WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel slice up a Pi Day quiz.
Last week's challenge
Start with the phrase FEAR ITSELF. Rearrange the letters to spell a two-word phrase (four letters in the first word, six letters in the second) for something you hope a cold remedy will provide. What is it?
Answer: The phrase is FAST RELIEF.
THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: CIRCLES
On-air questions: It's March 14, which means it's Pi Day. (That's P-I Day, which is celebrated today because the first three digits of the number pi are 3, 1, and 4.) While pi shows up in many areas of mathematics, it's perhaps most commonly known as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. To honor pi's relationship to the circle, our questions today are all about circles.
1. New York City's Columbus Circle is where the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man appears after it is the first thing that pops into the head of Dan Aykroyd's character, who claims he "tried to think of the most harmless thing." In what 1984 movie does this happen?
2. The earth has five major circles of latitude: the Arctic Circle, the Antarctic Circle, the Equator, and two lines called tropics named after what two signs of the zodiac?
3. "The Circle Game" is the final track on the 1970 album Ladies of the Canyon, which also features the songs "Woodstock" and "Big Yellow Taxi." It was the third album released by what singer-songwriter?
4. A red T inside a white star inside a red circle is the logo for what gasoline brand, whose name derives from the state in which the company was founded in 1901?
5. Put these sports-related circles in order from largest to smallest: MLB on-deck circle, NHL face-off circle, NBA center court tip-off circle.
Extra credit
1. Used in a general sense to indicate a state of uncertainty, what name is given to the first of the nine circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno?
2. Full Circle, a 1997 BBC documentary chronicling an attempt to travel around the entire Pacific Rim beginning and ending at the Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait, starred what famous British comedic actor?
This week's challenge
Start with the phrase GREAT CIRCLE. Change one letter to an S, then rearrange the result to spell two words that might precede the word "heat" in an apartment listing. What are they?
ANSWERS
On-air questions
1. Ghostbusters
2. Cancer, Capricorn
3. Joni Mitchell
4. Texaco
5. NHL face-off circle (30 feet in diameter), NBA tip-off circle (12 ft), MLB on-deck circle (5 ft)
Extra credit
1. Limbo
2. Michael Palin
