Take a well deserved reprieve from the chaos that has engulfed us and play, TQC Trivia! Answers are provided below along with interesting and fun supplemental information.
1) Q: What is the most popular female baby name this decade?
A) Isabella
B) Sophia
C) Emma
D) Ava
2) Q: What film is widely credited as the first "talkie" (non-silent) movie?
A) The Jazz Singer (1927)
B) The Idle Class (1921)
C) Speedy (1928)
D) L’Argent (1928)
3) Q: What company is the only original member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) still in existence today?
A) IBM
B) General Electric
C) National Lead
D) ExxonMobil
4) Q: Which quarterback has the highest National Football League (NFL) Passer Rating?
A) Tom Brady
B) Aaron Rodgers
C) Joe Montana
D) Drew Brees
5) Q: What is the bestselling music album of all-time?
A) The Beatles - The White Album
B) The Eagles - Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
C) Michael Jackson – Thriller
D) Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV
6) Q: What is the longest nonstop commercial flight?
A) Los Angeles - Singapore
B) Dallas - Sydney
C) Atlanta - Johannesburg
D) New York - Singapore
7) Q: Which is the least populated state in America?
A) Idaho
B) Vermont
C) Wyoming
D) Alaska
8) Q: What percentage of American’s own smartphones?
A) 96%
B) 81%
C) 66%
D) 48%
9) Q: What was the first public company to command a trillion-dollar valuation?
A) Amazon
B) PetroChina
C) Microsoft
D) Apple
10) Q: Who is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball Division 1 all-time leading scorer?
A) Pete Maravich, Louisiana State (LSU)
B) Reggie Lewis, Northeastern
C) Kurt Thomas, Texas Christian (TCU)
D) Larry Bird, Indiana State
11) Q: What is the smallest country in the European Union (EU)?
A) Vatican City
B) Monaco
C) Malta
D) Cyprus
ANSWERS
1) (C) Emma. Note: Over the last 100 years, the most popular female baby’s name is Mary. For boys, the most popular baby's name this decade is Noah. Over the last century, it is James.
2) (A) The Jazz Singer (1927). Note: The Jazz Singer, produced by Warner Bros. Pictures staring Al Jolson & May McAvoy is widely recognized as the first “talkie” or non-silent film. “The film depicts the fictional story of Jakie Rabinowitz, a young man who defies the traditions of his devout Jewish family. After singing popular tunes in a beer garden, he is punished by his father, a hazzan (cantor), prompting Jakie to run away from home. Some years later, now calling himself Jack Robin, he has become a talented jazz singer. He attempts to build a career as an entertainer, but his professional ambitions ultimately come into conflict with the demands of his home and heritage.”
3) (C) General Electric (GE). Note: The 12 original members of the DJIA were American Cotton Oil, American Sugar, American Tobacco, Chicago Gas, Distilling & Cattle Feeding, General Electric, Laclede Gas, National Lead, North American, Tennessee Coal and Iron, U.S. Leather and U.S. Rubber. After being initially dropped from the index in 1898, rejoining in 1899, getting dropped again in 1901 and rejoining in 1907, General Electric remained in the index for over 100 years until it was removed in 2018. Both ExxonMobil and IBM are current members of the DJIA. National Lead was overwhelmed by lawsuits relating to lead paint. A commercial and residential building equipment company called Compx International can trace its original roots to the National Lead Company.
4) (B) Aaron Rodgers. Note: NFL Passer Rating is a numerical value between 0 and 158.3. It is the most important single quantitative tool to evaluate a quarterback’s efficiency and effectiveness. The inputs are: completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdowns per attempt and interceptions per attempt. (A degree in mathematics is needed to solve the equation). Tom Brady leads in Super Bowl victories (6) and is second in Passing Yards but does not crack the top four in Passer Rating. Drew Brees is number 1 in Passing Yards and number 3 in Passer Rating; Joe Montana is number 20 in Passing Yards and number 15 in Passer Rating.
5) (B) The Eagles - Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975). Note: The Eagles also own the number three best-selling album of all time, Hotel California. Michael Jackson’s Thriller is number two. The Beatles – The White Album is number four. Led Zeppelin – IV, is currently number V (five).
6) (D) New York – Singapore. Note: This Singapore Airlines flight takes ~19 hours and covers 9,534 miles. Australia’s Qantas Airlines is considering offering service from New York to Sydney. The flight would take ~20 hours and cover ~10,000 miles. Test flights have commenced but fuel constraints make today’s existing aircraft unable to complete the journey with a full load. A new generation of aircraft currently in development and scheduled to be delivered in ~3 years will be able to overcome this hurdle.
7) (C) Wyoming. Note: With ~600,000 inhabitants or .18% of America’s total population, Wyoming is the least populated state in the Union. Vermont is home to ~625,000 people. Idaho, thanks to handsome growth in the state capital of Boise, has a population of close to ~2,000,000 people. Alaska (~740,000 people) is the 3rd least populated state; however, it is by far the largest state with 663,000 square miles (Wyoming has 98,000 square miles). Controlling for size, Alaska has the least number of inhabitants; a population density of just ~one person per square mile.
8) (B) 81%. Note: 96% of American’s own a cell phone. A Smartphone is “a device that combines a cell phone with a handheld computer, typically offering Internet access, data storage, email capability, etc.”
9) (B) PetroChina. Note: Apple, Amazon and Microsoft all sport valuations north of 1 trillion dollars. But Petro China briefly crossed the one trillion-dollar mark back in 2007, a decade or so before the three American tech giants achieved this milestone. (PetroChina is currently valued at ~110 billion dollars).
10) (A) Pete Maravich, LSU. Note: From 1967 to 1970, “Pistol” Pete Maravich amassed a stunning 3,667 points which translated into an average of ~44 points per game (ppg) for the LSU Tigers. To date, no other player in NCAA Men's Division 1 basketball has ever averaged over 40 points per game over their collegiate career. In fact, only Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati, 33.8 ppg), Elvin Hayes (Houston, 31 ppg), Freeman Williams (Portland State, 30.7 ppg) & Larry Bird (Indiana State, 30.3 ppg) managed to average north of 30 ppg. Maravich’s 3,667 total points are 400 points more than his closest runner up (Freeman Williams, 3,249 total points). Reggie Lewis scored 2,709 points during his tenure (1983-1987) at Northeastern. In 1994-’95, Kurt Thomas (TCU) lead the NCAA in scoring (28.9 points per game) and rebounding (14.6 rebounds per game) in the same year, becoming only the 3rd man in NCAA history to accomplish that feat (Xavier McDaniel, Hank Gathers).
11) (C) Malta. Note: The Vatican City and Monaco are not in the EU. Cyprus is bigger than Malta. Malta, derived from the Greek word for honey, is made of up seven islands. While it is the smallest nation in the EU by surface area and population, it is the most densely populated.