Futures facts & stats

Question 1

What is a weather forecast?

Accepted Answer

A prediction of upcoming weather. A forecast uses measurements and computer models to predict the weather ahead.

Question 2

How often does a leap year normally occur?

Accepted Answer

Every 4 years. A leap year, with February 29 added, normally comes every four years to keep the calendar in step with Earth's orbit.

Question 3

Under the Gregorian calendar, is the year 2100 a leap year?

Accepted Answer

No, it is divisible by 100 but not by 400. Century years are leap years only if divisible by 400, so 2000 was a leap year but 2100 is not.

Question 4

In about 5 billion years, the Sun is expected to swell into what kind of star?

Accepted Answer

A red giant. When the Sun runs low on hydrogen in its core, it will expand into a red giant before becoming a white dwarf.

Question 5

Which 1895 novel by H. G. Wells follows a traveler to the far future?

Accepted Answer

The Time Machine. H. G. Wells published The Time Machine in 1895, about an inventor who travels hundreds of thousands of years ahead.

Question 6

After the transits of 2004 and 2012, in which year will the next transit of Venus across the Sun occur?

Accepted Answer

2117. Transits of Venus come in pairs more than a century apart; after 2004 and 2012, the next is in December 2117.

Question 7

The word 'future' comes from the Latin 'futurus', a form of which verb?

Accepted Answer

To be. 'Futurus' is the future participle of the Latin verb 'esse', to be, meaning 'about to be'.

The basics