices in oil, salted them, and voila — potatoes so crispy they shattered at the touch of a fork! To the chef ’s surprise, the ridiculously thin, crisp, potato “chips” were a huge hit with the fussy diner and his friends. Back then, potato chips were only served in restaurants.

Bagged chips came about 75 years later.

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LAUGH FACTOR

Cracking Wise

All the world loves a comedian . . . (drum roll) . . .

except for the woman married to him! Alright, I made Q

that up — the world doesn’t necessarily love a comedian. Luckily, you don’t have to be a comic to joke around. Who hasn’t made an absolutely hilarious wisecrack at some time or other? There’s nothing quite as satisfying as cracking wise, is there?

When someone makes a wisecrack, who laughs the

most?

a) optimists

b) pessimists

c) teenagers

d) the wisecracker

25

Cracking Wise

When someone makes a wisecrack, who laughs the

A

most?

a) optimists

b) pessimists

LAUGH

c) teenagers

d) the wisecracker

FACTOR

CORRECT ANSWER:

d) the wisecracker

If that’s not the answer you expected, you’re in good company — neither did psychologist Robert Provine.

When he and his students observed 1,200 people

going about their everyday lives, they were surprised to find that the wisecrackers laughed almost 50%

more than their audiences. If you doubt it, the next time the cracks are flying, check out who’s making the cracks, who’s laughing the most, and for how long. You may be as surprised as Dr. Provine was.

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LOL

When you’re alone, do you talk to yourself? It’s okay to admit it. Many people do, and some even smile to Q

themselves. But unless they’re watching or listening to something funny, people rarely laugh out loud LAUGH

when no one else is there. The young adults in one study laughed 30 times more in the company of

FACTOR

others than when they were alone. While socializing, the women laughed 126% more than the men. Why

were they laughing so much? More importantly . . .

When did the young women laugh most? When they

were . . .

a) embarrassed

b) with males they did not like

c) with males they liked

d) with their girlfriends

27

LOL

When did the young women laugh most? When they

A

were . . .

a) embarrassed

b) with males they did not like

LAUGH

c) with males they liked

d) with their girlfriends

FACTOR

CORRECT ANSWER:

c) with males they liked

Women laugh more than men in general, but they

laugh the most around men, especially men they like.

The more a woman likes a man, the more she laughs.

It’s not because women are happier, or men are funnier. For some unknown reason, a man’s role is to get laughs, and the woman’s role is to laugh. This pattern pops up in culture after culture all over the world.

Why? There’s lots of speculation, but no one’s sure.

One thing we do know is that it starts early in life.

Remember the class clown? Chances are the Bozo

was a boy.

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Cracking Up

Have you ever joined a joke in progress? You arrived Q

too late to hear the punchline, but just in time to see your friends cracking up. Even though you didn’t know what they were laughing at, did you start laugh-LAUGH

ing too? You probably did. Laughter is contagious. So contagious, in fact, that there have even been epi-FACTOR

demics of laughter. One laughing epidemic spread like wildfire in Africa in 1962, and claimed at least 1,000 victims.

How did the epidemic of laughter start? It began when . . .

a) a candid camera-type show aired a hilarious clip b) a popular comedian coined a clever wisecrack c) someone slipped something into a town’s water supply

d) three girls at a boarding school got the giggles 29

Cracking Up

How did the epidemic of laughter start? It began A

when . . .

a) a candid camera-type show aired a hilarious clip b) a popular comedian coined a clever wisecrack LAUGH

c) someone slipped something into a town’s water supply

FACTOR

d) three girls at a boarding school got the giggles CORRECT ANSWER:

d) three girls at a boarding school got the giggles The epidemic started with three giggling schoolgirls in what is now Tanzania. Soon, 95 students were howling. Two and a half months later, the school had to be closed because the students couldn’t get a grip.

But it didn’t end there. When they got home, the students infected their families and friends. The

epidemic spread from person to person, and from one community to the next, for at least half a year. Did the person who laughed last, laugh best? We’ll never know.

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WRITE ON!

Unleaded Lead

Lead pencils don’t actually have lead in them. Pencil Q

leads are made from a mixture of clay and a very soft, black, non-toxic mineral called graphite. The great, great, great, great grandaddy of modern pencils was developed after a deposit of very pure graphite was discovered more than 450 years ago.

What led to the discovery of the graphite deposit?

A . . .

a) dog digging for a bone

b) glacier receding

c) lake drying up

d) violent storm

31

Unleaded Lead

What led to the discovery of the graphite deposit?

A

A . . .

a) dog digging for a bone

b) glacier receding

WRITE

c) lake drying up

ON!

d) violent storm

CORRECT ANSWER:

d) violent storm

After a violent wind storm uprooted oak trees near Borrowdale, England, local shepherds investigated the damage, and found mounds of black stuff where the trees had stood. They thought it was coal and tried to burn it, but it wouldn’t fire up. They did find a use for it though. It was messy to handle, but good for marking their sheep. Before long, inventive types had cleaned up the mess by cutting the graphite into square pieces and encasing them in wood. Rumour has it that William Shakespeare used one of the earliest pencils made from Borrowdale graphite to write some of his plays and sonnets.