# Controversial Trivia Questions **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 6, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231 "2013-01-06T04:33:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231/101 "2013-01-14T22:06:55Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > What about > a) First manned flight? > b) Only manmade object visible from space? What’s your “supposed” answer? 😃 Please don’t tell me one of the Sputnik chimps or dogs are considered “human.” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231/102 "2013-01-14T22:14:33Z")
Oh, the trick with first manned flight is that most people will say the Wright brothers. But of course, people had been flying in balloons for years and years before that. The first peopleto engage in verified honest-to-God flight, not just gliding or parachuting, were Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and François Laurent le Vieux d’Arlandes, who flew a balloon in 1783. The following year, de Rozier earned the distinction of being one of the first people killed in the crash of an aircraft. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231/103 "2013-01-15T00:53:26Z")
You could probably make some good obfuscated questions based on measuring by weight, volume, or number. For example — what is the most common cell in the human body? This one is even more complicated by the definition of ‘in’ and ‘human’. For a typical human, bacteria outnumber human cells by an order of magnitude, but are a small fraction by mass or volume. They are also not ‘inside’ by one definition, since they live only on surfaces exposed to the outside world. However, that includes the alimentary tract, where the majority of the bacteria reside, and most people would count that as inside. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231/104 "2013-01-15T01:35:00Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Depends on how you define “space” and “manmade object.” I’d guess that there a number of man-made lakes that would be visible. [This cite](http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/01/13/2791372.htm) says that the most commonly definition of “space” starts at 100 km, or a little over 60 miles. The ISS and the shuttles orbited at about 200 miles, and you could even barely make out parts of the Great Wall of China at that altitude. I’d think at 60 you’d see a lot more. By “visible”, do we mean “visible with the naked eye”? If not, then almost anything on the surface bigger than a breadbox is “visible” to a spy satellite with a high-power camera lens. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231/105 "2013-01-15T18:33:40Z")
No English word rhymes with ‘orange’…except [Sporange](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sporange). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231/106 "2013-01-15T19:39:31Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > No English word rhymes with ‘orange’…except [Sporange](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sporange). That website says you need to activate a free trial to read it. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) has no listing of a “sporange”: [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sporange?s=t](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sporange?s=t) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231/107 "2013-01-16T03:10:13Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > That website says you need to activate a free trial to read it. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) has no listing of a “sporange”: [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sporange?s=t](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sporange?s=t) It’s a largely abandoned botanical term; it’s in the unabridged Oxford. Whether it’s a real word or a scientific artifact is open to debate. I sure as shit would challenge it if you tried to play it in Scrabble. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231/108 "2013-01-17T16:26:49Z")
"Who played Charles Foster Kane in the movie “Citizen Kane?” The obvious answer is Orson Welles, but technically he was CFK II (or Jr.). Harry Shannon played the father who would have presumably been CFK, although I don’t recall whether or not that name was actually used on film. Also, Sonny Bupp played CFK III. So, depending upon what you’re wanting to know, there are three different people playing three generations of Charles Foster Kane. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231/109 "2013-01-18T00:23:37Z")
And wasn’t there a scene of the main character as a boy, too? That’d be another actor for the role. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231/110 "2013-01-18T00:47:28Z")
I don’t think this thread could ever appear in any other forum except the Dope. Its basically one long pedant fest. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231/111 "2013-01-20T16:31:46Z")
> [@singher](#): > > I would say that most people get the answer of Who discovered america wrong I’m surprised nobody pointed out that the claim that _“More recently evidence has appeared showing that in fact it was the Chinese Admiral Cheng Ho who discovered America in 1421.”_ is not accepted by any respected historian as true. The only so-called evidence given to support that claim is completely without merit. All you have to do is Google 1421 and see the responses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-trivia-questions/646231.md?page=5)