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Friday, June 30, 2006

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer - this week: Hot and cold. Answers here.

1. What is being described in this dictionary definition: "Precipitation in the form of aggregations of ice crystals falling to the ground in soft white flakes, or lying on the ground as a soft white mass"?
2. Direct sunlight causes sunburn from what kind of rays?
3. For measuring temperatures, which word officially replaced "centigrade" in 1948?
4. In 2000, what made the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes abandon his solo trek to the North Pole?
5. What is the name for the scale of temperatures in which 212 degrees represents the boiling point of water?
6. What is the coldest continent on Earth?
7. "Pyrexia" is another word for which hot condition?
8. What phrase is used to describe the point at which it would be impossible to get any colder (minus 273.15 degrees C)?
9. In 1626, which famous person died of a cold contracted when stuffing a fowl with snow as an experiment in refrigeration - was it Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon or William Shakespeare?
10. Who wrote the 1932 novel "Cold Comfort Farm"?

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