Uncle John’s Impossible Questions & Astounding Answers Read online

  Footnote: Another country that many people claim belongs to two continents is Panama. However, it’s a common misconception that the Panama Canal separates North and South America—it doesn’t. According to most geographers, South America starts at the Colombian border.

  Mammoth Lakes

  North America has three of the five largest lakes in the world. What are they? What and where are the other two?

  Mini-Mammoth Lake

  What’s the largest lake in the U.S. after the Great Lakes? What’s the largest lake after that one?

  The Real Mammoth Lake

  Where is the real Mammoth Lake?

  Mammoth Lakes

  The five biggest lakes in the world:

  1. The Caspian Sea, which borders four countries in Europe and Asia, is 143,000 square miles.

  2. Lake Superior, in North America, is 31,820 square miles.

  3. Africa’s Lake Victoria, at 26,828 square miles, is the largest tropical lake in the world.

  4. Lake Huron, in North America, is 23,010 square miles.

  5. Lake Michigan, in the U.S., is 22,400 square miles.

  Mini-Mammoth Lake

  The Great Salt Lake in Utah, at 1,700 square miles, is the largest lake in the U.S. that’s not a Great Lake. It’s the only body of water left over from an ancient inland sea known as Lake Bonneville, which once covered much of western North America. The next largest U.S. lake is Okeechopee in Florida—it’s 730 square miles.

  The Real Mammoth Lake

  There is none. Mammoth Lakes (notice the plural) is actually a geographic region in California’s Eastern Sierra mountains. The town and surrounding area are revered for snow-capped peaks, ancient forests, waterfalls, and some very pretty lakes. How did it get its name? Not because of any woolly mammoth fossils, but because of gold: The area was first settled by the Mammoth Mining Company after prospectors discovered gold there.

  United Streets of America

  What is the most common street name in the United States?

  Fitting In

  Cartographically speaking, what do Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., have in common?

  Next-Door Neighbors

  What’s the longest shared border between two countries? What’s the busiest border between two countries?

  United Streets of America

  Did you guess Main Street or First Street? It’s neither. Answer: Second Street. Why wouldn’t First be first? Because a town wouldn’t normally have a First Street unless it also had a Second Street (and a Third and a Fourth, and so on). So why aren’t First and Second more or less tied? Turns out that many small towns have a main street (often called Main Street) that they count as their number-one route through town—their first street, so to speak, but not their First Street. They actually start counting at Second Street. Subtract the number of First/Main Streets that have been renamed to honor a prominent citizen, and it’s easy to see why Second is really first.

  Fitting In

  Look in any atlas. On the page that has a map of the entire United States, each of these state names is too long to fit inside its designated area, so each one must be abbreviated, or printed off the map with an indicator line pointing to it.

  Next-Door Neighbors

  The longest border between two countries is the U.S.- Canada border, at 5,525 miles (including Canada’s border with Alaska). The busiest is the U.S.-Mexico border. Although it’s much shorter than the U.S.-Canada border (1,969 miles), there are about 350 million crossings between Mexico and the U.S. each year. (The U.S.-Canadian border has fewer than half that amount.)

  Bottoms Up

  It’s a nationwide battle for bragging rights! In terms of elevation, which U.S. state is considered the lowest of the low?

  Bottoms Up

  Three U.S. states vie for the title of the lowest, but the answer remains elusive because each state uses different criteria to measure its low-itude. Should the title go to the state with the lowest point, the lowest highest point, or the lowest average elevation?

  • Californians lay claim to the title because they have the lowest point in the nation: Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, which lies 282 feet below sea level.

  • Delawareans counter that California’s multitude of mountains elevate that state to a much higher average elevation. They claim that they deserve the title based on the fact that Delaware has the lowest average elevation of all the states—60 feet above sea level.

  • Floridians cry foul! Delaware’s highest point—the Ebright Azimuth near Wilmington—is 451 feet above sea level, whereas Florida’s highest point—Britton Hill in the Panhandle—is only 345 feet above sea level. (It’s the state’s highest “natural” point; some of its skyscrapers are higher.) For this reason, Florida claims that it’s tops in the lowest because it has the lowest top in the lower 48.

  One reason for the confusion: the board game Trivial Pursuit. In original edition of the game, one of the questions was, “Which U.S. state has the lowest elevation of 60 feet?” The answer was supposed to be Delaware, but the question was poorly worded. It should have said “lowest average elevation.”

  Split Personality

  What’s so special about the water in Yellowstone’s Isa Lake?

  Small and Smaller

  What’s the smallest nation in Africa? What’s the smallest African nation not in Africa?

  Range Finder

  Where would you have to go to find the longest mountain range on Earth?

  Split Personality

  The water in Isa Lake flows in two directions at the same time. How? The lake sits directly on top of North America’s Continental Divide. All the rivers and streams east of this dividing line eventually flow into the Atlantic Ocean, much of them by way of the Gulf of Mexico. Rivers and streams to the west of the Continental Divide eventually flow into the Pacific Ocean. Because of Isa Lake’s unique position (no other lake in North America does this), its water drains into two creeks—one that ends up in the Atlantic, the other in the Pacific.

  Small and Smaller

  Africa’s smallest mainland nation is Gambia, at 4,363 square miles. However, at 174 square miles, the smallest African nation is the Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 tiny islands in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar.

  Range Finder

  Underwater. Technically, the longest mountain range on Earth is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which lies almost entirely below the surface of the sea. It’s 10,000 miles long, stretching from the South Atlantic to Iceland, which contains the only part of the mountain chain above water. The longest above-ground, or primarily “exposed,” mountain range is the Andes Mountains in South America, at a comparatively paltry 4,350 miles.

  FLORA & FAUNA

  Test your knowledge on the finer points (and quills and teeth and leaves and roots) of growing things, both great and small.

  Unhappy Feet

  What does a spider do when it gets stuck in its own web?

  Humpty Dumpty

  What does it mean if a camel has a floppy hump?

  Unhappy Feet

  We’re talking about the most familiar type of spider web—the spiral web. And yes, it’s true that arachnids occasionally get a leg or two (or five) caught in their own webs. To avoid this predicament, most spiders spin two kinds of material: one nonsticky and one sticky. The nonsticky material radiates out from the center, like spokes. That’s what the spider walks on. It’s also the stronger of the two, providing support for the entire web. The sticky material that is designed to trap prey goes around and around the center in the familiar spiral shape.

  So what does a spider do when it makes a misstep and becomes stuck in that sticky spiral? Most species are able to secrete an oily substance that allows them to slip away. In addition, some spiders also have tiny tarsal claws located on their hind legs that they can use to slide along the sticky strands to get themselves unstuck.

  Humpty Du
mpty

  Did you assume it’s because the camel is low on water? Good guess, but camels don’t store water in their humps—that’s a common misconception. A camel’s hump becomes floppy when the animal is low on food. When camels are well fed, fat cells build up inside their humps, making them firm. After weeks of roaming through the desert with little to eat, the hungry camel has used up most of its fat stores, resulting in a flabby hump.

  Even Older Than Mick Jagger?

  What is the oldest (known) living thing in the world?

  Transformer

  Which bear becomes a tiger?

  Even Older Than Mick Jagger?

  Many biologists disagree over exactly what qualifies as “oldest,” “living,” and “thing.” Some argue that the oldest organism is an amoeba, in that it multiplies by dividing, so each new amoeba is the same living organism as its parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, and so on, all the way back to the very first amoeba. Other biologists point to clonal colonies of plants and mushrooms that reproduce asexually, in which individuals are connected by a root system that has been there for millennia. (There’s a stand of Neptune grass in the Mediterranean believed to be 100,000 years old.)

  However, the oldest living thing that started life from sexual reproduction (meaning by combining the genes of two “parents”) is a tree. A bristlecone pine that biologists call Methuselah has been standing proudly in what is now California since before Stonehenge was constructed. How old does that make it? About 4,850 years.

  Transformer

  The banded woolly bear caterpillar, common in North America, is known for its brown and black spiky hairs—it looks like a pipe cleaner. The Isabella tiger moth is also common—it has yellow wings with tiny black spots on them. What do these two bugs have in common? They are one and the same—the “bear” turns into a “tiger.”

  Ear Today, Gone Tomorrow

  Why do elephants have such big ears?

  Crusty Critter

  What backyard bug goes by many names and breathes through gills instead of lungs?

  Ear Today, Gone Tomorrow

  If you said “to hear better,” you have a smart mouth and Uncle John would like to hire you…but you’d be only partially correct. The primary function of these massive body parts, which can reach five feet in diameter in African elephants, is to cool down the animal. The thin ears contain thousands of tiny blood vessels. On hot days, an elephant fans its ears, but it’s not the whoosh of air on the rest of the body that does most of the cooling; it’s the air passing over the thin skin of the ears, which cools the blood vessels within by as much as 10°F. As the cooler blood flows into the rest of the animal, it keeps the elephant from overheating.

  Crusty Critter

  A crustacean known as Armadillidium. A crustacean in the backyard? Aren’t those crabs, lobsters, or shrimps? There are actually two genera, or types, of land-dwelling crustaceans, the most common of which is Armadillidium. As its name suggests, it has a hard shell, which it rolls up into a ball for protection. You may know it better as a woodlouse or—depending on where you’re from—a potato bug, pill bug, chuggy-pig, armadillo bug, doodlebug, or roly-poly. These small gray bugs are usually found in damp places where there’s little danger of drying out. There are about 300 species of Armadillididiae, and yes, they do breathe through gills instead of lungs. (What’s the other common land-dwelling crustacean? The hermit crab.)

  A Crappy Relationship

  What species, native to the mountains of Borneo, commonly dines on insects and tree shrew poo, but occasionally kills frogs, lizards, birds, and rats?

  The Riddler

  I have wings but do not fly. The fastest horse, I could run right by. Despite the legend, I hold my head high. What am I?

  A Crappy Relationship

  Nepenthes rajah. It’s not an animal—it’s the world’s largest carnivorous plant, and one of the only ones that traps small mammals, birds, and reptiles. Known as a “pitcher plant,” N. rajah has a foot-long purple leaf rising up over the top of an urn-shaped bowl that holds about a gallon of water mixed with digestive juices. (It looks like an open mouth.) Although N. rajah can trap small vertebrates, its primary prey is insects, which are attracted to its trap by sweet nectar on the underside of the leaf. The larger animals that drown in the bowl are just collateral damage.

  Why, then, is this pitcher plant’s pitcher so large? Because it’s the perfect size for a tree shrew—a rodentlike primate—to stand on the rim and eat nectar from the leaf, with its backside over the top of the bowl. Then the tree shrew defecates into the bowl. It’s win-win: The tree shrew gets a tasty meal, and the nitrogen contained in its feces fertilizes the pitcher plant.

  The Riddler

  An ostrich. The average ostrich can maintain a speed of up to 50 mph, making it the fastest bird on land. (By comparison, the fastest racehorse was clocked at 43 mph.) And the story about the ostrich “hiding” by burying its head in the sand is a myth. However, they have been known to lie flat on the ground to avoid detection by predators…before resorting to their awesome speed. Meep-meep! (Oops, wrong bird.)

  Go Figure

  Dolbear’s Law—expressed in the equation TF = 50 + (N – 40)/4—allows us to use which animal to tell us what?

  Range Rovers

  Why are there no wild cows?

  Go Figure

  Dolbear’s Law allows us to use the snowy tree cricket to tell the temperature to within 1°F. Found in much of the U.S., these crickets are known as “nature’s thermometers.” After noticing that crickets chirp faster when it’s warmer, American inventer Amos Dolbear first published the equation in 1897 (after he lost a telephone patent battle against Alexander Graham Bell).

  Here’s how the formula works: TF is temperature (in Fahrenheit); N is the number of chirps per minute. Count the number of chirps in a minute, subtract 40, divide that number by 4, and add 50, and you’ve got the temperature. (There’s also a shortcut, which will give you an approximation: Just count how many times the cricket chirps in 15 seconds, and add 40.) You can do this with other crickets, but each requires its own formula. For example, for the common field cricket, less accurate but easier to locate, add 38 to the number of chirps per 15 seconds.

  Range Rovers

  We’re not talking about feral cows that wander away from ranches, but actual wild cows. They did once exist. The animal, called an aurochs, was domesticated 8,000 years ago and continued to roam European grasslands until just a few centuries ago. Although the research is ongoing, scientists believe the aurochs was the precursor to the modern cow, though the wild aurochs was much larger than its domestic counterpart. In 1627 a poacher on a hunting preserve near Warsaw, Poland, killed the last known wild aurochs (and had steak for dinner).

  Perennial Mystery

  According to ancient Greek legend, the goddess Aphrodite created it. The Romans used it as a symbol for secrecy (a Roman phrase for “confidentiality” is named for it). Ancient Persians spread its oils around the world. It was found in King Tut’s tomb. Early Christians called it the “blood of the martyrs.” During the Dark Ages, monks kept it alive for medicinal use. The English fought for it, and Josephine adored it. What is it?

  Perennial Mystery

  The rose, and it’s much older than Aphrodite. Paleobotanists have traced its origins to central Asia about 60 to 70 million years ago; the rose remained in the Northern Hemisphere until humans arrived and spread it to south of the equator.

  Since the dawn of civilization, people and roses have had a profound connection—for medicinal and ornamental purposes alike. In fact, one of the symbols of decadence that led to the fall of the Roman Empire: Rose gardens began to outnumber food gardens. Some Roman dining rooms even had rose vines spreading across the ceiling. What was said at dinner was supposed to remain there, which led to the Latin phrase for “secrecy”—sub rosa, or “under the rose.”

  In 15th-century England, the House of York adopted a white rose; the House of Lancaster, a red r
ose. When Henry VII finally won the War of the Roses—and with it the English throne—he bred the red and the white flowers together to create the Tudor Rose, the official Rose of England.