THE SCI-TECH QUIZ

IIT GUWAHATI QUIZ FEST

Quizmaster

Nikhil.NPrelims

Rules1. There are 21 questions in the prelims.

2. Each question carries +1/0.

3. Starred questions shall act as tiebreakers.

4. Quizmaster’s decision is final.

5. The Quizmaster believes that Mathematics is a science!

*Q1.Identify XOne story about the origin of X goes like this-

In 1992, a Welsh hamlet was used as a testing ground for a pill to fight angina. Unfortunately for the afflicted, it had little success against the disease. Though it didn't work, it had an amazing side effect.The Scientists at Pfizer then changed track and decided to market this as X, which is used for a totally different purpose.

Viagra / Sildenaphil

Q2. Id X & YEnvironmental historians have remarked that X has had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history.

This infamous Pennsylvanian chemist created Tetra Ethyl Lead that was used to eliminate ‘knocking’ in petrol engines but which caused innumerable deaths through lead poisoning.

In the late 1920s he also helped develop some of the first Y whose side effects we feel till date.

Later in his life , he contracted poliomyelitis, which left him severely disabled. This led him to devise an elaborate system of strings and pulleys to help others lift him from bed. This system was the eventual cause of his own death when he was entangled in the ropes of this device and died of strangulation.

Thomas Midgley, Jr

*Q3. FITB(all blanks are the same)

___________ strongly believed in causal determinism, which is expressed in the following quotation from the introduction to the Essai philosophique sur les probabilités:

“We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.”

This intellect is often referred to as ____________demon.

Laplace’s demon

Q4.Who was the scientist?In 2012, a mountain rescue worker and his neighbor discovered a diplomatic mailbag from Mont Blanc. This was established to have come from the remains of a Boeing 707 that crashed into the mountain in 1966. the mail was handed over to the Indian embassy in Paris.

The most notable passenger onboard this flight was an Indian Scientist , whose life was cut down at the age of 56. Who?

Homi J Bhabha

Q5. What is all the equipment for?

Motion Capture Technology

Q6. What does the tweet mean?Google's first ever Tweet in February 2009 read: "I'm 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010.“

I’m Feeling Lucky

Q7. This is an artist’s impression of________

Penrose Triangle

*Q8. Which country?Because of its top level domain name, this country has earned the notoriety for being associated with the most number of phishing sites on the internet.

.cm / Cameroon

When X’s documents came up for sale in February 2011, it was feared they would end up in some Silicon Valley company’s hand where he is bit of an icon. A British Journalist raised funds to buy the papers. Google’s staff joined in because they believed the author’s work was close to their heart. The papers were eventually purchased jointly by Google and National Heritage memorial fund.

*Q9. NAME THE AUTHOR X & WHERE THEY ARE ON DISPLAY.

Alan Turing & Bletchley Park

Q10. This is the OST of a famous Science fiction TV series. Identify the TV series.(This TV series is often said to have served as an inspiration for kids to study science)

Q11.This is an inspiration for which Engineering marvel?

Burj Khalifa

Q12.This poster is a funny take on which scientific experiment/theory/principle?

*Q13. Identify X,Y&Z.The sound system used at Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Sistine Chapel in Rome and the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca (non exhaustive) is made by the company Y.

Y makes Z that have been lauded for their performance. Z has been used in the Space Shuttle to help prevent anacusis.

Y was founded by X who was in the news recently. X believed that traditional measures of audio equipment are not relevant to perceived audio quality and therefore does not publish the specifications for Y products, claiming that the ultimate test is the listener's perception of audio quality according to the listener's preferences.

Y: BOSEX:Amar BoseZ:Noise cancelling headphones

Q14.What does this 2010 doodle Commemorate?

Pi day 2010

Q15. Identify the device.

Q16. Connect & Identify X.

Fields Medal 2014 winners.X = Manjul Bhargava

*Q17. Identify the picture.

Fundamental prize in Physics

Q18.Identify X & Y.1) X is an integral character in the Command & Conquer: Red Alert series, being responsible in Red Alert for altering the course of history using a time traveling device he created to remove Adolf Hitler from existence in an attempt to prevent the horrors of World War II, inadvertently leading to Soviet Union's rise to power and conflict with Europe.2) The X refrigerator is an absorption refrigerator which has no moving parts, operates at constant pressure, and requires only a heat source to operate. It was jointly invented in 1926 by X and his former student Leó Szilárd and patented in the US. This is an alternative design from the original invention of 1922.The refrigerator was not immediately put into commercial production, the most promising of their patents being quickly bought up by the Swedish company Y to avoid competition to its refrigerators.

X: EinsteinY: Electrolux

Q19.Identify X and FITB

The character X lives a double life as a member of an all-animal espionage organization referred to as The OWCA ("Organization Without a Cool Acronym").

It was made a ____ because of the animal's striking appearance and the lack of public knowledge of the animal, which allowed the writers to make things up about the species. Critical reception for the character from both professionals and fans have been considerably positive. Many environmentalists also rated this TV series highly for spreading awareness among people about the existence of such an animal.

Perry the Platypus

*Q20. Identify X&Y.JLA: Age of Wonder (2003) is a two-issue mini-series from DC Comics' Elseworlds line, in which Superman lands in Kansas in the 1850s and emerges on the world stage at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. He teams up with X but ends up working with Y, who eventually deploys a death ray during World War I.

In real life, Y claimed to have created a death Ray although it could never be verified because he died before he revealed it.

X: EdisonY: Tesla

*Q21. Identify X.

X was a Polish mathematician. He was known for outstanding contributions to set theory(research on the axiom of choice and the continuum hypothesis), number theory, theory of functions and topology.

This is XKCD’s tribute to X.

X: Sierpinski/Sierpinski Triangle