Quiz Sci tech Rendezvous 2018 prelims with answers

Sci-Tech Quiz
Rendezvous 2018
PRELIMS
Jyotesh Singh

Q1
This scientist is famous for
being the first person to have
an element named after him
while he was still alive. He was
so honoured due to his
discovery/co-discovery of 10
elements. In 1998, journalists
noted that he was the first
person who could receive a
letter addressed solely in
elements: ______, _________
(his lab), ________, __________,
_________. FITB. (0.5 for 3, full
points for all 5)
SCI-TECH QUIZ | JYOTESH SINGH

A1
Seaborgium, Lawrencium, Berkelium, Californium,
Americium
(Glenn Seaborg)

Q2
The US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) that
oversees the United States nuclear weapons
released one of its contingency plan, (CONPLAN
8888) in 2011. In that scenario, the plan calls for
the use of Nuclear weapons against a particular
perceived threat. The threat in question was
classified as being of “pathogenic”, “radiation”,
“space”, “evil magic”, “weaponized”, “symbiont-
induced”, “vegetarian” or “chicken” types. It also
concluded that USSTRATCOM forces did not have
enough contingency stores to support 30 days of
barricaded counter-[threat] operations. What
threat was this a contingency plan against?

A2
Zombies

Q3
Apocryphally, this company was started when its
co-founder was fined $40 for failing to return a
product he had rented from what would become his
companies future rival.
He and his partner then tested sending out their
product via the US postal mail service, and upon
discovering that it reached intact, they started the
company in 1997.
As technology improved, the company moved into
becoming the fully online behemoth it is today.
Which company?

A3
Netflix

Q4* (Larger image on next slide)
Nuclear fission inevitably produces two lighter
“daughter” products. The mass percent of these
products when plotted logarithmically produced
typical plots such as the one below. What colloquial
terms were these plots known by? HINT: The names
used might confirm stereotypes about nuclear
engineers. (Any one of 2 acceptable PROPER NOUN
answers will do. Part points for a generic
explanation)

A4
Mae West or Dolly Parton curves

Q5
The IgNobel-winning paper “Spontaneous ________
of an Agitated String” (2014) was about tumbling
strings of different stiffness and length in a box.
The complexity of the result was directly
proportional to the length.
The experiments were the simulation of an
annoying modern problem - caused by confinement
and external movement. Keeping something neatly
wasn’t always going to prevent it from ________.
What did this paper explain?

A5
Why do earphone cords get entangled?

Q6
When a certain ground-breaking claim was made
earlier this year, MIT physicist Brian Skinner tried to
investigate. He discovered to his surprise that the
preliminary data was noise-free at higher
temperatures but noisy before.
This was unusual and became even more worrying
when he discovered noise-patterns for different
observation sets were identical.
What claim or in news item did this render rather
susceptible to claims of negligence or outright
fraud?

A6
IISc (Thapa and Pandey) high temperature
superconductivity claims

Q7
One of the calculations for what are obtained using
the following equations:
𝑇 𝛼 =
1
15
cos−1
− sin 𝛼 − sin 𝐿 ∗ si𝑛(𝐷)
cos 𝐿 ∗ cos(𝐷)
Where α =0.833 and in the current geographical
context L would be 28.7O and D would be -3.33O
(note: generic answer will do).
Hint: This equation is used in combination with
mid-day and one other formula to get a set of 5
values

A7
Salat/Salah/Namaaz times (in Delhi)

Q8*
Mathematical biologist Robert Fisher proposed his
Fisherian runaway hypothesis to explain why certain
males adopt exaggerated ornamentation. He
claims that initially the ornamentation signalled a
higher genetic fitness and hence was selected for.
Subsequently, preference for this signalling led to a
positive feedback loop whereupon more and more
exaggerated cases were selected for until it
becomes a burden and yet is seen in successful
species.
What feature that we have commonly seen is
touted as the most obvious example of such
runaway selection?

A8
Peacock tails

Q9
Science fiction author Larry Niven wrote an essay on the
mechanics of reproduction for a certain individual and a
woman nicknamed LL.
“Within her body there are millions of frustrated ________
sperm. […] They leave curved channels, microscopically
small. Presently all will have found their way to the open air.…
Peritonitis is inevitable. LL becomes desperately ill.
Meanwhile, millions of sperm swarm in the air […]
[…] Wormholes, charred by meteoric heat, sprout magically in
all kinds of things: plate glass, masonry, antique ceramics,
electric mixers, wood, household pets, and citizens. Some of
the sperm will crack lightspeed […] night comes alive with a
network of narrow, eerie blue lines of Cherenkov radiation.
And women whom <individual> has never met find themselves
in a delicate condition.”
Which scary individual?

A9
Superman

Q10 (Larger Image Next)
This image shows a particularly special screwdriver
being tested. It was integrated with the clear
coverplate plate attached to the worksite in question
to ensure that over 111 individual screws can be
quickly removed and stowed in a special 2009
operation. What 2009 operation or where was this
tool (based on a commercial DeWalt cordless screw
driver) used?

A10
Hubble Service Mission in 2009

Q11
Id the singer of this cover of
the Galaxy song from Monty
Python.
(lyrics: not really useful)
Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-
o-o-ough,
Just remember that you're standing on a
planet that's evolving
And revolving at 900 miles an hour.
It's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's
reckoned,
The sun that is the source of all our power.
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the
stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at 40, 000 miles an
hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion
stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to
side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-
years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-
years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from
Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million
years;
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of
billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
Our universe itself keeps on expanding and
expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you
know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the
fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small
and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life
somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

A11
Stephen Hawking

Q12*
This list of 75 elements are essential for what
ubiquitous item?

A12
Smartphones

Q13 (Larger Image Next)
RMIT University recently unveiled a new typeface
called Sans Forgetica. The font has a lot of
disconnects and discontinuities running through
individual letters. According to the researchers, this
was because “The 'desirable difficulty' you
experience when reading information formatted in
Sans Forgetica prompts your brain to engage in
deeper processing."
What is the stated goal for this typeface, something
that would be extremely useful to all the attendees
here?

A13
To aid in memory retention

Q14
This widely used mathematical symbol is so named
because it resembles a harp. The name, hence, is
the Greek word for a Phoenician harp. Most
famously seen in vector calculus, what symbol that,
when used as an operator, is known for performing
gradient, divergence or curl operations?

A14
Nabla (half points for del)
ᐁ

Q15
The earliest known appearance of the phrase is
from The Michigan School Moderator, a journal that
provided teachers with education-related news and
suggestions for lessons. In an article titled
"Interesting Notes" in the March 14, 1885 issue, the
phrase is given as a suggestion for writing practice.
It has been used to test typewriters and computer
keyboards. Owing to its brevity and coherence, it
has become widely known. What phrase?

A15
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

Q16*
Like other energy-intensive industries such as
smelting aluminium, this one is also more efficiently
done at scale, and in places where electricity is
reliable and cheap. It also helps to be somewhere
cold, one “plant” in Boden, Sweden is located next
to a hydroelectric dam close to the Arctic Circle.
Other viable locations include Inner Mongolia where
electricity is cheap thanks to over-investment in
power plants, abundant coal, and lax environmental
rules.
Which “industry”?

A16
Bitcoin mining

Q17

A17
Sociologists

Q18
This famous “theorem” or equation is famously
called beautiful because it combines 5 fundamental
mathematical constants. Indeed, after proving
______ during a lecture, Benjamin Peirce, a noted
American 19th-century philosopher, mathematician,
and professor at Harvard University, stated that "it
is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it,
and we don't know what it means, but we have
proved it, and therefore we know it must be the
truth." What am I talking about?

A18
Euler’s theorem

Q19
Scientists using data from the Health app installed
on users’ iPhones discovered that in 2016, after a
certain event, number of steps taken by the users
went up by 955 steps per day.
However, in a sobering realization of people’s
sedentary lifestyles, this moderate increase went
back down to the baseline number within six weeks,
proving to be temporary as people got bored
and/or lazy.
What 2016 event caused this shift?

A19
Pokemon GO

Q20*
A study done in December 2015 concluded that the
actual visits made by a certain person to paediatric
wards had no correlation with school absenteeism
or conviction rates.
Instead, socio-economic factors were the best
correlated between such visits, with hospitals in
richer areas of the UK getting more visits.
Given this persons supposed omniscience on
behaviour, such favouritism can only indicate a
need for corporate rebranding. What person/what
myth associated with the person?

A20

Quiz Sci tech Rendezvous 2018 prelims with answers

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