The SciTech

Science Quiz
By Siddhartha Srivastava
And Avijit Kalra
Rules of the Quiz
● Scoring is standard. +20/-10 on the Pounce, +10/0 on the
bounce.
● Part points will not be given on Pounce. You need to give
the full answer on Pounce.
● As is Nihilanth Tradition, there shall be no Tech. Anyone
wishing to console Garg may find him in D2 Wing, Hall 12.

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It’s all natural 1
Feynman was famous for playing jokes on
colleagues. In one case he found the combination
to a locked filing cabinet by trying the numbers he
thought a physicist would use (it proved to be 27–
18–28).

What is the significance of this combination?

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Answer 1
e = 2.71828...

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Space Truckin’ 2
“Contact Lost” composed by Deep Purple, was
inspired by the loss of X. Y, a member of the X,
was a fan of Deep Purple and had traded emails
with them prior to the loss.

Name X and Y.

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Answer 2
X - Space Shuttle Columbia

Y - Kalpana Chawla

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Right Time and Place 3
The first person to (technically) have an element
named after did not contribute much to its discovery.
He merely granted Gustav Rose to access mineral
samples from the Urals. Rose, then named a mineral
discovered there after him. The element was then
discovered in the mineral, and named after the
mineral and thus, indirectly, named after him.
Which Element?
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Answer 3
Samarium

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That Orange Thing 4
Carob seeds have been used throughout history to
measure _______, because it was believed that there
was little variance in their mass distribution. However,
this was a factual inaccuracy, as their mass varies
about as much as seeds of other species

What is the result of this in the modern world?

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Answer 4
Carats

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That Wiley creature 5
Around 1637, X wrote the following in his copy of the
Arithmetica next to Diophantus’ sum-of-squares problem:
“Cubum autem in duos cubos, aut quadratoquadratum in
duos quadratoquadratos & generaliter nullam in infinitum
ultra quadratum potestatem in duos eiusdem nominis fas
est dividere cuius rei demonstrationem mirabilem sane
detexi. Hanc marginis exiguitas non caperet.”
Give me X, and what he wrote (exact translation not
needed.)
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Answer 5
“It is impossible to separate a cube into two cubes, or
a fourth power into two fourth powers, or in general,
any power higher than the second, into two like
powers. I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of
this, which this margin is too narrow to contain.”

X is Fermat.

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The Tragic Heroes 6
A large wooden cross was erected
on the slopes of Observation Hill,
overlooking Hut Point, inscribed
with the five names of the dead
and a quotation from Tennyson's
Ulysses: "To strive, to seek, to find,
and not to yield".

For whom was it erected?

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Answer 6
The Terra Nova Expedition,
which reached the South
pole 34 days after
Amundsen, and died on the
way back.

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Blue’s Clues 7
X is an extra-spectral color, meaning that it is not
found in the visible spectrum of light. Rather, it is
physiologically and psychologically perceived as the
mixture of ____ and _______, with the absence of
_____.
This has caused people to claim that X is not a colour.

What am I talking about?

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Answer 7
Magenta/Purple

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A Traitor in our midst 8
On 17 December 1931 X called a meeting with Pramatha
Nath Banerji (Minto Professor of Economics), Nikhil
Ranjan Sen (Khaira Professor of Applied Mathematics)
and Sir R. N. Mukherji. Together they established the Y.
Y was initially in the Physics Department of the
Presidency College; its expenditure in the first year was
Rs. 238.
Give me X and Y.

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Answer 8
X - P. C. Mahalanobis

Y - Indian Statistical Institute.

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Recursion
There are many variations on this legend. For instance, in some
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tellings the temple is a monastery, and the priests are monks. The
temple or monastery may be said to be in different parts of the
world and may be associated with any religion. In some versions
other elements are introduced, such as the fact that the X was
created at the beginning of the world, or that the priests or monks
may make only one move per day.

What legend am I talking about?

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Answer 9
Brahma’s Tower or the Tower
of Hanoi

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Schoolyard Fun
10
Robert Axelrod in his book The Evolution of Cooperation,reports
on a tournament he organized of the N step prisoner's dilemma
(with N fixed) in which participants have to choose their mutual
strategy again and again, and have memory of their previous
encounters.
The winning strategy was simply to cooperate on the first
iteration of the game; after that, the player does what his or her
opponent did on the previous move.
What is this strategy known as?

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Answer
10
Tit for Tat

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Inverting stuff
11
There have been several technical applications for the X. Giant Xs
have been used as conveyor belts that last longer because the
entire surface area of the belt gets the same amount of wear, and
as continuous-loop recording tapes (to double the playing time).
Xs are common in the manufacture of fabric computer printer
and typewriter ribbons, as they let the ribbon be twice as wide as
the print head while using both halves evenly.

What is X?

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Answer
11
Möbius strip

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Pretty Surprising
12
The whiteness of the ____ comes from the way that light travels
through it. The ____ is a foam made up of loads of bubbles
crammed in close together, and each individual bubble is a
pocket of gas surrounded by a thin wall of ____. Light traveling
through the foam passes through a large succession of bubble
walls and is scattered, reflected and refracted in an equally large
succession of different directions. The light that exits the foam
and enters your eyes is therefore a mix of all different
wavelengths of light and appears white rather than brown.
What phenomena is this trying to explain?
25
Answer
12
Why the head of beer is
white, even though the liquid
itself is amber or brown

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For the Ignorant
13
The award ceremony contains a number of running jokes,
including Miss Sweetie Poo, a little girl who repeatedly cries out,
"Please stop: I'm bored", in a high-pitched voice if speakers go on
too long. The ceremony is traditionally closed with the words: "If
you didn't win a prize—and especially if you did—better luck next
year!"

Which Awards Ceremony?

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Answer
13
The Ig Nobel Prize

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Essential Stuff
14
The reason that the set of ________ skips directly from E to K is
that the _______ corresponding to letters F–J were either
reclassified over time, discarded as false leads, or renamed
because of their relationship to _______ _, which became a
complex of _________.
There appears to be no consensus on any ________Q, R, T, V, W,
X, Y or Z, nor are there substances officially designated as
________ N or I.
What am I talking about? All the blanks are the same.

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Answer
14
Vitamins

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Alternative Facts
15
In 1997, Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student at Eagle Rock
Junior High School in Idaho Falls, Idaho, gathered 43 votes to ban
a chemical, out of 50 ninth-graders surveyed. Zohner received
the first prize at Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair for analysis of
the results of his survey. In recognition of his experiment,
journalist James K. Glassman coined the term "Zohnerism" to
refer to "the use of a true fact to lead a scientifically and
mathematically ignorant public to a false conclusion".
What ”chemical” did he get banned? How did he get it banned?

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Answer
15
''Dihydrogen Monoxide: The Unrecognized Killer''

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It’s all a hoax
16
The _____ _____Treaty represents the basic legal framework of
international _____ law. Among its principles, it bars states party
to the treaty from placing weapons of mass destruction in __ ___
_____, installing them on the ____ or any other _________ ____ or
otherwise stationing them in _____ _____. It exclusively limits the
use of the ____ and other _________ _______ to peaceful
purposes and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of
any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military
bases, installations, and fortifications.
What is it about?
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Answer
16
The Outer Space Treaty

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Die on the T
17
Brave New World is a dystopian novel written in 1931 by English
author Aldous Huxley, and published in 1932. Set in London in the
year AD 2540.

In it, people live in the “AF” era with their calendar beginning in AD
1908.

What is AF, and why AD 1908?

35
Answer
17
Anno Ford

The year in which Ford's first Model T rolled off his assembly line.

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Rolls off your tongue
18
X is a village on the Swedish island of Resarö, in Vaxholm
Municipality in the Stockholm archipelago.
The name of the village means "outer village".
This Village holds a specific record with respect to the periodic
table. What is X?

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Answer
18
Ytterby.

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Shakespearean Tragedy 19
In 1955, John Todd and Kenneth Dewhurst published a paper
detailing the so-called "X syndrome." This Shakespearean
moniker referred to "a dangerous form of psychosis … [whose]
central theme consists in a delusional belief in infidelity of the
spouse." If you’ve read the story, you’d know that X murders his
wife because he irrationally believed she’d had an affair. Some
studies suggest this affliction is most common among older
men with a neurological disorder, rather than a psychiatric one.
It can lead people to kill their partners or, at the very least,
subject them to lie detector tests. ID X.

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 19
Answer
Othello Syndrome

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Get off your High horse 20
In 1898, the Bayer pharmaceutical company began an
aggressive marketing campaign to sell its commercial
preparation of X. That was the name they gave to their
formulation of ,or the product of boiling m for
several hours. X was heavily promoted as being non-addicting,
and therefore an excellent treatment for m addiction.
Bronchitis, tuberculosis and other cough-inducing illnesses
were also treated with X. In 1906, the American Medical
Association approved X for general use, and recommended
that it be used in place of m . Give me X.

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 20
Answer
Heroin

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Late to the Party 21
X was the third nation after the United States and the USSR to
build and launch a satellite from its own rocket range. But after
the Weapons Research Establishment Satellite (WRESAT) took
to the skies on 29 November 1967, the country’s space efforts
dwindled. X’s last microsatellite—launched from a Japanese
facility—died in 2007. Along with Iceland, X was one of only
two Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development nations without a space agency.
But that’s about to change. The government of X announced at
the 68th International Astronautical Congress, which was held
in X itself, that it will establish a national space agency. ID X.

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 21
Answer
Australia

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No Rocket Science 22
Jack Cover used to work as a nuclear physicist in NASA.
However, in 1970, he started diverting funds for his research
towards a weapon that would incapacitate assailants instead of
killing them.He named it after an invention by Tom Swift,a
fictional character that inspired him. What weapon? (Tom
Swift’s book on next slide)

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22

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 22
Answer
Taser (Tom [A] Swift's Electric Rifle)

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Changing Sides 23
Apollo program director Sam Phillips was quoted as saying
that he did not think that the United States would have
reached the Moon as quickly as it did without X's help. Later,
after discussing it with colleagues, he amended this to say that
he did not believe the United States would have reached the
Moon at all.X also has a crater on the moon named after him. X
also developed the first missile which exceeded the speed of
sound. Known for developing the rocket programs of not one,
but two rival superpowers (not the USSR) of their respective
times, who is X?

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Answer 23
Werhner von Braun,led the V2 rocket project for the Germans
in WW2

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Rare Indeed 24
The first person found to have the X phenotype had an
interesting blood type that reacted to other blood types in a
way never seen before. The serum contained antibodies that
reacted with all red blood cells' normal ABO phenotypes. The
red blood cells appeared to lack all of the ABO blood group
antigens and to have an additional antigen that was previously
unknown.This very rare phenotype is generally present in
about 0.0004% (about 4 per million) of the human population,
though in some places such as _________ (formerly X) locals
can have occurrences in as much as 0.01% (1 in 10,000) of
inhabitants. Name X.

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Answer 24
Bombay

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 25
A defining feature of life in outer space is X. The first known
use of “X” is from Jack Binder (better known for his work as an
artist) in 1938, and actually refers to the state of the
center of the Earth’s core. Arthur C. Clarke gave us “Y” in his
1952 novel Islands in the Sky. Give either X or Y. (Y is a
shortened form of X)

52
Answer
25
Zero-gravity or Zero-g

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Two minutes is all I need 26
X is used in the food industry as a flavor enhancer with an
umami taste that intensifies the meaty, savory flavor of food.
soups. As a flavor enhancer it balances, blends, and rounds the
perception of other tastes.A popular belief is that large doses
of X can cause headaches and other feelings of discomfort,
known as "Chinese restaurant syndrome," but double-blind tests
fail to find evidence of such a reaction. In 2015, X was the cause
of a major controversy in India. What is X?

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Answer
27
Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG)

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 28
A piece of wood, gifted by the Royal Society, was flown to the
International space station in 2010 and then returned back to
earth. This created quite a buzz at the time. What was this all
about?

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28

57
Answer
Newton’s Apple Tree
28

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Mr. Telephone Man 29
What did the controversial and symbolic bill related to
Anthony Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell, passed by the US
House of Representatives, in House Resolution 269, on 11th
June 2002 do?

59
 29
Answer
It recognized Anthony Meucci as the original inventor of the
telephone instead of Graham Bell.

60
Say Cheese
30
It is defined as the aesthetic effect of a soft out of focus
background when you shoot a subject, using fast lens, at the
widest aperture. The term comes from the Japanese word
_________, which means "blur" or "haze", or _________, the "blur
quality". What term?

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Answer 30
Bokeh Effect

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At the World’s End 31
“We knew the world would not be the same. A few people
laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I
remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-
Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do
his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form
and says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I
suppose we all thought that, one way or another. “ Who about
what?

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 31
Answer
Robert Oppenheimer on the Atomic Bombing of Japan

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 32
Google doodle for what?

65
 32
Answer
John Venn’s 180th birthday

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Don’t be evil 33
This figure gives the basic principle
of which algorithm?Who is it
named after?

67
 33
Answer
Page Rank algorithm used by Google search, named after
Larry Page.

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Relatable 34
The precession of the perihelion of Mercury, the bending of
light in gravitational fields, and the gravitational redshift are
tests for which theory?

69
 34
Answer
General Relativity

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“ Quotations are commonly
printed as a means of
inspiration and to invoke
philosophical thoughts from the
reader.

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Credits
Special thanks to all the people who made and
released these awesome resources for free:
● Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
● Photographs by Unsplash

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