2. Question 1
According to determinism, if someone knows the precise location and
momentum of every atom in the universe, their past and future values for any
given time are entailed; they can be calculated from the laws of classical
mechanics. This was put forward by a very famous mathematician in 1814 and
has a “devilish” status among cosmologists? What am I talking about?
6. Question 3
In his recently released autobiography, this scientist mentions that the popular
portrayal of Fred Hoyle is wrong, and the answers given by him made sense
even to Hawking. The book is titled 'My life in four cities' when translated to
English. Who is this?
8. Question 4
Barren Island volcano in Andaman & Nicobar islands is the only known active
volcano in India and last activity was recorded in 2004. Because of that it was
thought to be linked with certain natural disaster which happened the same
year, which later turned out to be false. Which natural disaster?
10. Question 5
In physical cosmology, the paper, was created by Ralph Alpher, then a physics
PhD student, and his advisor George Gamow. The work, argued that the Big
Bang would create hydrogen, helium and heavier elements in the correct
proportions to explain their abundance in the early universe. Gamow
humorously decided to add the name of his friend, the eminent physicist to this
paper in order to create the whimsical author, a play on the Greek letters. Name
him and what the paper is known as.
14. Question 7
John Michael Keogh filed Australian Patent 2001100012 for "Circular
Transportation Facilitation Device". This was his way for pointing out flaw in
the patent system. For his jocular efforts he was awarded Ignobel in 2001. What
was the patent for?
16. Question 8
Jown Fewster and Benjamin Jesty had achieved the same result more than 20
years prior to the more widely credited discoverer. In 1796, he (the credited
discoverer) scraped off some pus from the blisters of a milkmaid, and infected
an 8 year old boy, James Phippes. Over time, testing showed that Phippes was
resistant to a certain disease. Who was the credited discoverer, and what disease
did he create a vaccine against?
20. Question 10
Phenyl Ethene (C6H5CH=CH2) is an oily liquid with a pleasant odour in
monomer form. When converted to a polymer, is a transparent thermoplastic
in its normal form. It is highly flowable above 100 degrees C, which makes it
possible to obtain detailed shapes. Worldwide production is estimated to be in
billions of kilograms. It degrades very slowly, and applications are generally
intended to be single use, causing it to be a significant pollutant. What polymer
is this?
22. Question 11
One month before their departure, three people had no misconceptions about the
danger of their journey. Being government employees, they were unable to purchase
life insurance (very expensive at the time). To provide for their families in case of
disaster, they signed many items and had them posted to their families on the day they
left. This way, if they did not return, the families could at least sell the autographs.
Luckily, they did not need the failsafe, and survived the trip (a first in that era). This act
became a tradition followed by all subsequent people who did a similar thing. The
insurance memorabilia was never needed, but it did get close for the group that
departed one journey later. Name (any) one of the original three men.
23. Answer
The Apollo 11 astronauts. Any of Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin or Michael
Collins will do. Apollo 13, of course, came close to disaster, but they eventually
returned safe.
24. Question 12
Similar to the 'Spinach contains a large amount of Iron' myth, there is another.
While the spinach myth was a result of a typo that changed the position of the
decimal point, this myth has a more intentional origin. It was spread by the
British during the Second World War, to hide the fact that they had a radar.
They attributed the ability to shoot down enemy aircraft at will to the excellent
eyesight of their anti-aircraft gunners, whereas it was actually radar doing all the
hard work. What myth?
26. Question 13
In the regular scientific context, a _______ splits light into its constituent
wavelengths. The word has been in media focus recently in a completely
unrelated context. What word?
28. Question 14
In January 2013, self-described 'eccentric millionaire' John ______ was wanted
in Belize, allegedly having murdered someone. A short global chase later, it also
turned out that he had been spying on government officials using infected
laptops and using women as honeytraps. According to a recent video
demonstrating 'How to uninstall _________ _________,' he has not had any
ties with the eponymous software in question for the past fifteen years. Who is
this man?
30. Question 15
This molecule absorbs visible light across the spectrum, except green (this
explains the green colour of the molecule). It is extremely vital, and has been
hypothesised to be an interstellar molecule. It works by converting non-green
light into energy by the process of resonant energy transfer. What (family of)
molecule(s)?
32. Question 16
It is commonly assumed that the name __________ is a reference to the
science fiction author X, as a nod to his contributions to the field of
robotics, but that is not the case. ___________ is an acronym that suggests the
capabilities of the machine. It is updated sporadically, and currently weighs 48
Kg, and is 130cm tall. It is capable of a human-like walk and can also run. It is
meant to be a personal assistant for physically handicapped people in the
future, but at the moment is a development prototype. What is the blank?
34. Question 17
The unofficial lunar land speed record is held by ___________, the last man to
walk the moon. At 18 Km/hr, there is nothing controversial about the record.
The reason that is it unofficial is that there were no impartial observers to
verify the speed. Who is this gentleman?
36. Question 18
The material is an alkali-aluminosilicate developed by Corning (glass
manufacturer). It is scratch and shatter resistant, and finds application chiefly as
protection for __________________. FITB.
40. Question 20
One explanation of the effect is that small pockets of vaccuum form in joints
and then collapse rapidly. It was suspected that this act causes athritis, a claim
that has now been proven wrong by various researchers. Particularly, in
2009, Dr. Donald Unger won the IgNobel prize for medicine, by virtue of
performing the act on his left hand, but not his right, for sixty years, and
showing no athritis or other ailments in his left hand. What is being described?
42. Question 21
PayZippy is a recently started online payment processing company based in
India. It aims to compete with existing providers such as BillDesk and offer a
universal online wallet that could be used on the parent company's website, or
on other websites, to make purchases. The parent company is one of the few
well known online shopping portals in India. What is the parent?
44. Question 22
It is one of the most popularly known species of this class of animal. It
possessed three horns on its head, though the use of the three horns is
debated. Some researchers believe that the horns were a defence mechanism
against predators, whereas others believe that the horns were primarily for
display and courtship. The species was rendered extinct by what is believed to
be a meteor impact in the Yucatan peninsula. What species?
46. Question 23
The theorem rather counter intuitively states that given a ball in 3D space, it is
possible to decompose the ball into pieces, such that the pieces can be
reassembled into two balls identical to the original ball. What theorem?
48. Question 24
____X____ _____Y______ (two words) is a canonical example of a zero sum
game, formulated in 1950. It suggests that the two participants, who have no
means of interacting with each other before they play, would prefer to not
cooperate even when cooperation is mutually beneficial. Recently, a study
conducted on two groups - X and students, showed that contrary to
perception, the group of X tended to cooperate more than the group of
students. What is XY?
50. Question 25
First incident - 21 Aug 1945. Casualty - Harry Daghlian. Second incident - 21
May 1946. Immediate casualty - Louis Slotin. Several others died many years
later as a consequence of this incident. The central entity in both incidents was
something called the 'Demon Core' (due to these accidents). The demon core
was finally consumed in the third of a series of operations, codenamed
Crossroads, in July 1946. The second pair was an act of military aggression, in
August 1945. The first was a test, like Crossroads. Name the first.
51. Answer
Trinity. Crossroads was the second test involving nuclear fission. the acts of
military aggression, of course, were Hiroshima and Nagasaki
52. Question 26
In the 1950s, there weren't many tech jobs in the area around Stanford University,
which was a hindrance to the university's attraction as a technical school. One of the
professors at Stanford knew William X, who was looking to start a semiconductor
business, and pitched the idea of starting his business in California. X's ailing mother
lived in California, and thus X was convinced about starting out with a small team in
Mountain View (current home of Google) in 1956. Less than two years later, eight of
the brightest engineers left to form Y Semiconductor, a company that would (in terms
of people who worked there) spawn many semiconductor giants, including Intel and
AMD, most of which were set up in the same area. It could be said the entire Silicon
Valley exists today because X Semiconductor was founded in Mountain View. Name X
and Y.
54. Question 27
The Department of __________ oversees X, Indian Institute of Remote
Sensing(IIRS), The Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), National Atmospheric
Research Laboratory (NARL), North-Eastern Space Applications Centre (NE-
SAC) and the Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL). Of all of these, X is perhaps
the most well known. What is it? (Blank not required)
56. Question 28
He originally debuted as a character named 'Jumpman' in 1981 as a carpenter.
When a later game was being developed around him, the creator tentatively
titled him 'Mr. Video'. Slightly later, employees of the parent company were
involved in a heated rent dispute with the landlord of their warehouse, an
Italian named, _______ Segale. Though the dispute was resolved, the company
is said to have named thie characted after that landlord. The character was not
expected to be a major success, but is now among the most well known such
characters in history. What is the blank?
58. Question 29
X gears is a system for picking speeds, though technically the system uses
sprockets and not gears. The word derives from a French word for a train
leaving the tracks. 1960s band Cream has an album that is named __________
gears, because one of the band members was talking of getting something with
X gears, which was misheard as ____________ gears, the last name of a
British PM. What is X? ( blank not required)
62. Question 31
We have all tried to solve the problem shown in image 1, but one
mathematician actually proved why it is unsolvable and invented a whole new
branch of mathematics called 'Graph Theory'. Solution of problem lies in the
solution of the problem 2 (shown in img 2), it is known as Seven Bridges of
Königsberg.Which mathematician?
64. Question 32
Connect:
P versus NP problem
Hodge conjecture
Riemann hypothesis
Yang–Mills existence and mass gap
Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness
Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture
66. Question 33
Why are following lines famous
• Krakatoa positively casts off fumes generating sulphurous vapours.
• Kings play cards on fairly good soft velvet.
• Kings play chess on fine grain sand.
68. Question 34
A mathematician related wavelength (denoted as λ), and momentum (denoted
as p) (where h is Planck‟s constant). Claiming that all matter, not
just light, has a wave-like nature. Who?
72. Question 36
Rules of the Internet is a list of protocols and conventions, originally written to serve as a guide for those
who identified themselves with the Internet group Anonymous. The list serves as a summation of popular
catchphrases and axioms commonly associated with a website. At the time of the archival, there were 18
rules in the entry, despite it mentioning that 48 existed.
e.g. 1) Do not talk about rule 2-33
34) There is porn of it. No exceptions
36) Anonymous does not forgive
37) There are no girls on the internet
which website?
74. Question 37
„-------- always increases‟ is the third law of thermodynamics. It literally means
disorder in an isolated system always increases, what is scientific term, FITB
76. Question 38
There are two books titled Principia Mathematica, one by Newton and the
other by Alfred Whitehead and a mathematician who won the Nobel prize for
literature. Who was the other writer?
78. Question 39
Canabelt, a 2009 video game single handedly invented the genre of games
which later spawned a wave clones. Most notable of them is the one made by
Imangi studios, which genre?
80. Question 40
What is the interaction of multiple elements in a system to produce an effect
different from or greater than the sum of their individual effects? The term
comes from the Greek word συνέργια or from συνεργός, meaning "working
together”.
82. Question 41
The new respiratory virus that emerged in the Middle East last year appears to
make people sicker faster than SARS, but doesn't seem to spread as easily.
Because of this threat lot of Indians have cancelled their trip to Haj. What is
this virus called ?
84. Question 42
It was clear that his discovery was an important one as it gave further proof of
the quantum nature of light. So, he was confident of winning the Nobel Prize
in Physics that year but was disappointed when the Nobel Prize went
to Richardson and to de Broglie in the next year. He was so confident of
winning the prize in the subsequent year that he booked tickets in July, even
though the awards were to be announced in November, and would scan each
day's newspaper for announcement of the prize, tossing it away if it did not
carry the news. Who?
