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        riddles >> general problem-solving / chatting / whatever >> mind boggling?
        
(Message started by: usdragonfly on Mar 2nd, 2004, 6:06pm)
Title: mind boggling?
Post by usdragonfly on Mar 2nd, 2004, 6:06pm
ok, this is completly random yes but i'm bored and thought i would share this with you.

my little sister is in the 5th grade. Her teacher gives the class 50 questions each month. There not questions from what they've been studying though, there just random questions. i was going over some of these questions one day and relized that some of the questions made me feel really stupid when i couldn't find some of the answers myself!

so anyways here's a few random one's that i picked out. give me some feedback if you can find the answer!


1. what communist country collapsed during 1992?
2. the first university in history was built in..
3.what do the letter's p.r.c stand for?
4.what type of forest is filled with evergreens and is mostly cold and snowy?
5.what roman empire "fiddled while rome burned"?
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by Icarus on Mar 2nd, 2004, 6:26pm
1. Wouldn't this be the Soviet Union?
2. That depends on what you include as a "university". My guess would be Greece.
3. Too many possibilities to list. "Private Registration Code", for example.
4. It's just on the tip of my tongue. No, really, it is!
5. How an entire empire can "fiddle" while its capital burns, I don't know, but Nero is famous for being the Roman Emperor who fiddled while Rome burned. During his reign, a great fire swept over Rome destroying the poorer sections of the city. Nero blamed the christians for setting the fire, and began the first of 10 Roman persecutions of christians. The general belief is that he set the fire himself, as he wanted to tear down these slums and replace them with new buildings (in which the former occupants would be unwelcome). The fire cleared the way for him to proceed with his plans. The charge cannot be proven, however. The charge that he actually fiddled while Rome was burning in probably false, but was a popular charge against him. Nero was not well-liked.
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by John_Gaughan on Mar 2nd, 2004, 7:19pm

on 03/02/04 at 18:06:12, usdragonfly wrote:
4.what type of forest is filled with evergreens and is mostly cold and snowy?

Taiga.
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by Speaker on Mar 2nd, 2004, 10:37pm
Isn't the forest "Coniferous" as opposed to deciduous.
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by towr on Mar 3rd, 2004, 1:27am
5) the eastern roman empire.. (though the burning of rome may or may not not have been literal, it at least fell to 'the barbarians' while the eastern roman empire was looking the other way)
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by rmsgrey on Mar 3rd, 2004, 4:10am
People's Republic of China?
Planned Retirement Community
Chief Parachute Rigger (Naval rating)
Civic Renewal Party (Panama)

http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?p=dict&String=exact&Acronym=PRC for the complete list of 53...
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by adelbert on Mar 3rd, 2004, 7:45am
India claims they had the world's first university in Takshila in 700 BC
Greece claims they had the world's first university established by Pythagoras the 6th century BC
Bihar claims they had the world's first university in Nalanda in the 5th century AD
Egypt claims they had the world's first university in Cairo in 970 AD.
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by usdragonfly on Mar 3rd, 2004, 1:37pm
taiga is a moist subartic forest dominated by conifers that begins where the tundra ends.the answer for number 4 is tundra. oh and thanks so much for the help ya'll have given me!!
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by usdragonfly on Mar 3rd, 2004, 1:40pm
oh and i meant roman "emperor" and i finally found the answer. it was Nero Claudius Ceaser
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by usdragonfly on Mar 3rd, 2004, 2:11pm
here's a couple more

6. where did russia's october revolution start?
7. what does an urban geographer study?
8. where would you find the worlds icecaps?
9. in what year did washington, dc become the official capital of the usa?
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by Speaker on Mar 3rd, 2004, 4:45pm
Wait a minute. Tundra cannot be described as a forest, are you sure of that? Maybe taiga.

6. Saint Petersburg (a guess because it was the capital)
7. The location and development of cities.
8. In the world's ice box keeping Santa's beer cold.
9. I don't know, did it burn in 1812? So before that. First was New York, then Philadelphia... then DC... maybe.
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by usdragonfly on Mar 3rd, 2004, 5:01pm
ok here's what i got

6. saint petersburg
7. provides population figures for us cities as well as population changes within us cities
8.Ice cap climates are only located near the poles. (which means i don't know)
9.George Washington personally selected the site of the nation's permanent capital in 1791
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by John_Gaughan on Mar 4th, 2004, 5:49am
The ice cap would be at the north pole. The south pole is a continent, while the north pole is basically a huge iceberg. I could be wrong, though, and Antarctica may be an ice cap too but I do not think so.
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by towr on Mar 4th, 2004, 6:19am
Antarctica is a continent capped with ice.. So it has an icecap.. :P

according to merriam-webster (http://www.m-w.com)

Quote:
Main Entry: ice cap
Function: noun
1 : an ice bag shaped to the head
2 : a cover of perennial ice and snow; specifically : a glacier forming on an extensive area of relatively level land and flowing outward from its center

We can safely disregard meaning one I think, and under two antarctica qualifies a bit better than the north pole imo..
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by Icarus on Mar 5th, 2004, 8:26pm
While we are at it, also from Mirriam-Webster,


Quote:
Main Entry: tun·dra
Pronunciation: 't&n-dr& also 'tun-
Function: noun
Etymology: Russian, of Lappish origin; akin to Kola Lappish tundar hill
: a level or rolling treeless plain that is characteristic of arctic and subarctic regions, consists of black mucky soil with a permanently frozen subsoil, and has a dominant vegetation of mosses, lichens, herbs, and dwarf shrubs; also : a similar region confined to mountainous areas above timberline.


where as, we also have

Quote:
Main Entry: tai·ga
Pronunciation: 'tI-g&
Function: noun
Etymology: Russian taiga
: a moist subarctic forest dominated by conifers (as spruce and fir) that begins where the tundra ends


I.e. the correct answer to (4) is taiga, not tundra.
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by Colby on Apr 6th, 2004, 3:58pm
You know what is weird, I am in 7'th grade and my teacher gives me fifty questions every six weeks... (not kidding)...

And those questions are the exact same as a few of mine...
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by John_Gaughan on Apr 7th, 2004, 6:12pm

on 04/06/04 at 15:58:35, Colby wrote:
You know what is weird, I am in 7'th grade and my teacher gives me fifty questions every six weeks... (not kidding)...

And those questions are the exact same as a few of mine...

It must be a nation-wide conspiracy among teachers ;-)
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by grimbal on May 24th, 2004, 4:28pm
... using weapons of mass-instruction.
Title: Re: mind boggling?
Post by Speaker on May 24th, 2004, 7:47pm
Hey grimbal have you seen the <Math Jokes> thread...  :)


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