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Week of 4/7/97:
Q:
"Dog gone it," said D'n Gol'dynn, Captain of the Penurian Star Cruiser
Btt'r-fst'r-chi'pr, as he looked at the inertial reference frame clock.
"We've been cruising around the galaxy at 99.99999 percent of lightspeed
for so long, relativistic time dilation has gotten away from us! All
the stars and galaxies have died of old age! We'd better stop right now!"
"No," said J'ff-ree, his trusted lieutenant. "We should keep going!"
What could J'ff-ree have in mind to save them from living in a dead
universe?
A:
If the universe contains enough mass, it is thought that it will
eventually stop expanding and collapse back into itself, forming another
"cosmic egg," and go through another "big bang." If the crew could
somehow ride out the collapse and big bang, they could live in the
next universe rather than the "dead" older universe.
Congratulations to Arnie McCullers.
This was the plot of Poul Anderson's Tau Zero novel.
- The Aeroquiz Editor.
Week of 4/14/97:
Q:
Almost everyone legally entering the United States must clear customs.
What unique declaration does the Hawaiian office of U.S. Customs have
on file?
No correct answers. The question stands one more week.
Week of 4/21/97:
Q:
Almost everyone legally entering the United States must clear customs.
What unique declaration does the Hawaiian office of U.S. Customs have
on file?
A:
After splashdown, Apollo XI astronauts entered the United States at
Hawaii before continuing on to the mainland. Later, someone
jokingly asked if they had cleared customs. Thus, Neil Armstrong,
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins filed an official customs
report declaring their cargo of moon rocks and moon dust from their
historic trip from the Earth to the moon.
No correct answers! An obscure question, sorry.
- The Aeroquiz Editor
Week of 4/28/97:
Q:
If a sudden global war ever broke out, astronomers, not CNN, might be
the first civilians to find out. Why?
A:
Some radio frequency bands have been reserved specifically for radio astronomy,
so that radio astronomers can observe the sky without much extraneous Earthbound
noise. But because these frequencies are clear, they are especially attractive
for the military to use as clear channels during wartime. Astronomers could
suddenly find themselves listening to battle management communications.
No correct answers!
- The Aeroquiz Editor
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