A Brief History of 'A Brief History of Time' by MercureT

Champion(s):

GrossB
Illegitimi non carborundum.


Runner(s)-Up:

AllenJ
What's a motto you?


Quiz Description

A brief history of 'A Brief History of Time,' and some related questions, naturally.

Full Results:

Rank Player Total %ile 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
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1 GrossB 364 98 15
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2 AllenJ 363 95 15
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3 LuskT 359 91 15
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4 SchroederS 351 88 15
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5 GrubbC 323 85 15
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6 SorensonG 321 82 15
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7 DixonD 320 77 15
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7 zerocrates 320 77 15
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9 JeziorskiM 289 72 15
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10 randalleng 271 69 15
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11 Tortoise 270 66 15
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12 MeyerS 267 62 15
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13 UllspergerA 250 59 15
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14 LackC 249 56 15
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15 CoenM 248 53 15
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16 MorrisK 245 50 15
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17 AdelmanM 229 46 15
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18 PolinskyL 225 43 15
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19 jefe 218 40 15
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20 creedofhubris 204 37 15
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21 ElendilPickle 192 33 15
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22 BoyerA 188 30 15
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23 WolfischL 175 27 15
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24 JonesRW 167 24 15
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25 FrostL 165 20 15
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26 HallW 162 17 15
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27 BlomE 148 14 15
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28 Zogtastic 144 11 15
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29 HoH 136 8 15
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30 HensleyB 127 4 15
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31 BeningoS 71 1 15
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Questions:

It's a book on cosmology first published in 1988. Who wrote it?

Click to Reveal Answer
Stephen Hawking

The book's subtitle (From ____ to _____) suggests a particularly broad time frame as its scope, though the second blank isn't really an event. What should those blanks be? (both blanks are multiple words)

Click to Reveal Answer
The Big Bang, Black Holes

The first edition of the book featured an introduction from what other popular cosmologist?

Click to Reveal Answer
Carl Sagan

Another text was published in 2005 (by the original author as well as Leonard Mlodinow) which is considered to be an updated version of the original. Despite this expansion, its title is a diminutive take on the original. What is that name?

Click to Reveal Answer
A Briefer History of Time

A Brief History of Time was also the title of a 1991 documentary about the answer to #1. Its director went on to win Best Documentary Feature in 2003 for The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. Who is he?

Click to Reveal Answer
Errol Morris

Keeping this slight diversion going for a question or so, the previously referenced film was scored by what minimalist American composer? He also earned a BAFTA win (and an Oscar nomination) for his work on The Hours.

Click to Reveal Answer
Philip Glass

Per the author:

Why did so many people buy the book? It is difficult for me to be objective, so I will go by what other people said. [...] They tended to follow a single formula: "[author] has _____ disease (the term used in American reviews) [...] Yet he has written this book about the biggest question of all: Where did we come from and where are we going?"

Whose name goes in the blank?

Click to Reveal Answer
Lou Gehrig's

"_____ all the way down"

In context, the phrase refers to the problem of infinite regress. The creature missing from the quote forms the literal basis for some creation mythologies, including that of the fictional Discworld universe. What animal fills the blank?

Click to Reveal Answer
turtles

Another quote from the author: "Rather, there is a collection of every possible history for the universe, and all these histories are equally real (whatever that may mean)"

This quote is evocative of what interpretation of quantum mechanics espoused by the author, an interpretation which, loosely, shares its premise with many a time-travel story and their myriad threads.

Click to Reveal Answer
many worlds interpretation / multiverse

Significantly less popular was the author's follow-up work: Black Holes and Baby _____ and Other Essays

What 'observable' term belongs in the blank?

Click to Reveal Answer
Universes

The author and his daughter Lucy have also written a short series of childrens' books designed to teach children about astrophysics. They all feature what title character? For example, the first is _____'s Secret Key to the Universe

Click to Reveal Answer
George

Apparently (i.e. according to Wikipedia, which does cite a book I don't exactly have on hand) the author was told that every time he inserted an equation the readership would be halved. As a result only one equation survived. What is it?

Click to Reveal Answer
E = MC^2