Random Trivia?

Question

Thirty-five cents is what percent of $2.50?

Around 1499, which Italian navigator sailed to the West Indies, along the north coast of South America, and discovered the mouth of the Amazon river?

For what artistic reason were many males castrated in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries?

Answer 1

35 cents is 14% of $2.50

Amerigo Vespucci was the Italian navigator that sailed to the West Indies in 1499.

Males were castrated in the 17th and 18th centuries so that their voices would not change, and thus remain higher.

Answer 2

Divide .35 by 2.50  = .14       35 is 14% of 2.50

About 1499–1500, Amerigo Vespucci joined an expedition in the service of Spain, with Alonso de Ojeda (or Hojeda) as the fleet commander. The intention was to sail around the southern end of the African mainland into the Indian Ocean.[2] After hitting land at the coast of what is now Guyana, the two seem to have separated. Vespucci sailed southward, discovering the mouth of the Amazon River and reaching 6°S, before turning around and seeing Trinidad and the Orinoco River and returning to Spain by way of Hispaniola.

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Male soprano or alto voice produced as a result of castration before puberty. The castrato voice was introduced in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel in the 16th century, when women were still banned from church choirs as well as the stage. It reached its greatest prominence in 17th- and 18th-century opera. The illegal and inhumane practice of castration, largely practiced in Italy, could produce a treble voice of extraordinary power, attributable to the lung capacity and physical bulk of the adult male. The unique tone quality and the ability of intensively trained singers to execute virtuosic passagework made castrati (castrated males) the rage among opera audiences and contributed to the spread of Italian opera. Most male singers in 18th-century opera were castrati;

A male singer who has been castrated before puberty to preserve the soprano or contralto range of his voice; supported by a man's lungs, the voice was powerful, agile and penetrating. Castratos were used in the Roman Catholic Church for more than 300 years and occupied a dominant place in opera in the 17th and 18th centuries

But the most intriguing reasons for prepubertal castration was to be found in Italy, where from the end of the 16th century it was carried out to preserve the male unbroken voice into adult life. In an age when cruelty and barbaric punishments were common, its popularity was such that for a period during the 18th century the voice of the castrato dominated opera throughout most of western Europe.

Answer 3

i only know the first one, its 14%

Answer 4

Robert G is correct

Answer 5

1.14%

2.Amerigo Vespucci

3.so the guy can have the lung capacity and muscular strength of an adult male and the vocal range of a prepubescent boy.  then they can sing as a castrato

Answer 6

$.35 is 14% of $2.50

Amerigo Vespucci was the Italian navigator sailed to the West Indies, along the north coast of South America, and discovered the mouth of the Amazon river.

Many males castrated in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries so that they could sing better (with higher unchanged voices).  I've heard them called castrati, but I think this may just be the opera singers.

Answer 7

14%?

Christopher Columbus?

To keep their pre-puberty singing voices?

Answer 8

14%, Vespucci, and so they could sing higher notes for choir.

Answer 9

14 percent

Amerigo Vespucci

And they were castrated for their singing voices and were called Castratos.

Answer 10

14 %

Amerigo Vespucci

Opera.  In 17th Century Italy, women were prevented from performing opera, and sopranos were highly coveted. Castrated men, known as castrati, were very popular sopranos.