The Intellectualism.Org Question Of The Day Archive


Welcome to the Intellectualism.Org Question Of The Day (QOTD) archive page!

This project was started August 23, 2003, with the idea of asking -- and finding out the answer to -- one interesting Question per day. The Questions may be on any topic; my only criteria are that the Questions be interesting (to me), and that I not know the answer  at the time of asking. (That, of course, and that the Question be answerable in a reasonable amount of time, to allow me to move on to the next day's Question!)

(This project hasn't been updated in quite some time; I hope to be able to pick it back up again in the near future. It's also very much in the spirit of this website, so I am including it in the 2007 remodeling of Intellectualism.Org.)

Here are the Questions (and answers) so far...


January 2004

2004.01.08    How deep is Challenger Deep?
2004.01.07    How tall is Mount Everest?
2004.01.06    How many US states connect to 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. others?
2004.01.05    What is twos' compliment notation?
2004.01.04    When and where was FedEx founded?
2004.01.03    Will the exploration rover "Spirit" land successfully on Mars?
2004.01.02    What is Benoit Sokal up to these days?
2004.01.01    Is pure Oxygen heavier or lighter than air?


December 2003

2003.12.31    Where is Lake Biwako?
2003.12.30    When and where was UPS founded?
2003.12.29    How large a data file would be required to store satellite imagery, topography and bathymetry of the Earth to 1-meter resolution?
2003.12.28    Do the so-called Australian "road trains" exist?
2003.12.27    What is a "squib," damp or otherwise?
2003.12.26    What, exactly, is a "kahuna?"
2003.12.25    Can you get good sushi delivered in West Boca?
2003.12.24    What is the origin of the word Yule (as in Yuletide / Yule Log etc)?
2003.12.23    Can a stock 747 get out of Rio Amazonas (SESM) in one piece (in Flight Simulator 2004)?
2003.12.22    What causes the 137GB IDE drive limitation?
2003.12.21    Does icing really exist in Flight Simulator 2004?
2003.12.20    What are the eight neopagan Sabbats?
2003.12.19    Has anyone walked on the moon in my lifetime?
2003.12.18    What are the Star Trek "Quadrants?"
2003.12.17    What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?
2003.12.16    Qui est "Toutatis"?
2003.12.15    Was Pliny the Elder any relation to Pliny the Younger?
2003.12.14    Why does a Newton's Cradle behave as it does?
2003.12.13    What is meant by the term "Rare Earth?"
2003.12.12    "WikiBooks?" This sounds cool -- what is it?
2003.12.11    What is (or was) the US carrier CV-66?
2003.12.10    What is meant by "Calvary?" Can so many people really be misspelling "Cavalry?"
2003.12.09    What is NafionTM?
2003.12.08    How does a "ratchetless" roller clutch mechanism work?
2003.12.07    What is (or was) Xanadu?
2003.12.06    Is there such a thing as Adamantine?
2003.12.05    Where is Bassett, VA?
2003.12.04    How easily can two random pages in WikiPedia be linked through surfing nongeneral hyperlinks?
2003.12.03    Is the Zilog Z80 still being manufactured?
2003.12.02    What vocal ranges correspond to Bass, Baritone, Tenor, Alto, Soprano etc?
2003.12.01    How well does BitTorrent work?


November 2003

2003.11.30
    What is the difference between Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Networks (SAN)s?
2003.11.29    What is typical of large data-storage-center capacities?
2003.11.28    What is required (in the United States) for a school to be considered a University?
2003.11.27    What genus and species are turkeys, anyway?
2003.11.26    How large would the entire NASA APOD site be, if mirrored?
2003.11.25    Can Flight Simulator be modified so as to allow deployment of thrust reversers while airborne?
2003.11.24    Can a 737 (in Flight Simulator) be landed safely using only autopilot controls?
2003.11.23    What are the respective market values of (similar stones of) diamond, emerald, ruby, sapphire, etc?
2003.11.22    What is the chemical composition of caffeine?
2003.11.21    What is the chemical composition of (grain) alcohol?
2003.11.20    What is the exact meaning of the shipping term "Freight On Board" ("FOB")?
2003.11.19    How is Dry Ice manufactured and stored?

2003.11.18    How much does Dry Ice cost per pound?
2003.11.17    What is an "inner product space?"
2003.11.16    What is a "Hilbert space?"
2003.11.15    What does (the European video standard) SECAM stand for?
2003.11.14    What does (the European video standard) PAL stand for?
2003.11.13    What does VHS stand for, anyway?
2003.11.12    What is the SR-71 Blackbird like to fly (in Flight Simulator)?
2003.11.11    What exactly are the "Seven Corners" in Northern Virginia?
2003.11.10    Who was Arthur Treacher?
2003.11.09    How far could a Cessna 182S fly (in Flight Simulator) with an extreme amount of fuel?
2003.11.08    Is there a single highway that stretches across the US, from the Atlantic to the Pacific?
2003.11.07    What is the large-scale chronology of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth?
2003.11.06    What is the "Axiom of Choice"?
2003.11.05    Can a fair, N-sided die be made?
2003.11.04    Can a set of nodes be connected in a manner such that one or more nodes can be said
                       to belong to more than one community of nodes in the set?

2003.11.03    What does Pi look like in numbering systems other than Base 10?
2003.11.02    What is one method to calculate the square root of 2 to arbitrary precision?
2003.11.01    What is Borwein's Algorithm?


October 2003

2003.10.31
    Where and when is Hallowe'en thought to have originated?

2003.10.30    What is a Hobgoblin, traditionally?
2003.10.29    Has a Triple Eagle (or "Condor" or "Ostrich") ever occurred in regulation golf?
2003.10.28    What does a Canadair RegionJet 200 fly like (in Flight Simulator 2004)?
2003.10.27    How accurate is the modern Gregorian calendar thought to be?
2003.10.26    Who wrote The Harmony Of Song theme from Cosmos??
2003.10.25    What are the various musical modes?
2003.10.24    Is Uluru ("Ayers' Rock") part of the default Flight Simulator 2004 scenery?
2003.10.23    What is Ayers' Rock doing in the middle of the Australian Outback?
2003.10.22    What does (chicken) Ramen taste like?
2003.10.21    What are the specific meanings of the British peerage titles of Lord, Duke, Earl, etc?
2003.10.20    Was there really a Mary, who had a little lamb?
2003.10.19    What sort of radiotelescope apparatus would be needed to detect a reoccurrence of the "Wow!" signal?
2003.10.18    Where is the longest bridge in the world?
2003.10.17    Where and when did the artist Thomas Cole live?
2003.10.16    What is the highest-numbered element yet created?
2003.10.15    Where did the expression "OK" come from?
2003.10.14    What are the meanings of the microwave frequency band designations?
2003.10.13    How strong was the WOW! signal, and what sort of apparatus would be needed to detect it?
2003.10.12    Where in the sky was the so-called "WOW!" signal located?
2003.10.11    What does a dishwasher "rinse aid" do?
2003.10.10    What is "Electrum"?

2003.10.09    What sort of material do they use in blue LEDs?
2003.10.08    How many miles per gallon would a human get?
2003.10.07    In Spider Solitaire, can you lose by running out of cards in the tableau, preventing a deal?
2003.10.06    With all pieces on their starting squares, what are the worst odds against which a lone King can draw, given perfect play?
2003.10.05    What is the apparent area of the Mandelbrot Set?
2003.10.04    Can a Cessna 182RG, in Flight Simulator, get to Canada from Boca Raton without refueling?
2003.10.03    For King-and-Pawns vs. King-and-Rook, who wins?
2003.10.02    Is there any pattern to the set of trapezoidal numbers?
2003.10.01    Are there numbers which are both square and triangular?


September 2003

2003.09.30    For King-and-Pawns vs. King-and-Rooks, who wins?

2003.09.29    For King-and-Knights vs. King-and-Bishops, who wins?
2003.09.28    For King-and-Rooks vs. King-and-Queen, who wins?
2003.09.27    For-King-and-Pawns vs. King-and-Queen, who wins?
2003.09.26    Can a 737 (in Flight Simulator) fly stably upside down?
2003.09.25    Can a 747 (in Flight Simulator) execute an inside loop?
2003.09.24     Are there any caves in South Florida?
2003.09.23    What relation, if any, does the Star Trek "stardate" system have to actual time?

2003.09.22    Given that Moore's Law continues to hold, how long will it probably be until we could create a 
                       computer (within reasonable budget constraints) which could solve the game of Chess?    
2003.09.21    What, in 1000 words or fewer, is known about the songs of the Humpback Whales?
2003.09.20    For the King-vs-complete-army Chess problem, what is the optimal solution?
2003.09.19    Given that a new model of computer -- twice as fast -- can be bought every 18 months for 
                      the same price, and a problem requiring X amount of computer time, when is the optimal
                      time to purchase a computer and start it to work?

2003.09.18    What's up with RoboTuna these days?
2003.09.17    How many of these Questions will I be likely to end up with over my expected lifetime?
2003.09.16    Who was it that said, "Only God can create a random number?"

2003.09.15    How difficult is it to create a radioisotope-powered True Random Number Generator?
2003.09.14    What are the locations in XYZ co-ordinates of the nearest 50 stars to the Solar System?
2003.09.13    What are the different types of telescope eyepieces commonly in use for consumers/prosumers?
2003.09.12    Was there really such a thing as a "Velociraptor," or was this a made-for-Hollywood beast?
2003.09.11    Who was credited with breeding the first Basset Hounds?
2003.09.10    What are the technical specifications for DVD Audio?
2003.09.09    What are the Geologic Ages (Silurian, Pleistocene, Devonian, Ordovician, etc?)
2003.09.08    What does it mean to raise a number to a complex power?
2003.09.07    How much storage space would it take to store, as 320kbit/sec mp3 files, enough music that you could listen
                      for the next hundred years, never repeating a song?

2003.09.06    What is the proper usage of "lie down" and "lay down"?
2003.09.05    About how many times faster is a modern Athlon XP processor than the original Intel 8088 CPU?
2003.09.04    What were the so-called "Seven Seas?"
2003.09.03
    Who was Nebuchadnezzar? (Or, why was Morpheus' ship in The Matrix called the Nebuchadnezzar?)
2003.09.02    Who invented Air Conditioning?

2003.09.01    What are the frequency relationships between the tones in major and minor chords?


August 2003

2003.08.31
    Approximately how much more efficient is C++, running under Linux, than QuickBasic 7.1, running under Windows XP?
2003.08.30    Is there thought to be a highest Mersenne Prime?
2003.08.29    What is the approximate percentage rate of mutations in human genes?
2003.08.28    How many kinds of palm trees are there?
2003.08.27    What are Quaternions and Octonions?
2003.08.26    What is the proper usage of the words further and farther?
2003.08.25    What are the approximate wavelengths (and frequencies) of the colors of the spectrum?
2003.08.24    What is required for a piece of music to be considered a fugue?
2003.08.23    What are Coulombs and Amperes, and how are the two related?


Here is a list of other potential future Questions, grouped by Classification:


Stumbled across this page by accident? Interested in a Question? Have an idea for one? Email me!