tubechallenge.com

And so, to the answers and scores:

1. Name a US state which starts with the letter M.

Michigan - Garion, al, steeevooo, root and uefacup81 (5 points each)
Montana - jamesthegill, Starkey and greatkingrat (3 points each)
Missouri - scrxisi and Soup Dragon (2 points each)
Maryland - nozzacook (1 point)
Massachusetts - jbom (1 point)
Minnesota - Sam (1 point)

Other possible answers: Maine and Mississippi.

2. Name one of the states which comprise Australia.

Note, I said STATE, and not TERRITORY - they are officially different areas.

New South Wales - Garion, jamesthegill, jbom, Starkey and greatkingrat (5 points each)
Victoria - Sam, root and scrxisi (3 points each)
Tasmania - Nozzacook and uefacup81 (2 points each)
South Australia - steeevooo (1 point)

Incorrect answers: Northern Territory - al and Soup Dragon. NT is officially a "territory" and not a "state" of Australia. (10 points each)

For a list of states and territories, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_and ... _Australia

Other possible answers: Queensland

3. Name a country which falls inside the timezone that is four hours ahead of UTC (UTC+04:00).

Georgia - jamesthegill, al, scrxisi and Starkey (4 points each)
Azerbaijan - Soup Dragon and greatkingrat (2 points each)
Oman - Steeevooo (1 point)
United Arab Emirate - jbom (1 point)
Dubai - Garion (1 point)
Seychelles - Sam (1 point)

Incorrect answers: Bolivia - nozzacook, and France - root and uefacup81 (8 points each)

Bolivia is UTC-04.00, while France is UTC+01.00.
Root's answer was "France (specifically the island of Réunion, but my answer is the country it belongs to)". Neither answer is correct as France is not in UTC+04.00, and Reunion is a French dependency and NOT a country in its own right, and the question asked for a country.

Other possible answers: Mauritius, Armenia and Russia.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTC%2B04:00 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9union

4. Name one of the sovereign states within the continent of Africa which does not have any of the colour green on their national flag.

Democratic Republic of Congo - steeevooo, root and greatkingrat (3 points each)
Botswana - Sam and al (2 points each)
Somalia - scrxisi and jbom (2 points each)
Chad - Garion and Soup Dragon (2 points each)
Liberia - Starkey (1 point)
Cape Verde - nozzacook (1 point)
Swaziland - uefacup81 (1 point)
Egypt - jamesthegill (1 point)

Other possible answers: Angola, Tunisia and Uganda.

5. Name the capital city of one of the countries which officially make up Central America.

Tegucigalpa (Honduras) - jbom, Soup Dragon and Starkey (3 points each)
San Salvador (El Salvador) - jamesthegill and root (2 points each)
Belmopan (Belize) - al, uefacup81 (2 points each)
Managua (Nicaragua) - Garion and steeevooo (2 points each)
Guatemala City (Guatemala) - scrxisi (1 point)
San Jose (Costa Rica) - greatkingrat (1 point)
Panama City (Panama) - Sam (1 point)

Incorrect answers: Belize - nozzacook. Are you reading the questions properly? (6 points)

Starkey's answer was actually "Tegus", but as Tegus is listed as an official abbreviation and nickname for Tegucigalpa, I've allowed it.

6. Name a country which currently maintains an official claim on one of the eight territories of Antarctica.

United Kingdom - scrxisi, jbom and Soup Dragon (3 points each)
Argentina - Garion and Starkey (2 points each)
Norway - Steeevooo and root (2 points each)
Chile - al and uefacup81 (2 points each)
New Zealand - nozzacook and greatkingrat (2 points each)
France - Sam (1 point)

Incorrect answwers: Russia - jamesthegill (6 points)

Other possible answers: Australia

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territoria ... Antarctica

7. Name a country which, between 2006 and present, has made a territorial claim in the Arctic.

Denmark - nozzacook, Sam, al, root and uefacup81 (5 points each)
Russia - Garion, scrxisi, jbom, Starkey and greatkingrat (5 points each)
Norway - Steeevooo and Soup Dragon (2 points each)

Incorrect answers: Australia - jamesthegill. Did you get your Arctic and Antarctic claims mixed up? (10 points)

Other possible answers: Canada and the USA.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territoria ... the_Arctic

8. Name a river in the world whose length exceeds 3000 miles.

Yangtze - nozzacook, scrxisi, uefacup81, Soup Dragon and greatkingrat (5 points each)
Nile - Garion, jamesthegill, jbom and Starkey (4 points each)
Ob/Ityish (same river, two names) - al (1 point)
Mekong - Sam (1 point)
Yellow River - Steeevooo (1 point)
Yenisei - root (1 point)

Other possible answers: Amazon, Mississippi/Missouri/Jefferson, Parana/Rio de la Plata.

Sam's answer may be contested by some who have read the "Longest rivers" page on Wikipedia, but the following website quotes the exact source of the river, and it's official length - 4909km, which is 3050 miles. Wikipedia's page for the Mekong River also contradicts the rivers list, and actually quotes the correct length.

9. Name an English county whose population exceeded 1,000,000 (1 million) according to the mid-year estimates for 2008 from the Office for National Statistics.

Greater London - nozzacook and jbom (2 points each)
Surrey - al and scrxisi (2 points each)
Lancashire - Sam and greatkingrat (2 points each)
Kent - jamesthegill and uefacup81 (2 points each)
Essex - Steeevooo (1 point)
Hertfordshire - Soup Dragon (1 point)

Incorrect answers: Derbyshire - root (pop 762,300), Middlesex - Starkey (no such county - has been subsumed into Greater London, Surrey and Hertfordshire), Garion - PASS. (4 points each)

Other possible answers: West Midlands, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Hampshire, Tyne and Wear.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_En ... population

10. Name an OECD member country which joined the organisation after 1995.

Israel - Garion, scrxisi, Steeevooo, uefacup81 and Starkey (5 points each)
Chile - Sam, jamesthegill, jbom and root (4 points each)
Estonia - nozzacook and greatkingrat (2 points each)
Poland - al (1 point)
Slovenia - Soup Dragon (1 point)

Other possible answers: Hungary, Republic of Korea (South Korea) and Slovakia.

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And so the scores:

Sam - 240
Steeevooo - 600
Soup Dragon - 7200
jbom - 14400
al - 16000
greatkingrat - 18000
nozzacook - 19200
scrxisi - 36000
jamesthegill - 76800
Garion - 80000
uefacup81 - 80000
root - 115200
Starkey - 144000

So, unless I've buggered it up again, Sam wins for the second round in a row.

Let the arguments commence!

tubeguru wrote: 9. Name an English county whose population exceeded 1,000,000 (1 million) according to the mid-year estimates for 2008 from the Office for National Statistics.

Greater London - nozzacook and jbom (2 points each)
Surrey - al and scrxisi (2 points each)
Lancashire - Sam and greatkingrat (2 points each)
Kent - jamesthegill and uefacup81 (2 points each)
Essex - Steeevooo (1 point)
Hertfordshire - Soup Dragon (1 point)

Incorrect answers: Derbyshire - root (pop 762,300), Middlesex - Starkey (no such county - has been subsumed into Greater London, Surrey and Hertfordshire), Garion - PASS. (4 points each)

It rather depends on what your definition of "county" is. The population of the area covered by Derbyshire County Council is 762300, however the area covered by Derby City Council is also in Derbyshire and adds another 239200, taking it just over the 1 million mark.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ce ... population

My definition is the one in the link I provided. I even quoted the year the ONS took the statistics from so that you would know if you had found the right list.

I swear the lower limit for that counties question was 750 000... I must have imagined it I shan't dispute my score.

I picked all my entries for this round by using a random number generator. Fat lot of good it did me!

Root wrote:I swear the lower limit for that counties question was 750 000... I must have imagined it I shan't dispute my score.

I picked all my entries for this round by using a random number generator. Fat lot of good it did me!

Try it next time - you might beat Sam!

tubeguru wrote:5. Name the capital city of one of the countries which officially make up Central America.

Incorrect answers: Belize - nozzacook. Are you reading the questions properly? (6 points)

While still incorrect, I'd imagine that Nozza was referring to Belize City, which - as with Sydney in Australia - is usually erroneously assumed to be the Capital city...

Still incorrect though!

Good call.

No forgot to put the capital in.

You could have blagged it there.

I could of will have to be better next Quiz.

Champion... again....

Now, when do I get my champagne?

Hmm, now I'm wondering if I should dispute my score for question 3, though I promised I wouldn't... Well then, let's call this a "query" - part of France is in UTC+4. If Russia had been submitted as an answer, would that have been accepted? Part of the country falls inside that time zone during summer.

Anyway, I updated the table (same URL). Note that the product score has now become calculated with lg (base-10 logarithm) because it was getting too large to display. The table is still sorted by product rank.

Root wrote:Hmm, now I'm wondering if I should dispute my score for question 3, though I promised I wouldn't... Well then, let's call this a "query" - part of France is in UTC+4. If Russia had been submitted as an answer, would that have been accepted? Part of the country falls inside that time zone during summer.

Anyway, I updated the table (same URL). Note that the product score has now become calculated with lg (base-10 logarithm) because it was getting too large to display. The table is still sorted by product rank.

I think the key here is the physical presence of the country in the time zone. Russia is physically in UTC+04.00. France is not - its dependency is.

Good point about Russia being in it only when they're in DST, but I think I would have accepted Russia.

Root wrote:Anyway, I updated the table (same URL). Note that the product score has now become calculated with lg (base-10 logarithm) because it was getting too large to display. The table is still sorted by product rank.

I see I've played once out of three and am still 11th. Mind you, I can't drop any further can I?