Christmas Quiz 2012

Wednesday, 5th December 2012 – By common agreement, this year’s Christmas Quiz was the best one ever. Jack and Patsy had clearly worked very hard thinking up the questions, and even harder in thinking up the false answers, most of which seemed eminently plausible unless you knew the correct one.

Once again Christine and Chris, with help from a number of other members, served up a festive treat of mince pies, Christmas cake, stollen and biscuits to accompany the usual tea and coffee.

For the Quiz Enthusiasts amongst you, and for those who missed the meeting, you can download the questions and answers from this page. Please note that you will need the password to access the page.

Crash Helmets for Eggs

Wednesday, 4th July 2012– Patsy Colvin is organising a meeting with a difference!

Egg Drop Fail – courtesy xkcd

For this year’s Summer Spectacular, we are running a special event where everyone can get involved. The general idea is to make some kind of “safety harness” or “crash helmet” using a variety of packaging materials that would allow an egg to be dropped, within its packaging, from a height without breaking on impact. Prizes for the winning pair!

All materials will be provided, but a pair of scissors might be useful 😉

Even if you don’t want to try your hand at this, you can still come along to cheer on the most inventive teams, or just enjoy the strawberry teas on a [hopefully] pleasant summer’s afternoon.

Simplified rules Choose a team name Use only the packaging material provided Packaged egg needs to be weighed before dropping Only one attempt at the drop All packaged eggs dropped from the same height You have 30 minutes to finish your packaging The aim is to use the least weight of packaging

Put it in your diary now, Wednesday, July 4th at 1.55pm – it should be a cracking afternoon!

Christmas Quiz

Some of you will have been to our Christmas Cafe Scientifique recently and hopefully enjoyed the science quiz. Here’s a chance to reprise the questions and perhaps put them to your friends. Not all of the questions had straightforward answers, and some are still in dispute; that being said, here is a more detailed version of the questions, together with the answers and sometimes rather complex explanations.

Many thanks to Jack Brettle for researching the Qs & As.

Hope you enjoy the quiz, and a Merry Christmas to all our readers!

Café Scientifique

Tuesday 6th July: Summer should have arrived by July! so to celebrate some warmer weather, why not come along for a strawberry cream tea while we discuss your topical science questions

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