Skepticism means points, and points make prizes! There are two local pub quizzes for skeptics next week. On Wednesday 25th May, Bath Skeptics are having their Geek Pride event at the West Gate, and at 7.30pm on Thursday, the Bristol Skeptics pub quiz takes place at the Old Market Tavern. (Facebook) Come prepared for an evidence-based-but-fun evening, where you can win prizes donated by prominent skeptics. The host for the evening will be neuroscientist and comedian Dean Burnett. Come along whether you’ve a ready-made team or you’re on your own.
In the meantime, here’s a short quiz I’ve prepared myself (I’m not involved in question-setting for either of next week’s events). See you next week,
Test your skeptic-fu
1. If a homeopathic preparation is labelled as “6C”, how dilute is it?
2. According to the “World Ionization Institute”, which chemical element is the “Beast”?
a) Radium
b) Hydrogen
c) Carbon
d) Sulphur
e) Argon
3. The 19th century self-styled prophet Cyrus Teed (who called himself “Koresh” and “Cyrus the Messenger”) sensibly rejected the flat-earth theory. What did he believe instead?
4. What’s missing from this quote from Carl Sagan?
“Eratosthenes’ only tools were sticks, eyes, feet and brains, plus a taste for experiment. With them he deduced [what?] with an error of only a few percent, a remarkable achievement for 2,200 years ago.”
5. In a 1980s broadcast, tele-evangelist Peter Popoff “cured” a woman called Bernice of cancer of the uterus. Why did he and his team immediately go into a panic and turn the cameras away from Bernice?
Scroll down for the answers (and references!)
Keep scrolling!
1. Each “C” is a hundred-times dilution. 6 C means six of these, making a total dilution factor of 100 x 100 x 100 x 100 x 100 x 100, or 10 to the 12, otherwise known as a trillion. Homeopathic “remedies” sold on the high-street are more commonly 30C.
2. It was carbon, whose atoms have six protons, six neutrons and six electrons. These particular crackpots decided that the number of the Beast in the Book of Revelations was code for this element. (Source: Kooks by Donna Kossy, page 117).
3. He believed that the world was hollow and that we lived on the inside, with the Sun and Moon at the centre. (Source, Fads and Fallacies by Martin Gardner, page 23).
4. The circumference of the Earth. Eratosthenes compared the length of shadow cast by a stick at noon at two different points on the Earth’s surface. (Source: Cosmos, page 27)
5. They recognised that “Bernice” was a man in disguise. James Randi’s friend Don Henvik had dressed up as a woman and faked the illness to expose Popoff. (Source: The Faith Healers by James Randi, page 151)