rare questions
when did you last ask a question no one else was asking
The rare room is for the odd, the antique and the wonderfully specific — questions that have slipped out of fashion, or were only ever asked once. It is the room closest in spirit to the collection’s inspiration: Aristotle’s Book of Problems, a scroll the Peripatetic school filled with puzzlers to mull over before sleep.
This first set of rare questions come from Aristotle’s Problemata — the ancient work of around 900 questions that the Question Collection reinterprets for the modern day. They are over two thousand years old and still strangely good company.
Why is the sea salty
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Why does cabbage prevent a headache after drinking
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Why do we get more enjoyment from tunes that we already know
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Why do you yawn if I yawn
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Why, while we yawn, do we lose our hearing
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Why do certain noises send a chill down the spine
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Why do children get more nosebleeds than adults
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Why do some people have deep voices and others high
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Why do bruises change colour
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Why do some plants grow better in shade
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Why does fever produce thirst
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Why do the extremities feel cold first
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Why does cold make people pale
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Why does rhythm produce pleasure
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Why do some fruits ripen faster than others
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Why do we shiver and tremble in the cold
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Why do blows swell
Aristotle didn’t always have the right answers — but the questions have lasted far longer than the answers did.
rare and curious questions
Questions that are rare because they are so wonderfully specific, so old-fashioned, or so unexpected that you may never have heard them asked before. Some are antiques; some are simply one of a kind.
Why were chainsaws invented
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Why is there a coin shortage
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Where does vanilla flavouring come from
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Why does the moon follow you when you drive
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How many angels can dance on the head of a pin
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Why do we say 'bless you' when someone sneezes
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Why do clocks run clockwise
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Why do we dream of people we have never met
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Why is a raven like a writing desk (the Mad Hatter’s famous riddle in Alice in Wonderland - a question Lewis Carroll admitted he wrote with no answer in mind at all)
From my personal collection of the questions that friends and family have sent me over the years, and the Contributed Questions room — proof that the rarest questions are often hiding in plain sight.
rare questions from everyday life
Am I getting uglier
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Is a giraffe bigger than an elephant
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How long does a pack of cheese last
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How does a poem mean
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If a circle has one part missing, can a complete circle be the answer to it
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Where do ideas come from
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How big is our baby today