Mindspark '16 | Torquest | The Sci-Tech Quiz Finals

Answers to prelims
1 Torque
2 Lightsail
3 Femtophotography
4 Mobius
5 Pavlov Dog
6 Pluto’s heart shaped
region
7 Gravity
8 Programmer’s Day
9 Scramjet
10 Rajasaurus
11 a) Armstrong
b) Karmann
12 a) YInMn Blue
b) Vantablack
13 a) Spam
b)Bacn
14 a)Boltzmann
b)Joule
15 a)Boole (Boolean Logic)
b) Fuzzy Logic
16 Pinball
17 David Bowie
18 Gmail
19 Tower of Hanoi
20 Cholera is a water borne disease
21 Dr. Leonard McCoy from Star Trek

Rules
Quiz Master is not God. We don’t need that hypothesis
(brownie points if you get this reference)
Quiz Master’s decision is final and binding tho.

Rounds
1. The Scientist Mechanical Engineer
2. Questions of Science
3. Science in Progress
4. Do not speak as loud…as you did in the last two
rounds.
5. Nobody said it was easy, no one ever said it would be
so hard.

The Scientist Mechanical Engineer
Written warm up round.
General questions based on subjects in the QM’s
coursework this sem.
+5 for each, +10 if you get all right.

Q. 1
“Metals undergo linear expansion when heated. In the case
of structural beams, if the beam is bounded on both sides,
this expansion is prevented and thermal strain is generated.
If this strains exceed a certain limit, structural beams
bearing a load can buckle or sag, and ultimately collapse.
This is why it is important to make provisions for thermal
expansion in structural elements like columns of bridges,
etc.”
This theory of thermal strain and the resultant buckling
puts to rest which widespread conspiracy theory?

Q. 2
A paper was coated with Ammonium Ferric Citrate and
Potassium Ferricyanide and then used to reproduce
images from a tracing sheet. The result was a copy of
the original image with the clear background area
rendered dark and the image itself reproduced as a
white line, making it difficult to alter or add new
information to the document (this was particularly
important). Which commonly used word is derived
from this now obsolete technology?

Q. 3
Before the days of CAD, shipbuilders and aircraft
designers used a thin wood or metal strip to draw
smooth curves and transfer drawings. They key points
would be plotted and the strips would be held in place
by lead weights called "ducks" or "dogs" or "rats". What
were these strips called, something that is still retained
in CAD software like AUTOCAD?

Q. 4
Depending on which law of thermodynamics is being
violated, these “machines” are of 2 types. There exists
a 3rd type too, but it has nothing to do with the 3rd
law.
ID these machines, the only type for which the US
patent office refuses to grant a patent without a
working model.

Q. 5
The _______ is a gear mechanism that translates a
continuous rotation into an intermittent rotary motion.
It gets its name from the fact that its earliest
application was in mechanical watches, and that
Switzerland was an important center in watch making.
While it was earlier used for applications like movie
projectors, nowadays it is used in tool changers in CNC
machine, the turrets of turret lathes, screw machines,
and turret drills. FITB.

Q. 6
The ______ effect is a term coined in 1993, used to describe the
dramatic reduction in size observed in populations of a taxa which has
survived a major extinction event, attributable to a variety of
environmental factors.
For example, great size reductions are observed in
Triassic Moschorhinus, as compared to their Permian forerunners.
Histological evidence shows that Permian and
Triassic Moschorhinus skeletons grew at different rates early in life,
largely believed to be an effect of the harsher environmental variability
of the early Triassic.
FITB.

Q. 7
Pictured here is X, who
introduced a novel series
expansion for a function in
response to Joseph Louis
Lagrange's use of infinite series.
The coefficients in X’s new series
form the Xian,
a determinant Thomas
Muir named in 1882.
ID X

“Jet Fuel doesn’t melt steel beams” : Strength
Of Materials

Perpetual Motion Machines : Engineering
Thermodynamics

Geneva : Manufacturing Engineering

Lilliput Effect : Applied Biology

Wronski : Ordinary Differential Equations &
Multivariate Calculus

Questions of Science
IR, Clockwise
+10 on Direct
+10/-10 on Pounce

Q.1
Winamp is a media player developed for Windows,
Android and OS X by Nullsoft.It supports extensibility
with plug-ins and skins,which users could publish on
winamp.com. Winamp1,2 and 3 were followed by
Winamp 5.Nullsoft joked that they skipped Winamp 4
because " no one wants to see a ....". So,what was the
joke?

“Nobody wants to see a Winamp 4 skin”

Q. 2
_______ ____ are metal enclosures formed by conductive
materials or a mesh of such materials. This 19th century
invention, named after its inventor, is used to block electric
fields. It works on the basic principle that electric field inside a
conductor is zero. This device was in the news recently because
a bar owner in Britain turned his entire bar into a _______ ____
using copper wire mesh and tin foil, to block cellphone signals
so that people would ditch their mobiles and have real
conversations instead. FITB

Q. 3
Chicago Pile-1 was the world's first nuclear reactor.
Built by Enrico Fermi and his team in the University of
Chicago, it was a "massive atomic pile" of graphite
bricks and uranium fuel, which went critical on 2nd
December,1942. Soviet reports claimed that Fermi built
his reactor in a "pumpkin field", due to a
mistranslation. Where exactly in the campus did Fermi
build the reactor, which led to the mistranslation?

Q. 4
These organisms are considered to be anomalies that are damn near
indestructible – they can desiccate into glass and bounce back to life, endure
the greatest temperature extremes and even survive in vacuum. A team of
scientists in Japan have recently sequenced their genomes and identified a
protein that acts as an in-built radiation shield for DNA. They have also
showed that when incorporated into human cells, this protein can reduce
damage to human DNA from X-Rays by an impressive 40% - this could be
very useful when humans venture further into space.
ID this organism.

Q.5
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were using a large horn antenna in 1964
and 1965 to map signals from the Milky Way, But when they began to
employ it, they encountered a persistent "noise" of microwaves that came
from every direction. They thought the static was some kind of interference,
so they turned the antenna away from Ney York City – it didn’t work. Next,
they thought it was bird droppings, so they killed a bunch of stubborn
pigeons – that didn’t work either. The duo then learned that physicist Robert
Dicke had predicted that if the Big Bang had occurred, there would be low
level radiation found throughout the universe. This made them realize what
they discovered.
What serendipitous discovery did the duo then make, which won them the
Nobel Prize in Physics?

Cosmological Microwave Background.

Q.6
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a drug designed to
help people with X. Practical tests conducted in 2015
have shown that people who took the drug found it
beneficial. Scientists studied 650 people who took the
drug over a 32-month period. USA, France, Australia,
Israel, Canada, Kenya, and South Africa have approved
PrEP. (Image shown)

Q.7
The city X stretched across both banks of the river Pregel, and it included
two islands in the middle of the river. Seven bridges connected these
islands and the rest of X, and for years, people wondered if they could
walk across all seven bridges without crossing any of them more than
once. Euler proved that this was impossible and thus laid the foundation
of graph theory. “The Seven Bridges of X” is now a historically notable
problem in Mathematics.
This problem now forms the basis of a new smartphone app launched by
Google which lets you plan your vacations and sightseeing trips through
the world’s biggest cities.
ID X and name the Google app.

Q.8
X is alpha Scorpii, meaning it's the brightest start in the
constellation Scorpius. X gets its name from the fact
that ancient astronomers often mistook it for Mars due
its reddish colour, so its name which stems from Greek
literally means "rival of Mars" or "not Mars". ID X which
lends its name to the lunar module of Apollo 14 and a
class of rockets designed by Orbital Sciences
Corporation.

Q.9
The biologist Pier Antonio Micheli was also a
priest and in 1729 he named a genus ______,
because when viewed under a microscope, it
reminded him of a holy water sprinkler used in
churches( shown in image). The name of this
sprinkler is derived from "spargere" which means
“ to sprinkle”. FITB

Science in Progress
Reverse IR
+10 on Direct
+10/-10 on Pounce

Q.10
The ________ shipwreck – which was originally discovered by sponge divers
in 1900 – is the largest ancient shipwreck ever found. Archaeologists have
recently discovered a 2,100 year old skeleton at the mysterious shipwreck.
This shipwreck is known because in 1901,the ________ mechanism was
also recovered from it. It is a clockwork device that might have been used
to predict astronomical events and is widely referred to as the world’s first
analogue computer. Researchers have dated the device to around 100 or
150 BC, which means that – after it sank – similar technology didn’t pop
up around the world until at least the 14th century AD, which makes the
device all the more fascinating.FITB.

Q.11
 1) Indian mathematicians knew it as "Meru prastara".They also knew a
formula to calculate binomial coeffiecients, close to what we have today.
 2)The Persian mathematician Omar Khayyam (of Rubaiyat fame)
discussed it in his works, hence it is known as Khayyam's <deleted> in
Iran.Several theorems including the binomial theorem were known to the
Persians.
 3)The Chinese knew it as Yang Hui's <deleted>
 4) In Italy, it is known as Tartaglia's <deleted>, named after the
mathematician who published his notes on it.
 By what popular name do we know it?

Q.12
The _______ effect is an optical illusion in which a
spoked wheel appears to rotate differently from its true
rotation.The effect is most often seen in film or
television depictions of stagecoaches or wagons in
Western movies, although recordings of any regularly
spoked wheel will show it, such as helicopter rotors and
aircraft propellers. A movie camera typically operates at
24 frames per second, giving rise to the effect seen in
the gif. FITB

Q.13
 Description for a type of adware : The environment for the threat to work
is an area of non-encrypted wireless connection, such as a wireless
internet cafe or other WiFi hotspots. The adware would trick a laptop to
recognize it as the wireless provider and inserts itself into the route of the
wireless connection between the computer and the actual provider. After
that the adware may insert various advertisements into the data stream to
appear on the computer during the browsing session. The adware gets its
name from the fact that it may run from an infested computer whose
owner would not see any manifestations, yet will affect neighboring
ones.This is a reference to a certain Mary Mallon. ID the adware

Typhoid Adware, named after Typhoid Mary

Q.13
Researchers have been trying to make microfluidic networks that mimic the
three-dimensional capillary system in the human body in a cell-friendly
fashion. Generally, it’s not that difficult to make two-dimensional networks,
but adding the third dimension is much harder. To tackle this problem,
Vanderbilt Researcher Leon Bellan purchased a generic $40 machine at his
local Target, something that we've all seen. the way this machine works is
that it heats pellets in a central chamber and then uses centrifugal force to
extrude the material through pores, thereby giving very fine thread like
structures. These structures are comparable in size and shape to capillaries,
and that is what inspired Leon to come up with such a simple solution. Which
generic machine did he use?

Q.14
La _________ Version Androide is a bizarre yet
innovative stage adaptation of a 1915 novel which uses
a robot as the protagonist. The fact that the plot does
not require movement or complex facial expressions
makes it ideal for a robot adaptation. Name the author
and the novel.(Image Follows.)

Q.15
This phenomenon typically appears as two subtly
colored patches of light to the left and right of the Sun,
approximately 22° distant and at the same elevation
above the horizon as the Sun.It is created by light
interacting with ice crystals in the atmosphere.While
the origin of the term remains obscure, some say it has
been derived from the word dag which means dew.ID

Q.16
The following are some of the members of the _________ taxon :
1)Chacoan Peccary - Thought be extinct, they were known only from fossils before being
rediscovered in 1975
2)Coelacanth - Thought to have gone extinct 66 million years ago, live specimens were found
in 1938.
3)Laotian rock rat - Thought to have gone extinct 11 million years ago, live specimens were
found in 1996
4)Mountain Pygmy Possum - Were known only from fossil record, were rediscovered in 1966
Which biblical figure lends his name to the taxon and fills the blank? Why?

Lazarus, because these species were “raised from the dead”

Q.17
The _____ taxon is a taxon that has been misidentified
as having re-emerged in the fossil record after a period
of presumed extinction, but is not actually a
descendant of the original taxon, instead having
developed a similar morphology by convergent
evolution. Simply put, it is a look alike that has
supplanted an extinct taxon.FITB.

Elvis, because of all the Elvis impersonators

Q.18
“X” is a criticism of slide-based presentations referring
to a state of boredom and fatigue induced by
information overload during conferences and seminars.
X is easily recognized by observing the audience
members' glazed eyes, furtive use of smartphones and
trips to the bathroom.

Death by Powerpoint
We hope you’re not feeling the effects now.

Audience Q
X is a genus of rhizostome jellyfish with only one
known species, X rieki, found off the central eastern
coast of Australia. The genus name, X, has two cultural
references: first, as a colloquialism meaning "fooled
you!" as the small size means the species was probably
mistaken as a juvenile of other species; second, the
term X is also given to a seven-string harp, and the
straight radial canals of this new species are
reminiscent of such strings. What is X?

Do not speak as loud as…you did in the
last two rounds.
Written, all teams choose their pick.
+10 for your pick
+5 for someone else’s pick.
+10 if you get all correct.

Music
A cultivar is a plant or grouping of plants selected for
desirable characteristics that can be maintained
by propagation. The _______ potato is
a cultivar of potato developed by a company called
Naturally Best, based in Lincolnshire, England. Lab studies
have shown Vivaldi to be lower in calories and
carbohydrates than many other popular potato varieties,
hence it is known as ‘weight watcher’s potato’. The name
was chosen as a reference to _______ since, as the
potatoes are grown both in the UK and overseas, they are
available throughout the year.

Entertainment
This scientist turned film director was part of a team that created a
technology that produced the world’s smallest camera. Now it is
used from cell-phone cameras to movie cameras (such as those
used by RED) to those in space telescopes.
He used this same technology to shoot a critically acclaimed Indian
movie, Chittagong,which won him the National Film Award for Best
First Film of a Director in 2012.
Name the person.

Literature
This day relenting God
Hath placed within my hand
A wondrous thing; and God
Be praised. At His command,
Seeking His secret deeds
With tears and toiling breath,
I find thy cunning seeds,
O million-murdering Death.
I know this little thing
A myriad men will save.
O Death, where is thy sting?
Thy victory, O Grave?
This is a poem describing
a Nobel Prize winning
discovery , which could be
made thanks to a patient
named Hussein Khan,
who was paid 8 annas for
his service.
Who is the poet?

Art
After a series of amicable arguments about art vs. science with his artist-
friend Jirayr “Jerry” Zorthian, X started drawing. Eventually, the two agreed
that they’d exchange lessons in art and science on alternate Sundays. X went
on to draw everything from portraits of other prominent physicists and his
children to sketches of strippers and very, very many female nudes — until
the end of his life. The origin of the pseudonym “Ofey” was explained as :
“My friend Dudley Wright suggested ‘Au Fait,’ which means ‘It is done’ in
French. I spelled it O-f-e-y, which turned out to be a name the blacks used
for ‘whitey.’ But after all, I was whitey, so it was all right.”
ID X, who is known for a different kind of “art” in his field.

India
Many Indians conflate this festival with the Winter Solstice and believe that the
sun ends its southward journey and starts moving north on this day.
Scientifically, currently in the Northern Hemisphere, winter solstice occurs
between 21 and 22 December. Day light will begin to increase on 22 December
and on this day, the Sun will begin its northward journey. Therefore, those who
relate this festival with the solstice are off by about a month. The reason for this
is that the date of winter solstice changes gradually due to the Axial precession
of the Earth, coming earlier by approximately 1 day in every 70 years. Hence, if
this festival at some point of time did mark the day after the actual date of
winter solstice, the date on which we currently celebrate this festival would
correspond to around 300CE, the heyday of Indian mathematics and astronomy.
Which festival?

History
X is considered to be the father of chemical warfare for his work in weaponizing
chlorine and other gases during World War I. He was on hand personally at
the Battle of Ypres when Chlorine gas was first used against the Allies. Seeing
his actions in Ypres, his wife, who was a pacifist, committed suicide. He won
the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for inventing a method used for the
industrial production of Ammonia.
Y was an English physicist, who justified from physical laws the previously
empirical and chemical concept of the atomic number. He primarily worked
with X-ray spectra, and has a law named after him in that field. He was killed
in action in Gallipoli during WWI.
ID X & Y

Sports
Plagued by multiple cheating scandals over the
years, Tour De France has another set of random
tests lined up for its 2016 edition. These tests use
thermal imaging and magnetic resonance
imaging to nab participants doing what?

Nobody said it was easy,no one ever said
it would be so hard…
“You know it or you don’t” questions.
Differential Scoring
(7-n)*5, n = number of teams who get it right.

Answers
 Music – Vivaldi
 Entertainment – Bedabrata Pain
 Literature – Ronald Ross
 Art – Richard Feynman
 India – Makar Sankranti
 History – X : Fritz Haber, Y – Henry Moseley
 Sports – Hidden motors in cycles

Q. 1
The ________ effect is when two
nearby cyclonic vortices orbit each other and close the
distance between the circulations of their
corresponding low-pressure areas. It was in the news
last month because of the interaction of Hurricane
Lester and Hurricane Madeline off the coast of Hawaii.
As a result of this effect, Hurricane Madeline dodged
Hawaii and its 1.4 million residents. FITB.

Q. 2
Elon Musk explains this concept of a limit as follows :
“Whenever you have a capsule or pod moving at high speed through a tube
containing air, there is a minimum tube to pod area ratio below which you will
choke the flow. What this means is that if the walls of the tube and the capsule
are too close together, the capsule will behave like a syringe and eventually be
forced to push the entire column of air in the system. Not good.”
The Hyperloop team overcame this limit by placing a compressor on the nose
of the pod which transfers high pressure air from the front to the rear.
What is this limit called?

Q. 3
_________ radiation is electromagnetic
radiation emitted when a charged particle (such as
an electron) passes through a dielectric medium at
a speed greater than the phase velocity of light in that
medium. The characteristic blue glow of an
underwater nuclear reactor is due to _______
radiation, and it is this blue glow that led Jawharlal
Nehru to name India’s first nuclear reactor as Apsara
FITB

Q. 4
The ____ effect occurs when a
strongly hydrophobic essential oil such as trans-anethole is
dissolved in a water-miscible solvent, such as ethanol, and
the concentration of ethanol is lowered by addition of
small amounts of water. It is responsible for the cloudiness
observed in water on addition of Dettol, Phenyl or anise
flavoured drinks like pastis,raki, arak, sambuka and
absinthe. It gets its name from another anise flavoured
alcoholic beverage which shows this effect. FITB.

Q. 5
The X was the first widespread animation device that
created a fluent illusion of motion. The X is regarded as
one of the first forms of moving media entertainment
that paved the way for the future motion picture and
film industry. It can be compared to a GIF animation as
it has a short duration and plays as a loop until the
viewer stops it. ID X.

Q. 6
________ figures are branching electric
discharges that sometimes appear on the surface or in
the interior of insulating materials. These figures are
often associated with the progressive deterioration of
high voltage components and equipment. While
lightning itself is a naturally-occurring 3-dimensional
________ figure, such figures may also appear on
lightning strike victims. FITB.

Q. 7
The cloud formation (shown) is created due to a fluid dynamics
phenomenon involving shearing between two fluids of different
velocities ( in this case, wind and water). It is a phenomenon
observed on Jupiter's Red spot, Saturn's oceans etc.
The instability that causes this phenomenon is named after
two 19th century physicists both associated with the field of
Thermodynamics(one German, One British).
Which phenomenon are we talking about?

Mindspark '16 | Torquest | The Sci-Tech Quiz Finals

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Mindspark '16 | Torquest | The Sci-Tech Quiz Finals