What's your April Fool's Quotient?

So in 1938 he flew his plane from California to New York. His flight plan was to return to California. He took off from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn one July night in a thick fog, heading east to avoid buildings at the western edge of the airfield. To everyone's surprise, he kept flying east. Visibility was poor, the pilot said later, and his compass showed that he was going in the right direction. Twenty-six hours later, he dropped through the clouds to find himself over a large body of water. That's when, he said, he noticed that he had been following the wrong end of his compass needle. Two hours later, he landed in Ireland.

22. Which is/are true? ____

23. Which is/are false? ____

24. Which is the one that has been passed off as true? ___

(1) True. Elephant herds can communicate over long distances via infrasound; (2) False. It was named for Charles Moncky, the Briton who invented it. (3) True. In fact, many of these early 20th-century 'computers' were women. (4) False, though this was widely circulated on the Internet as 'fact'; (5) True. (And did you try it?); (6) False. An unknown American doctor invented it in 1890 (though ancient Incas had surely pounded peanuts into a paste centuries before). (7) True; (8) False. 'OK' is an abbreviation for 'Oll Korrect,' which was part of a comical-spelling fad in the 1830s; (9) True, but not for inventing the binder, which he patented in 1854. Henry T. Sisson is honored with a statue for his service in the Civil War. (10) True; (11) True. William Bowerman, cofounder of Nike, came up with the waffle sole in 1972 - and made the first of them using a waffle iron. (12) False. Most ordinary light bulbs are filled with argon gas, which prevents the filament from burning. (13) True; (14) True; (15) A; (16) A; (17) A; (18) B. The endangered bilby is a rabbit-size creature with silky, mostly blue-gray fur, a long pointed nose, and big ears. (19) B. Norwegians claim the paper clip was invented by Norwegian Johan Vaaler in 1899. A paper clip in one's lapel during the German occupation was to show patriotism and irritate the occupiers. The function of the paper clip, to bind together, also took on a symbolic meaning: 'We must unite in the face of the enemy.' (20) B. 'April Fools' would celebrate the new year with feasts during the last week of March. (21) B. While aluminum is common, it was very difficult at first to extract it from the rocks it was part of. (22) Stories 1 and 3 are true. Some misdesigned chinaware still exists, though it is rare. Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan really did fly to Ireland, not California, in 1938. Depression-weary Americans were delighted by the humor of his exploit and gave him a ticker-tape parade in New York when he returned - by boat. Did he really misread his compass? He always insisted publicly that he had. (23) Story No. 2 is false. (24) Story No. 2 has been passed off as 'true' (with a wink, perhaps) to prospective students and visitors touring MIT.

24 to 16 correct: You're no fool.

16 to 8 correct: Pause before you try to pick up that quarter on the sidewalk, because it's probably glued down.

8 to 0 correct: Review the answers. Now give it another try.

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