Jesse day 10

5/6

1. In 835 CE, the Persian polymath Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi wrote a work whose title in English is The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, and whose title in its original Arabic introduced what word into English?
Correct Answer: ALGEBRA
Your Answer: Algebra
Points Assigned: 2

I just knew this.

2. In April 2018, a regal announcement was made in the African city of Manzini, during a ceremony to celebrate the king's 50th birthday, that formally declared a change in the name of the country over which he reigns. Give either the former or new name of this country.
Correct Answer: SWAZILAND/ESWATINI
Your Answer: Swaziland
Points Assigned: 1

I went to Manzini in 2010. I still haven't memorized the new name of Swaziland. 

3. In 1955, The Observer theatre critic Kenneth Tynan remarked, "It forced me to re-examine the rules which had hitherto governed the drama; and having done so, to pronounce them not elastic enough." His review was for the English-language world premiere of what sparse tragicomedy, which baffles many theatregoers still to this day?
Correct Answer: WAITING FOR GODOT
Your Answer: Waiting for Godot
Points Assigned: 2

I've never seen it, but it was the first thing that came to mind with the word sparse. 

4. In an effort to explain the coloration of stars, an Austrian physicist first suggested the effect that is now more closely associated with the apparent change in the observed frequency of a sound wave, resulting from relative motion between the sound's source and observer. Who was this physicist?
Correct Answer: CHRISTIAN DOPPLER
Your Answer: Doppler
Points Assigned: 3

I was pretty sure what he was describing was the Doppler effect. Didn't know if he was Austrian or not. 

5. If a particularly inconsistent (ten-pin) bowler bowls strikes in the first three frames, and then knocks down a single pin with each of the next four balls, what is the bowler's score at the end of five frames?
Correct Answer: 67
Your Answer: 76
Points Assigned: 1

Damn. I do not bowl often and wasn't positive on the scoring. I wrote it down and must have messed up somewhere as I thought the first three frames equaled 70. 

6. "We Built This City" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" were massive hit singles from the 1980s (though widely reviled today) from what mononymous rock band?
Correct Answer: STARSHIP
Your Answer: Starship
Points Assigned: 0

I wouldn't have been sure if it was Jefferson Starship or Starship, but mononymous made the decision easy.