After an absence of five years, the diabolical Calculatrivia has resurfaced. And
this time, bold solvers can try to earn a first prize in any of four categories -- (A)
Arts & Entertainment, (M) Math & Science, (E) Earth History & Geography,
and (S) Sports & Games-or valiantly go for the grand prize by combining all four
parts into the (G) General category.
To solve any one of the four categories, find the values that answer the 15
questions in that category, and then use those answers to find the value (A, M, E,
or S) for the mathematical expression shown in the large box above.
To solve the General (G) category, list the answers to all 60 questions in the
corresponding spaces of the entry blank, as well as the values for A, M, E, and S,
each determined as explained in the previous paragraph. Then calculate G (the
product of A, M, E, and S, as shown in the small box above) and write the result
in the appropriate blank.
In determining the unknowns, do not strain to find unusual ways to interpret
any of the questions. Some may be difficult, but in each case the answer we
believe to be correct is the most literal and straightforward one. In addition, please
observe the following rules:
1. Do not round off any numbers unless specifically instructed to do so.
2. Where a square root appears, evaluate it as the positive square root only.
Throughout the expression, standard mathematical usage is in effect.
3. The values for G, A, M, E, and/or S that appear on your entry blank must be
expressed in simplest form. If your answer were 10/5, you would write it as 2;
if your answer were 10/4, you would write it as 2 1/2 or 2.5.
The idea for a five-part Calculatrivia was submitted by Michael Varn, who also wrote many of the
questions.
A = Art and Entertainment Questions
a = Number of watch faces visible in Dali's The Persistence of Memory
b = Value in shillings of the money Dr. Caius claims was stolen from him, in Verdi's Falstaff
c = Number of fish caught when Simon Peter "drew the net
to land full of great fishes"
d = Shire Reckoning year in which Frodo Baggins was born
e = Number painted on the conning tower of the Nazi submarine on which Indiana Jones hitches a surreptitious
ride, in Raiders of the Lost Ark
f = Number of Shakespeare plays including a character
named Antonio
g = Number of songs with titles beginning with the word
"Mr." that have reached #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
before 1986
h = Kochel number of Mozart's Serenade forWinds in E-flat Major
j = Total number of Tribbles in Space Station K-7's storage
compartments, according to Spock's calculation, in the
Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles"
k = Number of the night on which Scheherezade begins telling the tale of "Alaeddin; or, the Wonderful Lamp,"
according to Sir Richard Burton's translation of The Arabian Nights
m = Amount in dollars of Curly's winning bid for Laurey's
picnic basket in the play Oklahoma!
n = Total number of people depicted in Whistler's Arrangement in Grey and Black #1
p = Year of composition of the Sousa march that served as
the theme music for Monty Python's Flying Circus
q = Number of the Manhattan police precinct for which
Chris Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey work
r = Chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in which
the Mock Turtle sings "Turtle Soup"
E = Earth History and Geography Questions
a= Number of South American countries through which the Equator passes
b = Number of stripes on the national flag of Malaysia
c = Number of laws in the Code of Hammurabi
d = Number of letters in the Arabic alphabet
e = First year of Queen Victoria's reign
f = Number of European countries sharing a border with Austria
g = Year Charlemagne was named Emperor of the West by Leo III
h = Year that KDKA became the first radio station to begin
regular scheduled broadcasting
j = ZIP code of the White House
k = Population of the United States, from the first census,
according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census
m = Year of the famous San Francisco earthquake
n = River flowing near the town of Hopkins, Missouri
p = Number of chests of tea thrown into Boston Harbor by
colonists on December 16, 1773, according to The Reader's Encyclopedia
q = Duration in seconds of Orville Wright's first flight at
Kitty Hawk, on December 17, 1903
r = Number of signers of the Declaration of Independence
who were born in the British Isles
M = Math and Science Questions
a = Beaufort scale reading of a five-knot breeze
b = Sum of the cubes of the first six positive integers
c = Weight, to the nearest whole metric carat, of the
Cullinan diamond when discovered in 1905
d = Duration in minutes, to the nearest whole minute, of
Yuri Gagarin's 1961 Vostok I flight
e = Hardness of the mineral galena on the Mohs' Scale
f = Distance, to the nearest parsec, from Earth to the star
around which the title planet of Forbidden Planet revolves
g = Number of bones in the human hand, including the wrist
h = Number of atoms in a single molecule of NutraSweet
j = Number of gills in a fluid dram
k = Atomic number of the metallic element that melts at -38.87" C
m = Time, to the nearest Earth day, it takes Mars to make
one complete orbit of the sun
n = Next year in which Ash Wednesday will fall on February 29
p = Decimal equivalent of the hexadecimal BAD
q = In the U.S., the pitch of the A above middle C, in hertz
r = Number of faces of the polyhedron called the "snub cube"
S = Sports and Games
a = Number of suspects in the board game Clue whose last
names begin with the letter P
b = Height in inches of a standard tenpin bowling pin
c = Uniform number retired by both the Pittsburgh Pirates
and the Milwaukee Braves
d = Number of seasons in which Wilt Chamberlain was the
top scorer in the NBA
e = Diameter in inches of a ball in the English version of snooker
f = Number worn by Seattle Slew when he won the Belmont
Stakes, completing the Triple Crown
g = Number of the Wheel of Fortune card in a standard tarot deck
h = To the nearest whole point, Greg Louganis's score in the
platform diving competition of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games
j = Number of games Bobby Fischer, while playing the
black pieces, won against defending champion Boris
Spassky during the World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1972
k = Total number of baseball games cancelled in 1981 due to
the major league players' strike
m = Maximum number of squares a dragon king can attack
in the game shogi
n = Total number of points scored by the Dallas Cowboys in
all their Super Bowl appearances
p = Mortgage value, in dollars, of Baltic Avenue in the game Monopoly
q = Score for taking the menel in a trick in the game of klabberjass
r = Score for a rouge in Canadian football
ANSWER KEY:
