[Q]: Two mycologists were studying fungi. Jim studied more about wood eating mushrooms and gourmet mushrooms, while George decided to study more about mycorrhiza, and its benefits for humans. Which mycologist learned more about fungus growing around the root cells? Hint: A mycorrhiza (Greek for "fungus roots") is a symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a plant. In a mycorrhizal association, the fungus may colonize the roots of a host plant by either growing directly into the root cells, or by growing around the root cells. This association provides the fungus with relatively constant and direct access to glucose, which the plant produces by photosynthesis. The mycelia of the fungi increase the surface area of the plant's root system. The larger surface area improves water and mineral nutrient absorption from the soil.
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[A]: George

[Q]: John and Keith are playing a decision making game. They have three decisions to make decision A, decision B, and decision C. Decision A and decision B have certain outcome, but decision C's outcome is uncertain. John would apply optimal decision making process while Keith would rather rely on his hunches. Who would most likely assign a utility value to each of the decisions, John or keith? Hint: An optimal decision is a decision that leads to at least as good a known or expected outcome as all other available decision options. It is an important concept in decision theory. In order to compare the different decision outcomes, one commonly assigns a utility value to each of them. If there is uncertainty as to what the outcome will be, then under the von NeumannMorgenstern axioms the optimal decision maximizes the expected utility (a probabilityweighted average of utility over all possible outcomes of a decision).
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[A]: John

[Q]: In school, Jeremy's class has been assigned pen pals on the other side of the planet to write to. Jeremy lives in the United States and has been assigned to a girl named Marge who lives in Australia. Jeremy was told by his teacher that although Jeremy's town is in the winter season, Marge's country is currently experiencing summer. This idea intrigues Jeremy so in his first letter he is going to ask Marge many questions about this subject. Does the sun reach higher in the sky in Jeremy or Marge's town? Hint: The axial tilt of the Earth is approximately 23.439281 with the axis of its orbit plane, always pointing towards the Celestial Poles. Due to Earth's axial tilt, the amount of sunlight reaching any given point on the surface varies over the course of the year. This causes the seasonal change in climate, with summer in the Northern Hemisphere occurring when the Tropic of Cancer is facing the Sun, and winter taking place when the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere faces the Sun. During the summer, the day lasts longer, and the Sun climbs higher in the sky. In winter, the climate becomes cooler and the days shorter. In northern temperate latitudes, the Sun rises north of true east during the summer solstice, and sets north of true west, reversing in the winter. The Sun rises south of true east in the summer for the southern temperate zone and sets south of true west.
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[A]: Marge's

[Q]: Dee and Ann were two cousins. Ann lived in a mountain village at 8000 ft altitude, while Dee lived in a coastal town at sea level. Which cousin experienced fewer temperature inversion phenomena? Hint: Because the Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane, sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year. In June the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, so at any given Northern Hemisphere latitude sunlight falls more directly on that spot than in December (see Effect of sun angle on climate). This effect causes seasons. Over thousands to hundreds of thousands of years, changes in Earth's orbital parameters affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth and influence long-term climate. (See Milankovitch cycles).The uneven solar heating (the formation of zones of temperature and moisture gradients, or frontogenesis) can also be due to the weather itself in the form of cloudiness and precipitation. Higher altitudes are typically cooler than lower altitudes, which the result of higher surface temperature and radiational heating, which produces the adiabatic lapse rate. In some situations, the temperature actually increases with height. This phenomenon is known as an inversion and can cause mountaintops to be warmer than the valleys below. Inversions can lead to the formation of fog and often act as a cap that suppresses thunderstorm development. On local scales, temperature differences can occur because different surfaces (such as oceans, forests, ice sheets, or man-made objects) have differing physical characteristics such as reflectivity, roughness, or moisture content.
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[A]:
Dee