General Knowledge Test You too can be a polymath.

1
General Knowledge TestYou too can be a polymath.

• History
• Geography
• Literature
• Language
• Politics
• Crime
• Biomaterials
• Genetics
• Music

2
The 3 stages of scientific discovery

• 1. They deny it is true
• 2. They deny it is important
• 3 What is the 3rd stage?
• What is the difference between an observation, 2
  observations, 3 observations, many more than 3
  observations?

3
History

• Did Pierre Curie die of-
• Radiation sickness
• Being shot by his wife Marie because he
  plagiarised her work
• Being run over by a bus
• Old age?
• What were Trevisthick and Huskisson famous for?

4
Geography

• What land lies due south of Iceland?
• What country is the furthest east of the current
  European Community?
• What is the Southernmost state of the USA?
• What country is represented by the symbol?
• And why?

5
Literature

• Who was the author of
• The formation of vegetable mould through the
  action of worms
• Expressions of emotions in man and animals
• The power of movement in plants?
• (but these are not his two most famous books)
• And what related topic was first published (20
  years earlier) in the journal Naval Timber and
  Arboriculture by Patrick Mathew?.

6
Language

• What is the Arabic word for desert?
• What is the Chinese word for a big wind?
• What is the Czech word for forced labour?
• Where is Mesopotamia and what number base did
  they use?

7
Politics

• Osama Bin Ladem is
• Of the left
• Of the right?
• Estimate the relative intelligence of
• The President of the USA
• The President of Europe?
• Where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?

8
Crime

• Where is the bar code on a Euro note?
• What do New York cops die of?
• Where is the unique identifier on a mobile phone?
• Are mobile phones dangerous for your health?

9
Biomaterials

• Is a sponge
• Animal
• Vegetable
• Mineral
• Synthetic (e.g. a plastic)?
• And what is a lichen (the green stuff on the
  north side of trees)?

10
Genetics

• Since you have two parents and each of them had
  two parents, how many ancestors would you have
  had, approximately, in the year 1000 (assuming
  that a generation is about 25 years), i.e. 40
  generation ago?
• Why can this number not be correct?
• And what did Mendel originally study?

11
Music

• Brian May the lead guitar of the pop group the
  Queen was originally
• A journalist for a pop music magazine
• An artist (painter)
• Unemployed and uneducated
• A PhD in astrophysics?