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| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | Many pubs have {{w|pub trivia|trivia nights}}, where patrons form teams and compete to answer questions about a range of topics. The typical goal for trivia games is that they be challenging, yet possible, and so questions with answers that are too difficult or too easy generally make for a poor game. In addition, it's usually preferable that questions are clearly worded with a single, objective answer, so as to avoid disputes about which answers are correct.
| + | {{incomplete|Created by TRIVIA IS LATIN FOR THREE ROADS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
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| − | Cueball has apparently been hired by one bar to infiltrate ''other'' bars' quiz nights and ask particularly bad questions. The implication is that this will make the games unpleasant, in the hopes that people will leave, and possibly go to the bar that hired Cueball. | + | Many pubs have trivia nights, where patrons form teams and compete to best answer questions about a range of topics. Cueball has apparently been hired by one bar to infiltrate other bars' quiz nights and write particularly bad questions for them, which he has accomplished using different strategies. The idea is that by making the trivia nights at other pubs horrible, he will drive business to the pub that hired him. |
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| − | Cueball uses a variety of strategies to write bad questions, including questions that are trivial (where the answer is painfully obvious), unanswerable (either because there is no answer or because the answer is unknown), ambiguously worded or arguable. | + | The comic shows [[Cueball]] reading off bad trivia questions which are either confusing, likely to provoke arguments, or don't have an answer. |
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| − | Many of his questions could be altered slightly to make them more reasonable for such a game, but that would defeat Cueball's purpose.
| + | '''1. Which member of {{w|BTS}} has a birthday this year?''' |
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| + | Problem: multiple correct answers |
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| − | ! Question !! Problem with the Question !! Explanation !! More Reasonable Alternative(s)
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| − | |1. Which member of {{w|BTS}} has a birthday this year?||Potentially confusing {{w|trick question}}.||All people have birthdays every year{{Citation needed}} (other than pedantic exceptions due to calendar issues or timezone alterations, or someone dying before their birthday, or being born on a leap day, none of which apply in this case). Therefore, answering with any of the seven members of BTS would be correct making the question equivalent to "Name any member of BTS" (a perfectly valid pub trivia question). The trick nature of this question may result in participant questions or confusion if not "par for the course".||Name any member of BTS. Which member of BTS has a birthday today/this week/this month? Which member of BTS turns [a specific age] this year? Which members of BTS have a birthday later this year?
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| − | |2. How many sides does a {{w|platonic solid}} have?||Multiple answers, ambiguous language||There are five {{w|Platonic solids}}, with 4, 6, 8, 12 or 20 faces (colloquially called sides) in {{w|Euclid|Euclidean}} {{w|Euclidean geometry|3-space}}. The solids have, respectively, 6, 12, 12, 30 and 30 edges (also occasionally called sides colloquially). A more devious quizmaster might actually include this as a trick question with the correct answer being 'zero', since strictly speaking solids do not have 'sides'. Or 'two' inside and outside.||How many Platonic solids are there? What is the highest number of faces on a Platonic solid? How many faces does a [specific Platonic solid] have? How many faces (or edges, or vertices) do ''all'' the Platonic solids have (i.e., added together)? What is the number of vertices, minus the number of edges, plus the number of faces equal to for a platonic solid (i.e., the {{w|Euler characteristic}})?
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| − | |3. What is the smallest lake in the world?||Arguable, potentially unknowable||While the largest lakes are relatively straightforward to categorize, smaller bodies of water range in size down to individual puddles. There is no clear, definitional line at which a body goes from being a lake to a pond, for example. In addition, the size of small lakes will fluctuate due to variability in precipitation, and other weather effects, and some lakes only exist for brief periods (intermittent lakes). Hence, which small bodies of water are "lakes" and which is the smallest can't be clearly answered, without specifying a whole list of parameters and standards.
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| − | This question is related to the Tom Scott video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEGzvZ85dgs What counts as the world's shortest river?]
| + | BTS is a {{w|K-Pop}} group. Every member would have a birthday each year. In fact, all humans have a birthday every year. (Unless you were born on leap day and trying to be pedantic, or it was a year when {{w|Gregorian calendar|the calendar changed}}.) Since this comic was published in 2024, even the possible February 29 exception does not apply (and no BTS member was born on February 29). |
| − | ||What lake has the largest surface area in the world? What is the world's deepest lake? What lake is recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world's smallest? (Benxi Lake in China). | + | |
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| + | A more usual type of question might be to ask which member celebrates a birthday in a given day, or which celebrates a particular milestone birthday in the current year. |
| − | |4. Which Steven Spielberg movie features more shark attacks, {{w|Jaws (movie)|''Jaws'' (1975)}} or {{w|Lincoln (movie)|''Lincoln'' (2012)}}?||Trivial||''Jaws'' is a famous movie about a killer shark, and features at least five fatal shark attacks. Lincoln is a movie about the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, containing zero shark attacks.{{Citation needed}} Anyone with even a passing familiarity with American popular culture should be able to get this one right, and someone with no knowledge could likely guess the answer from the titles alone. This might be mistaken for a silly trick question, as ''Lincoln'' is a much less famous movie.||How many times is a shark seen on screen in ''Jaws''? Which film won more {{w|Academy Awards}}? How many fatal shark attacks occur in ''Jaws''? Which movie in the ''Jaws'' franchise has the most shark attacks?
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| + | '''2. How many sides does a {{w|platonic solid}} have?''' |
| − | |5. How many planets were there originally?||Ambiguous||The question doesn't specify a time frame or culture, which is necessary to understand both the word 'planet' and the word 'originally'. It could be referring to the {{w|classical planets|original meaning of the word planet}}, which in antiquity referred to the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (total of 7 planets). It could be referring to the planets originally known to the quiz master, which (assuming Cueball is between 18 and 96 years old) would be after the reclassification of Ceres, Pallas, Vesta and Juno to asteroids, and after the discovery of Pluto, but prior to the reclassification of Pluto to dwarf planet (total of 9 planets). It could conceivably be referring to the first official definition of planet by the International Astronomical Union in 2006, which would be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (total of 8 planets). It could be referring to the process of planetary formation, in which case another layer of ambiguity is added, as it could be referring to the number of protoplanetary bodies in the {{w|protoplanetary disk}} (which is unknown since some of them were destroyed like {{w|Theia (planet)|Theia}}), or the number of planets that accreted from the disk before some were likely ejected (which is also unknown), or how many planets existed when the sun or the universe was formed (which is 0). It also doesn't specify that it's referring to planets in our solar system alone (in the galaxy there are almost certainly trillions of planets). Additionally, it asks how many "were there", as opposed to how many planets "were known" (the number which we know of being far smaller than the true number of planets in the universe). ||How many planets were known to Ancient Greece? How many planets were known to science prior to the invention of the telescope? How many planets were recognized in our Solar System at the end of the 20th century? | + | |
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| + | Problem: multiple answers, ambiguous language |
| − | |6. What {{w|NFL}} player has scored the most points outside of a game?||Ambiguous, unknowable||The term "scored the most points" generally only applies within the context of a game, making it very unclear what kind of "points" the question is referring to. Does it mean points in non-NFL games? Points in games other than football? Points outside the context of any game at all (such as 'making a point' in conversation)? Even if this were clarified, points scored in official games in professional sports leagues are meticulously recorded and published, points scored in any other context are not, so the question is likely impossible to answer. Arguably, {{w|Brian Jordan}} would be an answer, with 121 Minor League and 755 MLB runs scored (points).||Which NFL player scored the most points in a game/season/career?
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| + | There are five {{w|Platonic solids}}, with 4, 6, 8, 12, or 20 faces (colloquially called sides) in {{w|Euclid|Euclidean}} {{w|Euclidean geometry|3-space}}. The solids have, respectively, 6, 12, 8, 30, and 30 edges (also occasionally called sides colloquially). |
| − | |7. The {{w|Wright brothers}} built the first airplane. Who built the last one?||Unknowable||Orville and Wilbur Wright are widely credited with designing and building the first airplane (in the sense that they invented wing warping, and discounting everybody flying before them without wing warping<!-- - if such a machine should count as an airplane proper remains a controversial subject, taking into consideration the machine created 3 years later by brazilian inventor ''Alberto Santos Dumont'' which falls more in line with what an airplane is expected to be - whether he or the brothers were more deserving of credit for this achievement is debated to this day especially in Brazil, Dumont's country of origin NOT SURE WHAT MAKES THE WRIGHT FLYER LESS OF A PLANE THAN 14-BIS; THE LATTER WORKED, IS WORTHY OF RECOGNITION, BUT THEY BOTH FLEW AND THE FORMER STILL FLEW FIRST -->). In modern times, design and construction of airplanes has become a huge, international industry, with many airplanes of widely varying sizings being built each year. Since airplanes are built continuously, which one was made most recently depends on when the question is asked (and would be very difficult for the average person to know -- and not trivial for even a member of the aerospace industry to know). If it's asking about the last airplane ''ever'', that's impossible to know, since that plane hasn't been built yet{{Citation needed}} (and likely won't for a very long time).||Who built the first airplane '''after''' the Wright brothers? When was the final Wright Model B aircraft built?
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| + | A more devious quizmaster might actually include this as a trick question with the correct answer being 'zero', since strictly speaking solids do not have 'sides'. However, on the basis of the other questions presented here it seems unlikely that Cueball intended for the question to be answerable in this (or any other) way, but a trick answer might be "one": the outside. |
| − | |8. Is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes?||Unknown, possibly unknowable||This is a famous, centuries-old {{w|open question}} in math known as {{w|Goldbach's conjecture}}. Mathematicians widely believe that it is true, and it has held true for every number checked up to 4 ⋅ 10<sup>18</sup>, but since it's impossible to check every number, we can't assume it's universally true. No mathematical proof of its veracity exists at this point. Since it is {{w|Gödel's incompleteness theorems|known}} that something can be true but impossible to prove (and, being true, impossible to disprove), this may be the situation forever.||According to which mathematical conjecture is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes?
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| + | More usual questions might be "How many Platonic solids are there?" or "What is the highest number of faces on a Platonic solid?". |
| − | |9. Not counting {{w|Canberra}}, what city is the capital of {{w|Australia}}?||No answer exists||Australia has only one capital (unlike some countries, which divide the legislative and administrative capitals, for example {{w|Bolivia}} with {{w|La Paz}} and {{w|Sucre}}), and that capital is Canberra. Hence, by definition, there is no national capital "not counting Canberra". Though each constituent state also has its state capital, this would still leave us with an ambiguous choice. Before 1927, the answer could be Melbourne, as that was where the Parliament sat at that time. This may be a joke about how other cities, such as Melbourne and Sydney, are often mistaken for the capital of Australia due to Canberra's comparatively small population (roughly 500,000 in the greater metropolitan area, compared to Melbourne and Sydney's roughly 5,000,000 each). It also alludes to the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne as each claims to be the true capital. ||What city is the capital of Australia? What is currently the largest city in Australia? What is the smallest state capital in Australia? What city was the most recently founded state capital of Australia? What city was the capital city before Canberra?
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| − | |- | + | '''3. What is the smallest lake in the world?''' |
| − | |10. Who played the drums?||Trivial, yet unknowable without context||As worded, the question could be answered with anyone who's ever played the drums, in any context, whether professional or not, in all of history. This would include a huge number of people, most of whom would not be well-known. Most people would be able to offer a technically correct answer, and almost none of them would be interesting. Or maybe the host is wondering who it was that played drums that night, as part of the bar's live music.||Who played the drums for some specific band/album/track/concert/tour/time/place?
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| + | Problem: arguable |
| − | |(Title text) Where is {{w|London}} located? (a) the {{w|British Isles}} (b) {{w|Great Britain}} and {{w|Northern Ireland}} (c) the {{w|United Kingdom|UK}} (d) {{w|Europe}} (or 'the {{w|European Union|EU}}') (e) {{w|Greater London}}||Multiple answers||All choices are technically correct as they are various geographical areas that include the city of London, England. Also note that the City of London is different from the city ''named'' London, as the latter includes a large region around the former, hence (e) as an answer. Answer (d) is both correct and incorrect, as it conflates a geographic region, Europe, and a political body, the European Union. The United Kingdom (and therefore London) {{w|Brexit|left the EU}} in 2020, but is still geographically included in Europe. In addition, answer (b) is not a single geographical designation, but two combined together. Meanwhile, answer (c) is short for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but as well as Northern Ireland and Great Britain (the largest of the British Isles), it includes many other (though not all) surrounding islands, despite these not being mentioned in its full official name. Nonetheless, 'Great Britain' is often used as synecdoche for all of the UK except Northern Ireland (as well as for the UK as a whole), which could make answers (b) and (c), in a loose sense, equivalent. (Answer (a) is a different thing again, including islands that are neither Great Britain, nor part of the UK.) This often confusing {{w|File:British_Isles_Venn_Diagram-en_(3).png|overlapping map}} of definitions and nomenclatures provides fertile ground for tricky quiz questions. This also does not get into {{w|London (disambiguation)|cities named London}} outside of the UK, so for example "Ontario" or "Canada" could also be possible answers [[Black Hat|if the test designer was truly evil]], thus making none of the answers correct. ||What is the capital of the United Kingdom? (answer: London)<br>Where is London, England '''not''' located? (a) the British Isles (b) Great Britain and Northern Ireland (c) the UK (d) Europe (e) the EU (answer: (e))
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| + | Unknowable as there are many small bodies of water in the world, and determining which is the smallest while still being large enough to count as a {{w|lake}} is a complicated question. Further, the size of small lakes will fluctuate due to variability in precipitation, drought, etc. Some lakes only exist for brief periods (intermittent lakes). |
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| | + | An acceptable question might ask what is recognised by the Guinness World Records as the world's smallest lake (Benxi Lake in Liaoning Province of China which is only 15 m^2 in area). |
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| | + | '''4. Which Steven Spielberg movie features more shark attacks? {{w|Jaws (movie)|Jaws (1975)}} or {{w|Lincoln (movie)|Lincoln (2012)}}''' |
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| | + | Problem: trivial |
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| | + | Jaws is a famous movie about a killer shark, and features at least five fatal shark attacks. Lincoln is a movie about the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, containing zero shark attacks{{cn}}. Unlike the previous unanswerable questions, this is a question that no reasonable person could get wrong. |
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| | + | An actual quiz question might centre around how much the shark appears in Jaws (a surprisingly small amount). An actual comparison between the two movies might ask which won more Academy Awards. |
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| | + | '''5. How many planets were there originally?''' |
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| | + | Problem: ambiguous |
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| | + | The joke here is that "originally" is so poorly defined that it could mean anywhere from 0 (the number of planets in our solar system prior to formation of the solar system) to an unknown number in the trillions (number of planets in the galaxy) or some truly inconceivably large number that may not even be finite (number of planets in the universe, observable and unobservable). |
| | + | The ancient Greeks named seven planets: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Eventually, it was decided that the Earth is also a planet, and that the Sun and the Moon were not. Uranus and Neptune were eventually discovered, followed by Ceres, Vesta, Juno, and Pallas, all of which were considered planets prior to the invention of the term "asteroid". Then Pluto was discovered, and the count of "planets" stabilized at 9 until 2006, when the discovery of Kuiper Belt objects larger than Pluto led to creation of the term "dwarf planet". This leaves us today with a solar system of 8 planets, 5 known dwarf planets, and countless asteroids and Kuiper belt objects. There are also thousands of known exoplanets (planets that orbit stars other than the sun). |
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| | + | '''6. What {{w|NFL}} player has scored the most points outside of a game?''' |
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| | + | Problem: unknowable |
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| | + | American football has a somewhat complicated scoring system, and record keeping involves (for instance) crediting the 6 points for a touchdown to both the receiver and the passer in some situations. This question does not address any of this complexity, but adds a new level of ambiguity as the "points" a player can score outside of a game are undefined. Is it any points scored in any game at all (e.g. Scrabble or Root) except football, or is it points that are not part of ''any'' game at all (e.g. "Wow, you made a good point, I need to reconsider my position")? |
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| | + | Normal questions might be about who scored the most points in a game, a season, or a career. |
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| | + | '''7. The {{w|Wright brothers}} built the first airplane. Who built the last one?''' |
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| | + | Problem: unknowable |
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| | + | Since airplanes are built continuously, there is no way to know who built the most recent one. The question also seems to be asking for a name, but modern airplanes are assembled by many people following set protocols rather than by a few individuals who also designed the plane. Alternatively, if 'the last one' means 'the last one ''ever''', then it probably hasn't been built yet (and hopefully won't be built for a long time). |
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| | + | The question's introduction is also wrong: the Wright Brothers managed the first sustained controlled flight of a powered heavier-than-air craft, but many others had built airplanes before them. |
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| | + | '''8. Is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes?''' |
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| | + | Problem: unknown, and possibly unknowable |
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| | + | This is {{w|Goldbach's conjecture|an open question}} in math. |
| | + | Known as Goldbach's Conjecture, mathematicians widely believe that it is true, and it has held true for every number we've checked (and we've checked a great many numbers) but since {{w|almost all}} numbers have never been checked, we can't generalize that it will hold for ALL even numbers without proof. Since it is {{w|Gödel's incompleteness theorems|known}} that something can be true but impossible to prove or disprove, this may be the situation forever. |
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| | + | '''9. Not counting {{w|Canberra}}, what city is the capital of {{w|Australia}}?''' |
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| | + | Problem: no answer |
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| | + | Canberra is the only capital of Australia. Sydney is larger and possibly more famous, so that asking the capital of Australia would be a good trivia question: people who know their capitals would respond with Canberra and less knowledgeable people would incorrectly guess Sydney. Australia is divided into states and territories, each with its own capital, but this would leave multiple equally valid answers to the question. |
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| | + | Common questions similar to this might concern countries which have multiple capitals, where the capital has moved, or, as in this case, where it is not the most well known city in the country. |
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| | + | '''10. Who played the drums?''' |
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| | + | Problem: ambiguous |
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| | + | Lots of people have played {{w|drum|the drums}}{{cn}}, through the ages. |
| | + | If this question asked who played the drums for a particular band or on a particular album, track, or performance, it would be an example of a good trivia question. As it is, it has many possible answers and no way to choose between them. |
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| | + | The alt-text bonus question: '''Where is {{w|London}} located? (a) The {{w|British Isles}} (b) {{w|Great Britain and Northern Ireland}} (c) The {{w|United Kingdom|UK}} (d) {{w|Europe}} (or 'the {{w|European Union|EU}}') (e) Greater London''' |
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| | + | Problem: multiple answers |
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| | + | All choices are technically correct as they are various geographical areas that include the city of London, England. (d) incorrectly conflates Europe, a geographical area that London is located in, with the EU, which the UK (and consequently London) has not been in since {{w|Brexit}} in 2020. |
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| | ==Transcript== | | ==Transcript== |
| − | :[The top half of Cueball is shown beneath the list of questions he is reading aloud. He is holding a wireless microphone in his right hand and a pencil and notebook in his left, reading from the notebook and speaking into the microphone. The list is shown on the notebook as well, but just as unreadable lines.]: | + | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
| − | :Cueball: Welcome to pub trivia! Round one is 10 questions:
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| − | :# Which member of BTS has a birthday this year?
| + | :[Cueball holding a microphone and reading from a sheet of paper]: |
| − | :# How many sides does a platonic solid have?
| + | :Welcome to pub trivia! Round one is 10 questions: |
| − | :# What is the smallest lake in the world?
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| − | :# Which Steven Spielberg movie features more shark attacks - ''Jaws'' (1975) or ''Lincoln'' (2012)?
| + | # Which member of BTS has a birthday this year? |
| − | :# How many planets were there originally?
| + | # How many sides does a platonic solid have? |
| − | :# What NFL player has scored the most points outside of a game?
| + | # What is the smallest lake in the world? |
| − | :# The Wright brothers built the first airplane. Who built the last one?
| + | # Which Steven Spielberg movie features more shark attacks - ''Jaws'' (1975) or ''Lincoln'' (2012)? |
| − | :# Is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes?
| + | # How many planets were there originally? |
| − | :# Not counting Canberra, what city is the capital of Australia?
| + | # What NFL player has scored the most points outside of a game? |
| − | :# Who played the drums?
| + | # The Wright brothers built the first airplane. Who built the last one? |
| | + | # Is every even number greater than 2 the sum of two primes? |
| | + | # Not counting Canberra, what city is the capital of Australia? |
| | + | # Who played the drums? |
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| | {{comic discussion}} | | {{comic discussion}} |
| − | | + | [[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]] |
| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | + | [[Category: Comics featuring real people]] |
| − | [[Category:Comics featuring real people]] | + | [[Category: American football]] |
| − | [[Category:Music]] | + | [[Category: Astronomy]] |
| − | [[Category:Math]] | + | [[Category: Geography]] |
| − | [[Category:Geography]] | + | [[Category: Math]] |
| − | [[Category:Fiction]] | + | [[Category: Music]] |
| − | [[Category:Sharks]] | |
| − | [[Category:Astronomy]]
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| − | [[Category:American football]]
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