14. d) 180 degrees—it’s an imaginary north-south line in the Pacific Ocean, the place where the date is one day earlier east of the line than west of the line. 0 degrees is the Prime Meridian, located in Greenwich, England, the place where longitude lines begin. (There is nothing significant about 45 and 90 degrees.)
15. a) Wyoming. It has a population of 450,000 (California’s population is 30 million).
16. c) Sapporo. It’s the name of a city in Hokkaido, the northern-most island (and the name of a Japanese beer). Kyushu is the fourth and southernmost island of Japan.
17. b) Seasons. The sun’s rays hit the northern and southern hemispheres unequally—when direct rays hit one hemisphere (making it summer), diffused rays hit the other (making it winter). Fall and spring occur as the rays change hemispheres.
18. a) Pretoria. South Africa isn’t the only country with more than one capital. Bolivia has two capitals: Sucre and La Paz.
19. a) Nauru. This Pacific island nation gained its independence from UN Trusteeship status in 1968. It’s also the smallest independent nation in the world.
Humans consume about 3 billion pounds of chocolate annually.
20. c) Esperanto. Despite being taught in universities around the world even into the 20th century, Esperanto has never been accepted as an international language.
OL’ JAY’S BRAINTEASERS
Answers for page 166
GRANDMA CELIA,
1. The cup was filled with dry, ground coffee.
2. Sam’s father was 50 when he married. His bride was 25; her father was 45. When Sam was born a year later, his father was 51 and his grandfather on his mother’s side was 46.
3. A goose.
4. David (“D” is the Roman numeral for 500, “V” is the Roman numeral for 5, “a” is the first letter of the alphabet, and “I” is the first person.)
5. Boxing.
6. A relationship.
7. A mirror.
8. To cover cows.
9. He’s a barber.
10. An egg.
11. A snake.
12. They’re all abbreviations of U.S. states:
HI: Hawaii
MA: Massachusetts
PA: Pennsylvania
ME: Maine
ID: Idaho
IN: Indiana
OR: Oregon
13. They’re the kings in a deck of cards.
14. The moon.
CARD SHARK
Answers for page 357
SPLIT PERSONALITY. “Dave had 7 cards to start with,” Grandma Celia explained. “Half of 7 is 3-1/2, so when Dave gave the oldest brother ‘half the cards plus half a card,’ he gave him 3-1/2 cards plus half a card, or 4 cards.”
•“He had 3 cards left, and gave half of these cards plus half a card (1-1/2 plus 1/2) or 2 cards to the middle brother.”
That’s surreal: Salvador Dali wore a homemade perfume of fish glue and cow dung.
•“He had 1 card left, so when he gave the youngest brother half his remaining cards plus half a card (1/2 plus 1/2), he had 0 cards left.”
BY THE NUMBERS. Grandma Celia always picks a 3. Whatever numbered card the other person picks (if they do the math right), the digits on their card, plus the 3 on her card, will form the answer—if they pick a 4, the answer will be 43; if they pick a nine, the answer will be 93, and so on.
TURNING 30. Grandma Celia knew that as long as she picked up the 9th card, the 16th card, and the 23rd card, she was guaranteed to win. She kept a running total of how many cards were picked up, and adjusted her picks accordingly. It didn’t matter if she went first or second—when she went first, she only picked up 2 cards. That way no matter how many cards I picked up on my first turn, she could pick up as few or as many cards as she needed to pick up the 9th card. She did the same thing to get to the 16th, the 23rd, and the 30th cards. (Once I knew the secret, I was able to beat her once in a while.)
ELEVENSES. As long as Grandma Celia picked cards between 2 and 9 (or even aces if you count them as 1s), and the first card and the third card add up to the value of the middle card, the 3-digit number they form will always be divisible by 11.
THE ZOMBIE QUIZ
Answers for page 233
1. d) There really is a rum-soaked tropical drink called a zombie, but that’s got nothing to do with real zombies.
2. c) You can also get infected if a zombie rubs up against an open cut or wound.
3. d) Zombies live off the liquid in the flesh they eat.
4. b) We know that zombies have some rudimentary form of intelligence, because they can tell humans from zombies, and they tend to congregate in places they frequented when they were alive.
5. c) Zombies are still dead, after all, and they’re still decomposing, although at a much slower rate. Only a very young, very well-preserved corpse will last beyond five years.
Australia has 200,000,000 rabbits. They’re all descended from 12 original breeding pairs.
6. b) A zombie’s strength peaks early, then declines as it decomposes.
7. b) You must destroy the brain, or at the very least remove the brain from the rest of the body, so that even if the zombie is still “alive,” it can’t harm you.
8. c) Watch your step! Zombies have a mean bite.
9. d) A hand grenade sends shrapnel and ripped chunks of zombie meat flying in every direction, and anyone who gets hit by the zombie-soaked shrapnel will become a zombie. Using a hatchet puts you too close to the zombie for comfort, and if you use a flamethrower, the burning zombie will stumble around for a while before going down, creating a significant fire hazard. A rifle or shotgun lets you shoot the thing from a safe distance, with minimal risk of collateral damage.
10. d) But it wouldn’t be a bad idea to teach your dog the “get away from that zombie” trick...just in case.
UNCLE JOHN’S PUZZLERS
Answers for page 301
1. UND, to form underground.
2. a.Michael Jordan
b.Geraldo Rivera
c.Madonna
d.Bill Gates
e.Tony Blair
f.Keanu Reeves
g.Uncle John
3. The answer is 3. The series shows the number of letters in the words o-n-e, t-w-o, t-h-r-e-e, etc.)
4. The answer is not 25. If you divide 30 by 1/2, you get 60. Add 10 and the answer is 70.
5. The answer is 36. Add up the value of all the letters in the names (1=a, 2=b. etc.)
6. PAS
Riveting fact: There are an estimated 2,500,000 rivets in the Eiffel Tower.
7. (18 × 8 – 2) ÷ 2 = 71
8. TYPEWRITER
PALINDROMIA
Answers for page 420
1. Otto
2. kayak
3. Yo, Banana Boy
4. Ed, a general, a renegade
5. race car
6. a Toyota
7. Wow
8. If I had a hi-fi
9. DVD
10. Pull up, pull up
11. L.A. Ocelots Stole Coal
12. King Ognik
13. Eye
14. Was it a rat I saw
15. Ed is on no side
16. oozy rat in a sanitary zoo
17. Otto made Ed a motto
18. Now, sir, a war is won
19. step on no pets
20. gnu dung
21. lonely Tylenol
22. senile felines
23. bird rib
24. llama mall
25. laminated E.T. animal
26. DNA Land
27. stack cats
28. Aha
29. ewe
30. bar crab
31. Strapgod’s Dog Parts
32. swap for I a pair of paws
33. borrow or rob
34. lion oil
35. Miss Sim
36. peep
37. Tangy Gnat
38. Dammit, I’m mad
39. top spot
40.
tons o’ snot
41. TNT
42. not a ton
43. go deliver a dare, vile dog
44. deified
45. live forever of evil
46. party booby-trap
47. poop
48. maps, DNA, and spam
49. He did, eh
50. name no one man
51. civic
52. Yreka Bakery
King Louis XIV had 264 personal chamberpots in and around the Palace of Versailles.
THE LAST PAGE
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