Physics Quiz

RULES
1. Each team gets +10 points for each correct answer on their
respective question, unless stated otherwise.
2. There is NO negative points for direct questions and pass.
3. Pass can only be provided to those who have not pounced.
4. For pass question, +10 will be awarded for correct answer.
5. The team which pounces gets +20 points for correct answer
and (-10) for a wrong answer.
6. In case of any DISCREPANCY, consult Shakul Pathak.
Otherwise, for heaven’s sake, DON’T disturb.

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS
• There are 6 questions during the quiz, meant exclusively for the
audience.
• Apart from these, any question not answered by any of the 6
teams, will pass on to the audience.
• While answering these questions, people in the audience are
expected to raise their hands ; and to NOT shout out their
answer.
• Correct Answers will be rewarded.

IDENTIFY THIS FAMOUS PHYSICIST.
1.

INITIAL BLUEPRINT FOR WHAT?
2.

THE FIRST PLANE BY THE WRIGHT
BROTHERS!

It results from emissions of photons in the Earth's upper
atmosphere, above 80 km from ionized nitrogen atoms regaining
an electron, and oxygen and nitrogen atoms returning from an
excited state to ground state. They are ionized and the excitation
energy is lost by the emission of a photon of light, or by collision
with another atom or molecule.
What are we talking about?
3.

This machine uses a powerful magnetic field to align the
magnetization of some atoms in the body, and radio
frequency fields to systematically alter the alignment of
this magnetization. This causes the nuclei to produce a
rotating magnetic field detectable by the scanner—and
this information is recorded to construct an image of the
scanned area of the body.
4.

MRI – MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

This consists of a gain medium inside a highly reflective optical cavity, as
well as a means to supply energy to the gain medium. In its simplest
form, a cavity consists of two mirrors arranged such that light bounces
back and forth, each time passing through the gain medium.
Light of a specific wavelength that passes through the gain medium is
amplified ; the surrounding mirrors ensure that most of the light makes
many passes through the gain medium, being amplified repeatedly.
What is being explained here?
5.

Forget LED light bulbs.
Scientists have created the world's thinnest light
bulb using a wonder material, in a layer just one
atom thick. The wonder material is famous for
being stronger than steel and more conductive
than copper.
Name the material.
6.

Jack Cover spent most of his career as a nuclear physicist who
worked in aerospace and defense, including playing a
significant role in supplying parts for NASA‟s Apollo project.
In 1970 he diverted his research to finding a weapon that
could incapacitate assailants without killing them. He
received a patent for his design in 1974, and by 1980 Cover
had sold the Los Angeles Police Department on using his new
gadget to help apprehend violent suspects.
He named it after an invention by a Tom Swift, a legendary
fictional inventor that inspired Jack.
What gadget?
1.

TASER
Acronym for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”.

WHAT, IN THE WORLD OF PHYSICS, IS THE
‘GNAB GIB’?
2.

REVERSE OF THE BIG BANG IS ‘GNAB GIB’
The metric expansion of space eventually reverses and
the universe collapses, ultimately ending as a black hole
singularity.

Decades before India made a name for itself in the field of
education, the tiny princely state of Travancore aimed it high in
higher education and The University of Travancore, now Kerala
University, came into existence on November 1, 1937. It made an
unsuccessful bid to enlist services of X as Vice Chancellor of its
fledgling university for a monthly pay of Rs 6000.
X politely declined the invitation saying he wanted to join
Princeton University in America.
Who was X ?
1.

2.
In the 1970s, X also directed two projects, Project Devil and Project Valiant, which
sought to develop ballistic missiles from the technology of the successful SLV
programme.
While X was working on a senior class project, the Dean was dissatisfied with his lack of
progress and threatened to revoke his scholarship unless the project was finished within
the next three days. X met the deadline, impressing the Dean, who later said to him, "I
was putting you under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline“. He narrowly
missed achieving his dream of becoming a fighter pilot, as he placed ninth in qualifiers,
and only eight positions were available in his country’s air force.
In 1998, along with cardiologist Soma Raju, X developed a low cost coronary stent,
named the “X-Raju Stent”. In 2012, the duo designed a rugged tablet computer for
health care in rural areas, which was named the “X-Raju Tablet".
Who’s X?

X was an Italian nuclear scientist born in 1901 in Rome.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in 1938.
X was, along with Dr. Oppenheiner part of the team that
created the first nuclear bomb, Little Boy.
The hundredth element in the Periodic Table is named after
him.
Identify X.
3.

In addition to his work in theoretical physics, X has been credited
with pioneering the field of quantum computing, and introducing
the concept of nanotechnology and assisted in the development of
the atomic bomb.
He developed a widely used pictorial representation scheme for the
mathematical expressions governing the behaviour of subatomic
particles, which later became known as X diagrams.
X also became known through his semi-autobiographical books
(Surely You're Joking, Mr. X! and What Do You Care What Other
People Think?)
4.

X was a young physicist who had a theory explaining what
happens to stars when their nuclear fuel runs out. His calculations
showed that if a star was large enough it literally collapsed into
‘nothing’ of huge mass and gravitational pull, or simply, a black
hole.
Sir Arthur Edington vehemently disagreed with X and ridiculed
him at a meeting at the Royal Astronomical Society. He said X's
ideas were "stellar buffoonery". Edington thought stars ended
their lives as lumps of metal called white dwarves.
Identify X.
5.

Identify the
person.
He is standing next to his
greatest work.
6.

EDWIN HUBBLE AND THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

He is one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society
in 1888.
Both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing his life's
work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment
with hearing devices which eventually culminated in his greatest
invention. In retrospect, he considered his most famous invention an
intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have it in his
study.
Who is ‘he’?
1.

To test which theory were the following tests proposed
in 1916 ?
1. the perihelion precession of Mercury's orbit
2. the deflection of light by the Sun
3. the gravitational redshift of light.
1.

Six types of flavours of what :
• Up
• Down
• Top
• Bottom
• Strange
• Charm
2.

Identify the
phenomenon
involved.
3.

This class of particle derives its name from the Greek
word for intermediate, because its predicted mass
was between that of the electron and proton.
4.

Two paintings by Van Gogh. What scientific phenomenon, called
by Feynman as, “the most important unsolved problem of
classical physics” are these supposed to depict?
5.

The Annus Mirabilis papers are the 4 papers of Albert
Einstein published in the Annalen der Physik scientific
journal in 1905.
These four articles contributed substantially to the
foundation of modern physics. Three of them were on
Brownian Motion, Relativity and Matter-Energy
equivalence. The fourth one is what won him the Nobel
Prize in Physics.
What was the subject of the fourth paper?
6.

WHICH FAMOUS EXPERIMENT IN THE FIELD OF
QUANTUM MECHANICS IS DEPICTED?
1.

‘Since I was aware that there exists an infinite number of points on
the orbit and accordingly an infinite number of distances the idea
occurred to me that the sum of these distances is contained in the
area of the orbit. For, I remembered that in the same manner
Archimedes too divided the area of a circle into an infinite number
of triangles’.
Who said these words while he was describing a law formulated by
him?
2.

The current members of the Committee are:
• Ingemar Lundström, chairman
• Lars Brink
• Börje Johansson
• Björn Jonson
• Anne L'Huillier
Which prestigious committee?
2.

NOBEL COMMITTEE FOR THE
PHYSICS PRIZE

EXPERIMENT DEMONSTRATING THE
DIAMAGNETIC NATURE OF WATER

A few physical attributes particularly suit X:
• His long, thin torso offers low drag.
• His arms span 6 feet 7 inches (201 cm)—disproportionate to his height
of 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm)—and act as long, propulsive "paddles“.
• His relatively short legs lower drag, and add the speed enhancement of
a hydrofoil.
• His size 14 feet provide the effect of flippers.
• His hypermobile ankles can extend beyond the pointe of a ballet dancer,
enabling him to whip his feet.
1.

A piece of wood, gifted by Royal Society, was taken
to the International Space Station in May 2010 and
was returned safely; which created headlines
(might not be of many newspapers, but of many
science magazines).
What was all this about?
(snapshot in the next slide)
2.

Physics Quiz

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