Word Brain Teasers

OBAFGKMN represents the spectral types of stars in order as seen on the Hertzsprung Russell Diagram.

A common mnemonic device for this is: Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me Now.

They stand for the diffrent classes of stars. They are put in these classes depending on what color they are and how hot they are.

The letters refer to how prominently hydrogen is visible in a stars spectrum. It originally existed on a full scale: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO

As the physics of stars became better understood, many of the letters (CDEL) were rendered obsolete and it was realised that very hot stars have less prominent hydrogen lines, so that the order was re-arranged with O (no lines) then B before AFGKMN.

The reasons for O and B at the top is that in hot stars the Hydrogen becomes ionised which gives a different set of characteristic lines.

As such, they are now in order of overall surface temperature (and color), from white-blue stars more than 33,000K, down to red N class, at less than 3,500K.

Also, as long as we talk about main sequence stars, stars in their main stage of life, it generally indicates size as well, with O class stars being the largest (50+ solar masses) to N being the smallest (0.5 solar masses or less)

Depending on where you live and other factors, you may consider some words to be unusual that others do not.

• Taumatawhakatangi-hangakoauauotamatea-turipukakapikimaunga-horonukupokaiwhenuaki-tanatahu (translates as: the summit of the hill, where Tamatea, who is known as the land eater, slid down, climbed up and swallowed mountains, played on his nose flute to his loved one)

• Many old English words, no longer in use, might be considered unusual in modern times (e.g. damsel in distress, knave, jester, castle keep)
• Your name spelled backwards (although it probably isn't a 'real' word)
• Whatchamacallit (What do you call it?)
• defenselessness
• hippotpotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- the fear of long words
• dioxyribonucleic acid
• endoplasmic reticulum
• antidisestablishmentarianism

The following words are in English dictionaries, but are rarely used, or their meanings are quite different from what one would expect:

• annodated
• egregious
• enervate
• exsuffolate
• gibbous
• numbat
• ouroboros
• peroration
• pilcrow
• quotidian
• yurt

Vowels are a e i o u. Consonants are all the other letters in the alphabet. So consecutive consonants are consanants in the order they appear in the alphabet. They are:

bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz

Some occupations that begin with y are:

yoga (instructor)

youth councelor

yeoman
· Yacht Master

· Yacht Salesman

· Yachtsman

· Yak Herder

· Yale Professor

· Yam Farmer

· Yard Engineer (railroad)

· Yard Keeper

· Yard Manager

· Yardman - rail road yard worker

· Yarn Maker

· Yeast Maker

· Yellow Cab Driver

· YMCA Director

· Yodeler

· YOGA Instructor

· Yogurt Maker

· Youth Hostel Warden

· Youth Program Director

· Youth Worker

Extinction is the fear of all species. In order to avoid this, we as all mammals reproduce.

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Not only mammals but all living organisms; but I question the use of "fear". The drive to reproduce is innate, instinctive; but only we humans can think about thence "fear" extinction of our own species, and only we humans can choose by controlling our own instincts as individuals whether to breed. Even then I doubt many people "fear" the human species' extinction since the likelihood of it happening within anyone one person's life is vanishingly small. We fear own deaths, or more likely how we might die; we might fear death by world war, famine or pestilence; but overall extinction of our species? I doubt it! Yes, it will happen, naturally; more likely by evolution rather than catastrophe such as a major mass-extinction; but I don't think we alive now need worry about that!