Q 01/05

Which 1968 film did Arthur C. Clarke co-write with its director, Stanley Kubrick?

A) Silent Running

B) 2001: A Space Odyssey

C) Planet of the Apes

D) Fantastic Voyage

Answer · why

B) 2001: A Space Odyssey

The film reached cinemas in spring 1968 before the novel was finished, and Clarke complained that made his book look like a novelisation.

Q 02/05

In which country did Arthur C. Clarke live from 1956 until his death in 2008?

A) Malaysia

B) South Africa

C) Sri Lanka

D) Australia

Answer · why

C) Sri Lanka

He moved to what was then Ceylon to pursue scuba diving and later received the island's highest civil honour, the Sri Lankabhimanya.

Q 03/05

Along with Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, Clarke was one of science fiction's so-called what?

A) Big Three

B) Grand Trio

C) Holy Trinity

D) Golden Triangle

Answer · why

A) Big Three

Clarke and Asimov agreed a 'treaty': asked who was better, each would say Clarke was the better SF writer and Asimov the better science writer.

Q 04/05

Complete Clarke's third law: 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from...' what?

A) Nature

B) Chaos

C) Magic

D) God

Answer · why

C) Magic

It first appeared in a 1968 letter to Science and was added to the 1973 revision of his essay 'Hazards of Prophecy'; he said three laws were good enou...

Q 05/05

Clarke's 1945 paper proposed satellites in which orbit as ideal telecommunications relays?

A) Highly elliptical

B) Geostationary

C) Low Earth

D) Polar sun-synchronous

Answer · why

B) Geostationary

The idea was published in October 1945, and the International Astronomical Union officially calls that orbit the Clarke Orbit.