What is a "Brass Monkey"? | Quizzland Trivia Answers

MayhemsMomma415

Who knew that the Beastie Boys were seaman.

Uninitialized

GreenerBrand1, erm... Every sailing ship had to have cannon for protection. Cannon of the times required round iron cannonballs. The master wanted to store the cannonballs such that they could be of instant use when needed, yet not roll around the gun deck. The solution was to stack them up in a square-based pyramid next to the cannon. The top level of the stack had one ball, the next level down had four, the next had nine, the next had sixteen, and so on. Four levels would provide a stack of 30 cannonballs. The only real problem was how to keep the bottom level from sliding out from under the weight of the higher levels. To do this, they devised a small brass plate ("brass monkey") with one rounded indentation for each cannonball in the bottom layer. Brass was used because the cannonballs wouldn't rust to the "brass monkey", but would rust to an iron one. When temperature falls, brass contracts in size faster than iron. As it got cold on the gun decks, the indentations in the brass monkey would get smaller than the iron cannonballs they were holding. If the temperature got cold enough, the bottom layer would pop out of the indentations spilling the entire pyramid over the deck. Thus it was, quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

Teslasgirl66

Is it terrible that the first thing I thought was Beastie Boys!?!

Tianah Olson

I was thinking of the drink. Oops.

lethalbillmunny

It's a funky junkie

Haarveen3

JonboysTrivia, nope, it is true, my brother worked on an old tall ship and this was known to happen

TMAC0819

a funky chunky monkey

Player Big Jannie

I've learned so much playing this game. Wonder if there is one for young children?

Ldybuggs2112

Remember the Beastie Boys... Brass Monkey!!

Taramaiden

JayElleBee, untrue. My Father in Law is a retired Naval Commander who conducted historical research for the accuracy of Royal Navy archives. cannon balls were never stored so precariously. even the rolling of a ship would have been dangerous and on stormy seas there would have been a staggering hazard to the Shipmen, from loose and rolling cannon balls. such a system would have been dangerous, cumbersome and impractical. . i

SCARLET ANNE B. YOUNG

WHO PERRISHED THEMSELVES WITH YOU AS YOUR SPRINGBOARD TEAM ANGEL OF ADVENT WILL GIVE THEM LORD

BiGuy

Whom however named said brass apparatus a « “monkey “» and maybe more importantly why so?

Allison

Bruh😒😒

Roffe

Taramaiden, what you said. It is utter nonsense that they stored cannon balls this way.

Scott

MayhemsMomma415, every body was seamen at some stage of their life

michael

it's a statue in bars in Australia & also a drink popular in the 60s

Ken

I got the question right, but a statue seems to be the best answer.

Coconutlili

I thought it's a Mickey's beer with orange juice

Amos

Dumb As Rocks, as a kid I had 3 statuettes of brass monkeys, in the “See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil” poses….

Amos

Player Big Jannie, just depends how well they read and how curious about the world they are. I once looked after a three year old who asked me “Do red-tailed hawks eat peregrine falcons?” His 8 year-old brother swiftly replied “Those are both birds of prey, so they’re like, brothers! Besides, would one cat eat another cat? I don’t think so.” Not sure if he was technically correct, but the speed with which he came up with an answer for his still-in-diapers little brother, and said child’s original question, blew me away. They and their middle sibling, with all of their many questions and diverse areas of interest, made me VERY happy that Google was in existence to help find answers I didn’t know. The family I was a nanny for after high school (1990s) was also one with 3 equally bright and inquisitive kids, and their questions sometimes stumped me. (Kids of 2 doctors, one is now a doctor herself, her older brother has worked at Google, and her little brother has a tech job too!). In either of those families, I can envision the kids playing THIS game as young kids…

peppers

Teslasgirl66, same here

Matius

Uninitialized, you absolutely know about this

Sean

MayhemsMomma415, I just had the Beastie Boys song in my head.

Hanoj

How many times I have heard this saying before, now I know where it came😂 learn more from this game!

Dee

Player Big Jannie, try Cody Cross, similar but simpler.

rawr

like this comment if you got this right!

K SOZE

THE BEASTIE BOYS, BRASS MONKEY ! CLASSIC !!

tnh

Taramaiden, I am glad someone knows something true about this phrase. It has been held that it refers to the effect of cold on statuettes of creatures. Certainly no sensible seaman would store cannonballs in such a precarious device