Quiz Answers

By Mitchell

As you may recall, on Monday we offered a quiz that had been given on a 1964 episode of I've Got a Secret - questions that were from a fifth grade test given to New York's public school students. As promised, here are the answers:

Questions 1 and 2: I warned you that this question was tricky, and most of the panelists on I've Got a Secret fell into the trap, naming Harry Truman as one of the five Presidents who had not been elected. But the key word here was "ever," as in becoming President without ever being elected to the office. Truman, of course, succeeded Franklin Roosevelt in 1945, but was elected to a term in his own right in 1948. Only Bill Cullen avoided the trap, naming John Tyler and Lyndon Johnson as two of the five. The other three were Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson and Chester Arthur. LBJ, of course, was elected to his own term later in 1964, but his place in the answer has since been taken by Gerald Ford, who became President after Richard Nixon's resignation but failed in his bid for reelection.

Question 3: In the mathematical equation 17-9=8, the number 17 is called the minuend.

Question 4: Iron Oxide is also known as rust.

Question 5: Many of the panelists named Peter Stuyvesant as the man who brokered the sale of Manhattan by the Indians to the Dutch, but the correct answer was another Peter, Minuit. I didn't realize the name Peter was so popular among the Dutch.

Question 6: The first capital of the United States was New York City, where George Washington took the oath of office as the nation's first President.

Well, how did you do? Were you smarter than a 1960s fifth grader? Do you think fifth graders would know these answers today?

Congratuations to everyone who played, and as a lovely parting gift we have the home version of the Our Word and Welcome to It game for all our contestants.