QUEST-ion: the Open Sci-Tech Quiz held under Celesta 2023: the annual Techno-Management Fest of IIT Patna was held on 22nd January 2023.

2. ● 20 questions in the quiz.
● Point distribution for each question will be
mentioned.
● Questions 11 to 15 are star marked and will be used
for resolving ties.
● Please fill in your answers in the G-Form only.
● No Googling. It would lead to disqualification.
● Happy Quizzing!

3. An homage to what
from the past and the
present?
Bigger image follows.
Q1

6. ● These headphones (from a Seattle-based design company) have a cage-like
framework on either side made of a combination of stiff and flexible
materials that are arranged at precise angles. This design achieves strength
and a good deal of flexibility by balancing compression and stress.
● “Conventional headphones use a series of pivots and slides to locate the
ear relative to the head. Executed in plastic and metal, these pivots
squeak and rattle as they struggle to accommodate listeners. In contrast to
this noisy intrusion, (these headphones) leverages the unique properties of
__________ to offer silent, organic motion.”
What and who inspired the design for these headphones? Image follows
Q2

7. Q2

9. ● The word ________ is a corruption of the Anglo-Norman French pé de grue
or "crane's foot", either because the typical lines and split lines resemble
the thin leg and foot of a crane or because such a mark was used to denote
succession in ________ charts. FITB
● The above diagrams are helpful in biology, one such “imperial” example
involves names like Alexei, Leopold, Victoria and others. What? (1+1)
Q3

11. In this painting (1963) the painter focused on the religious subject of the
Resurrection in order to present both his interest in modern science and his
awareness of the events of the time. He often spoke of the connection between
spirals and life in the early 1950’s!
Identify the painter and what was he paying an homage to?
Image follows.
Q4

12. Q4

14. ● This <redacted> was not a magic trick, but a testament to innovations in material
science more than two decades in the making. The man behind the creation is Manel
Torres, who in 2003 created this substance which recently “materialised” in front of
a large audience, named X, presumably a portmanteau of the phrase “______(6, the
output) in a ___(3, instrument of application)”.
● His inspiration was Silly string and spiderwebs. His idea was to elevate the coarse
cords of the silly string into a finer ______(6) that could be dispersed through a mist.
Torres explained in a 2013 Ted Talk that when this material comes in contact with
air, it turns into a solid material that’s stretchy and feels like suede.
● Id X and where recently have we seen this glamorous material?
Q5

16. ● In his new book Black Holes, astronomer Dr. Ed Bloomer explains in simple
terms precisely how black holes are formed, what's inside them - and what
would happen if you were ever unlucky enough to fall into one. In this
special extract, Ed describes the curious process of _______.
● It is a tidal effect caused by strong gravitational fields. When falling
towards a black hole, an object is stretched in the direction of the black
hole and compressed perpendicular to it as it falls, i.e., stretched vertically
and compressed horizontally.
● Identify the process being talked about.
Q6

18. ● The following image shows a medal given to over 600,000 people ranging from
military, firemen, journalists and civilians for their immense bravery and
contribution to the country.
● The centre of the medal depicts the danger they exposed themselves to and
symbolizes how hundreds of thousands of people’s lives were deflected off
course due it’s influence.
● The text on the medal recognizes their participation in the process and makes
them eligible for several social benefits due to their veteran status.
Who were these people? Image follows.
Q7

19. Q7

21. ● Following the events of April 2018, the protestors found an unusual way to
protest.
● What were they protesting, something which became popular after the 2013
Snowden Leaks?
Video Follows.
Q8

22. Q8

24. ● The descendants of Noah decided to build X to commemorate their success as a
civilization. X would “reach the heavens” and make them on par with God.
● To punish their vanity, God cursed them all to start speaking different
languages hence X was never finished. The problem presented above also
translates very well to our lives.
● Inspired by this Y was created and although it was in a different setting, it had
a galactical impact by breaking every form of language barrier that there could
ever exist. It was described by its creator as “probably the oddest thing in the
universe.”
ID X and Y.
Q9

26. Name the other Indian (aside from Ramanujan) who is credited with establishing
an organisation noted for its research during the famines and for serving as
Nehru's right-hand man for national planning.
Video follows.
Q10

27. Q10

29. ● During this period, the once-innocuous areas between Cape May, N.J., Cape
Cod, M.A., and the Gulf Ports became hot spots for smuggling. To evade the
Coast Guard, bootleggers developed all kinds of gadgets for transporting their
wares. Dummy smokestacks would hide ______ on otherwise legitimate vessels.
Speedboats would tug strings of _______-filled tanks into secret coves. What
were these smugglers called or what and why were they smuggling?
● The smugglers weren’t the only ones with tricks up their sleeves. Many
government agents used a portable ______ machine to detect the smuggled
items disguised as bales of hay. What machine found its new use here?
Image follows.
Q11
*

30. Q11*

31. Q11*

33. ● After The Beatles' trademark infringement lawsuit was resolved in the early
1980s, X engaged in another legal dispute against Y.
● The project manager at X wanted to name the project after his preferred
variety of Canadian fruit, which caused this issue.
● Y, a manufacturer of audio equipment, rose to fame in the 1970s thanks to
the Wall of Sound concert sound system, which featured 48 of its amplifiers.
● Y consented to X's use of the name so long as they added a letter.
Thus, what was created?
Q12*

35. ● Pomanders are globular in shape and opens up into eight segments. Cinnamon, pepper,
turpentine and roast copper are a few of the things that were filled in these chambers.
● People carried pomander as it was believed that widespread diseases were caused by
“miasma” or bad air from rotting organic material and pomanders were supposed to ward
off the “bad air.”
● A certain profession carried pomanders everywhere with them but some unavoidable
circumstances in those times forced these people to change their costumes and make the
pomander hands-free.
● They decided to incorporate the ingredients into their new costume in a way that it could
perhaps serve its purpose even better.
Where did they put the ingredients. Image follows.
Q13*

36. Q13*

38. "Cheot-Garak" are primarily made of metal, and unlike other types, they have a
flatter, squarer shape. These metal variation originated during the Baekje
Period (18 B.C.- 660 A.D.) when the royal family started using those made of
silver. It is thought that commoners embraced steel versions after the king. It
performed a “vital” function for the Royalty in addition to being a tool of their
wealth.
What sort of items are they?
What was the function of the silver variation despite silver being a good
conductor of heat?
Q14*

40. ● In order to find a traitor within his company Elon Musk decided to send the same
mail to all of his employees with slight variations in the spacing between the
sentences. When the mail was leaked, they were supposed to be able to find out
who the traitor was.
● Unfortunately, his general counsel also forwarded Elon’s own version of the mail to
all the employees giving them a safe copy to leak.
● The above method of catching the culprit guilty of leaking sensitive information is
known as X. It was coined by Tom Clancy in his novels and has been used several
times by men of all stature in pop culture.
ID X and how did Elon plan on catching the culprit.
Q15*

42. ● This originates from the fact that earlier, a certain process was carried out
in a public setting so that students and other interested parties could watch
it being done. The purpose was to provide live, practical knowledge to
students and also to advertise the event in the newspaper and other keen
participants.
● Sometimes the number of people willing to pay to witness this was so huge
that the event had to be postponed until a bigger venue is arranged.
● What are we talking about which is a misnomer for present days.
Image follows.
Q16

43. Q16

45. ● The Mould in ________'s Coat was no accident. The three collaborators and
the pathologist Sanders had __________ spores rubbed into clothing so that,
if in “the war” the laboratory were destroyed or three of them killed, or if
the country were invaded, the research could start again elsewhere.
● What are we talking about here?
Image Follows
Q17

46. Q17

48. ● This “visual enhancement” started to become a regular feature in the late 80s,
where F1 teams would run their cars as low to the ground as possible to maximise
downforce. Some drivers tried to use these to their advantage to blind the driver
behind them.
● After the incident in 1994, the FIA ordered the introduction of planks (image
follows), whose mounting material had previously been Kevlar but was changed to X
in 2015.
● Although it was believed that this was being done to better the performance and
reinstate the "visual enhancement," it was actually done because of how light and
safe the metal was.
ID X and the visual enhancement being talked about. Image follows.
Q18

49. Q18

51. ● The study of how fluids with complex viscosities flow under stress is known as
rheology. It employs a rheometer, which sandwiches a fluid between two plates
and spins it to determine its strength.
● Studies have found that its nearly impossible to split X evenly in half and no
matter how fast they spun the “fluid” inside X always ended up adhering to one
side. The faster they spun the harder it was to break the inner “fluid”.
● Scientists discovered that there was no true trick to it, and everything you try
will mostly result in a clean break. They were a bit disappointed that there was
no secret twist to it.
ID X
Q19

53. ● This Google-sponsored project started in 2009 as an optimization branch of
CPython, the widely used Python language implementation.
● The goal was to increase the language's programme compilation speed and
effectiveness by a factor of 5 compared to the current CPython
implementation.
● The project was formally abandoned in 2011, and although it had some
success, it fell short of its claimed objectives to increase speed.
● What was this project called, in tribute to a more life defining question
involving speed?
Q20

54. Submit your G-Form in 1 minute

55. ANSWERS

56. An homage to what
from the past and the
present?
Bigger image follows.
Q1

58. A1

59. ● These headphones (from a Seattle-based design company) have a cage-like
framework on either side made of a combination of stiff and flexible
materials that are arranged at precise angles. This design achieves strength
and a good deal of flexibility by balancing compression and stress.
● “Conventional headphones use a series of pivots and slides to locate the
ear relative to the head. Executed in plastic and metal, these pivots
squeak and rattle as they struggle to accommodate listeners. In contrast to
this noisy intrusion, (these headphones) leverages the unique properties of
__________ to offer silent, organic motion.”
What and who inspired the design for these headphones? Image follows
Q2

60. Q2

61. Tensegrity and Buckminster Fuller
A2

62. ● The word ________ is a corruption of the Anglo-Norman French pé de grue
or "crane's foot", either because the typical lines and split lines resemble
the thin leg and foot of a crane or because such a mark was used to denote
succession in ________ charts. FITB
● The above diagrams are helpful in biology, one such “imperial” example
involves names like Alexei, Leopold, Victoria and others. What? (1+1)
Q3

63. Pedigree Charts, Haemophilia in European Royal Families
A3

64. In this painting (1963) the painter focused on the religious subject of the
Resurrection in order to present both his interest in modern science and his
awareness of the events of the time. He often spoke of the connection between
spirals and life in the early 1950’s!
Identify the painter and what was he paying an homage to? Image follows.
Q4

65. Q4

66. Salvador Dali
Homage to Watson
and Crick for Double
Helix Structure of DNA
A4

67. ● This <redacted> was not a magic trick, but a testament to innovations in material
science more than two decades in the making. The man behind the creation is Manel
Torres, who in 2003 created this substance which recently “materialised” in front of
a large audience, named X, presumably a portmanteau of the phrase “______(6, the
output) in a ___(3, instrument of application)”.
● His inspiration was Silly string and spiderwebs. His idea was to elevate the coarse
cords of the silly string into a finer ______(6) that could be dispersed through a mist.
Torres explained in a 2013 Ted Talk that when this material comes in contact with
air, it turns into a solid material that’s stretchy and feels like suede.
● Id X and where recently have we seen this glamorous material?
Q5

68. FabriCan
Bella Hadid’s spray-on dress
A5

69. ● In his new book Black Holes, astronomer Dr. Ed Bloomer explains in simple
terms precisely how black holes are formed, what's inside them - and what
would happen if you were ever unlucky enough to fall into one. In this
special extract, Ed describes the curious process of _______.
● It is a tidal effect caused by strong gravitational fields. When falling
towards a black hole, an object is stretched in the direction of the black
hole and compressed perpendicular to it as it falls, i.e., stretched vertically
and compressed horizontally.
● Identify the process being talked about.
Q6

70. Spaghettification
A6

71. ● The following image shows a medal given to over 600,000 people ranging from
military, firemen, journalists and civilians for their immense bravery and
contribution to the country.
● The centre of the medal depicts the danger they exposed themselves to and
symbolizes how hundreds of thousands of people’s lives were deflected off
course due it’s influence.
● The text on the medal recognizes their participation in the process and makes
them eligible for several social benefits due to their veteran status.
Who were these people? Image follows.
Q7

72. Q7

73. Liquidators/ People who helped in cleaning up in the chernobyl aftermath
Text: “participant in liquidation of the Chernobyl accident consequences”
A7

74. ● Following the events of April 2018, the protestors found an unusual way to
protest.
● What were they protesting, something which became popular after the 2013
Snowden Leaks?
Video Follows.
Q8

75. Q8

76. Telegram ban in Russia
A8

77. ● The descendants of Noah decided to build X to commemorate their success as a
civilization. X would “reach the heavens” and make them on par with God.
● To punish their vanity, God cursed them all to start speaking different
languages hence X was never finished. The problem presented above also
translates very well to our lives.
● Inspired by this Y was created and although it was in a different setting, it had
a galactical impact by breaking every form of language barrier that there could
ever exist. It was described by its creator as “probably the oddest thing in the
universe.”
ID X and Y.
Q9

78. X- Tower of Babel
Y- Babel Fish
Adam Douglas’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy
A9

79. Name the other Indian (aside from Ramanujan) who is credited with establishing
an organisation noted for its research during the famines and for serving as
Nehru's right-hand man for national planning.
Video follows.
Q10

80. Q10

81. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
(founded the Indian Statistical
Institute in Kolkata)
A1
0

82. ● During this period, the once-innocuous areas between Cape May, N.J., Cape
Cod, M.A., and the Gulf Ports became hot spots for smuggling. To evade the
Coast Guard, bootleggers developed all kinds of gadgets for transporting their
wares. Dummy smokestacks would hide ______ on otherwise legitimate vessels.
Speedboats would tug strings of _______-filled tanks into secret coves. What
were these smugglers called or what and why were they smuggling?
● The smugglers weren’t the only ones with tricks up their sleeves. Many
government agents used a portable ______ machine to detect the smuggled
items disguised as bales of hay. What machine found its new use here?
Image follows.
Q11*

83. Q11*

84. Q11*

85. Rum Runners of USA during Prohibition
X-Ray Machines
A11

86. ● After The Beatles' trademark infringement lawsuit was resolved in the early
1980s, X engaged in another legal dispute against Y.
● The project manager at X wanted to name the project after his preferred
variety of Canadian fruit, which caused this issue.
● Y, a manufacturer of audio equipment, rose to fame in the 1970s thanks to
the Wall of Sound concert sound system, which featured 48 of its amplifiers.
● Y consented to X's use of the name so long as they added a letter.
Thus, what was created?
Q12*

87. Macintosh
Mcintosh allowed Apple to use the name with an extra ‘a’
A12

88. ● Pomanders are globular in shape and opens up into eight segments. Cinnamon, pepper,
turpentine and roast copper are a few of the things that were filled in these chambers.
● People carried pomander as it was believed that widespread diseases were caused by
“miasma” or bad air from rotting organic material and pomanders were supposed to ward
off the “bad air.”
● A certain profession carried pomanders everywhere with them but some unavoidable
circumstances in those times forced these people to change their costumes and make the
pomander hands-free.
● They decided to incorporate the ingredients into their new costume in a way that it could
perhaps serve its purpose even better.
Where did they put the ingredients. Image follows.
Q13*

89. Q13*

90. Inside Plague Doctor’s beak
A13

91. "Cheot-Garak" are primarily made of metal, and unlike other types, they have a
flatter, squarer shape. These metal variation originated during the Baekje
Period (18 B.C.- 660 A.D.) when the royal family started using those made of
silver. It is thought that commoners embraced steel versions after the king. It
performed a “vital” function for the Royalty in addition to being a tool of their
wealth.
What sort of items are they?
What was the function of the silver variation despite silver being a good
conductor of heat?
Q14*

92. Silver chopsticks were used as a way of protecting themselves from being
poisoned by their enemies, as the silver would change color when in contact
with poisonous chemical like Arsenic.
A1
4

93. ● In order to find a traitor within his company Elon Musk decided to send the same
mail to all of his employees with slight variations in the spacing between the
sentences. When the mail was leaked, they were supposed to be able to find out
who the traitor was.
● Unfortunately, his general counsel also forwarded Elon’s own version of the mail to
all the employees giving them a safe copy to leak.
● The above method of catching the culprit guilty of leaking sensitive information is
known as X. It was coined by Tom Clancy in his novels and has been used several
times by men of all stature in pop culture.
ID X and how did Elon plan on catching the culprit.
Q15*

94. X- Canary Trap
The spacing between the
sentences was binary
encoded. Hence each
employee got assigned an
unique number and when
leaked would be caught.
A15

95. ● This originates from the fact that earlier, a certain process was carried out
in a public setting so that students and other interested parties could watch
it being done. The purpose was to provide live, practical knowledge to
students and also to advertise the event in the newspaper and other keen
participants.
● Sometimes the number of people willing to pay to witness this was so huge
that the event had to be postponed until a bigger venue is arranged.
● What are we talking about which is a misnomer for present days.
Image follows.
Q16

96. Q16

97. Operation Theatre
A16

98. ● The Mould in ________'s Coat was no accident. The three collaborators and
the pathologist Sanders had __________ spores rubbed into clothing so that,
if in “the war” the laboratory were destroyed or three of them killed, or if
the country were invaded, the research could start again elsewhere.
● What are we talking about here? Image Follows
Q17

99. Q17

100. A17

101. ● This “visual enhancement” started to become a regular feature in the late 80s,
where F1 teams would run their cars as low to the ground as possible to maximise
downforce. Some drivers tried to use these to their advantage to blind the driver
behind them.
● After the incident in 1994, the FIA ordered the introduction of planks (image
follows), whose mounting material had previously been Kevlar but was changed to X
in 2015.
● Although it was believed that this was being done to better the performance and
reinstate the "visual enhancement," it was actually done because of how light and
safe the metal was.
ID X and the visual enhancement being talked about. Image follows.
Q18

102. Q18

103. Titanium
Sparks in F1 cars
A18

104. ● The study of how fluids with complex viscosities flow under stress is known as
rheology. It employs a rheometer, which sandwiches a fluid between two plates
and spins it to determine its strength.
● Studies have found that its nearly impossible to split X evenly in half and no
matter how fast they spun the “fluid” inside X always ended up adhering to one
side. The faster they spun the harder it was to break the inner “fluid”.
● Scientists discovered that there was no true trick to it, and everything you try
will mostly result in a clean break. They were a bit disappointed that there was
no secret twist to it.
ID X
Q19

105. X- Oreo
A19

106. ● This Google-sponsored project started in 2009 as an optimization branch of
CPython, the widely used Python language implementation.
● The goal was to increase the language's programme compilation speed and
effectiveness by a factor of 5 compared to the current CPython
implementation.
● The project was formally abandoned in 2011, and although it had some
success, it fell short of its claimed objectives to increase speed.
● What was this project called, in tribute to a more life defining question
involving speed?
Q20

107. Unladden Swallow
A20