THE SCI-TECH QUIZ
IIT GUWAHATI QUIZ FEST
Quizmaster
Nikhil.NPrelims
Rules
1. There are 21 questions in the prelims. 
2. Each question carries +1/0.
3. Starred questions shall act as tiebreakers.
4. Quizmaster’s decision is final.
5. The Quizmaster believes that Mathematics is a science!
*Q1.Identify X
One story about the origin of X goes like this-
In 1992, a Welsh hamlet was used as a testing ground for a pill to fight angina. Unfortunately for
the afflicted, it had little success against the disease.
Though it didn't work, it had an amazing side effect.
The Scientists at Pfizer then changed track and decided to market this as X, which is used for a
totally different purpose.
Viagra / Sildenaphil
Q2. Id X & Y
Environmental historians have remarked that X has had more impact on the atmosphere than
any other single organism in Earth's history.
This infamous Pennsylvanian chemist created Tetra Ethyl Lead that was used to eliminate
‘knocking’ in petrol engines but which caused innumerable deaths through lead poisoning.
In the late 1920s he also helped develop some of the first Y whose side effects we feel till date.
Later in his life , he contracted poliomyelitis, which left him severely disabled. This led him to
devise an elaborate system of strings and pulleys to help others lift him from bed. This system
was the eventual cause of his own death when he was entangled in the ropes of this device and
died of strangulation.
Thomas Midgley, Jr
*Q3. FITB(all blanks are the same)
___________ strongly believed in causal determinism, which is expressed in the following
quotation from the introduction to the Essai philosophique sur les probabilités:
“We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its
future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion,
and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough
to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the
greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would
be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.”
This intellect is often referred to as ____________demon.
Laplace’s demon
Q4.Who was the scientist?
In 2012, a mountain rescue worker and his neighbor discovered a diplomatic mailbag from Mont
Blanc. This was established to have come from the remains of a Boeing 707 that crashed into the
mountain in 1966. the mail was handed over to the Indian embassy in Paris.
The most notable passenger onboard this flight was an Indian Scientist , whose life was cut down
at the age of 56. Who?
Homi J Bhabha
Q5. What is all the equipment for?
Motion Capture Technology
Q6. What does the tweet mean?
Google's first ever Tweet in February 2009 read: "I'm 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100
01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001
00001010.“
I’m Feeling Lucky
Q7. This is an artist’s impression
of________
Penrose Triangle
*Q8. Which country?
Because of its top level domain name, this country has earned the notoriety for being associated
with the most number of phishing sites on the internet.
.cm / Cameroon
When X’s documents came up for sale in February 2011, it was feared
they would end up in some Silicon Valley company’s hand where he is
bit of an icon. A British Journalist raised funds to buy the papers.
Google’s staff joined in because they believed the author’s work was
close to their heart. The papers were eventually purchased jointly by
Google and National Heritage memorial fund.
*Q9. NAME THE AUTHOR X & WHERE THEY ARE
ON DISPLAY.
Alan Turing & Bletchley Park
Q10. This is the OST of a famous Science fiction TV series.
Identify the TV series.(This TV series is often said to have
served as an inspiration for kids to study science)
Q11.This is an inspiration for which
Engineering marvel?
Burj Khalifa
Q12.This poster is a funny take on which scientific
experiment/theory/principle?
*Q13. Identify X,Y&Z.
The sound system used at Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Sistine Chapel in Rome and the Masjid
al-Haram mosque in Mecca (non exhaustive) is made by the company Y.
Y makes Z that have been lauded for their performance. Z has been used in the Space Shuttle to
help prevent anacusis.
Y was founded by X who was in the news recently. X believed that traditional measures of
audio equipment are not relevant to perceived audio quality and therefore does not publish the
specifications for Y products, claiming that the ultimate test is the listener's perception of audio
quality according to the listener's preferences.
Y: BOSE
X:Amar Bose
Z:Noise cancelling headphones
Q14.What does this 2010 doodle
Commemorate?
Pi day 2010
Q15. Identify the device.
Q16. Connect & Identify X.
Fields Medal 2014 winners.
X = Manjul Bhargava
*Q17. Identify the picture.
Fundamental prize in Physics
Q18.Identify X & Y.
1) X is an integral character in the Command & Conquer: Red Alert series, being responsible
in Red Alert for altering the course of history using a time traveling device he created to
remove Adolf Hitler from existence in an attempt to prevent the horrors of World War II,
inadvertently leading to Soviet Union's rise to power and conflict with Europe.
2) The X refrigerator is an absorption refrigerator which has no moving parts, operates at
constant pressure, and requires only a heat source to operate. It was jointly invented in
1926 by X and his former student Leó Szilárd and patented in the US. This is an alternative
design from the original invention of 1922.
The refrigerator was not immediately put into commercial production, the most promising
of their patents being quickly bought up by the Swedish company Y to avoid competition to
its refrigerators.
X: Einstein
Y: Electrolux
Q19.Identify X and FITB
The character X lives a double life as a member of an all-animal espionage organization referred
to as The OWCA ("Organization Without a Cool Acronym").
It was made a ____ because of the animal's striking appearance and the lack of public
knowledge of the animal, which allowed the writers to make things up about the species. Critical
reception for the character from both professionals and fans have been considerably positive.
Many environmentalists also rated this TV series highly for spreading awareness among people
about the existence of such an animal.
Perry the Platypus
*Q20. Identify X&Y.
JLA: Age of Wonder (2003) is a two-issue mini-series from DC Comics' Elseworlds line, in which
Superman lands in Kansas in the 1850s and emerges on the world stage at the 1876 Centennial
Exposition. He teams up with X but ends up working with Y, who eventually deploys a death ray
during World War I.
In real life, Y claimed to have created a death Ray although it could never be verified because he
died before he revealed it.
X: Edison
Y: Tesla
*Q21. Identify X.
X was a Polish mathematician. He was known for outstanding contributions to set theory
(research on the axiom of choice and the continuum hypothesis), number theory, theory of
functions and topology.
This is XKCD’s tribute to X.
X: Sierpinski/Sierpinski Triangle

Qurious - IITG Quiz fest SCience and technology quiz Prelims with answer

  • 1.
    THE SCI-TECH QUIZ IITGUWAHATI QUIZ FEST Quizmaster Nikhil.NPrelims
  • 2.
    Rules 1. There are21 questions in the prelims.  2. Each question carries +1/0. 3. Starred questions shall act as tiebreakers. 4. Quizmaster’s decision is final. 5. The Quizmaster believes that Mathematics is a science!
  • 3.
    *Q1.Identify X One storyabout the origin of X goes like this- In 1992, a Welsh hamlet was used as a testing ground for a pill to fight angina. Unfortunately for the afflicted, it had little success against the disease. Though it didn't work, it had an amazing side effect. The Scientists at Pfizer then changed track and decided to market this as X, which is used for a totally different purpose.
  • 4.
  • 5.
    Q2. Id X& Y Environmental historians have remarked that X has had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history. This infamous Pennsylvanian chemist created Tetra Ethyl Lead that was used to eliminate ‘knocking’ in petrol engines but which caused innumerable deaths through lead poisoning. In the late 1920s he also helped develop some of the first Y whose side effects we feel till date. Later in his life , he contracted poliomyelitis, which left him severely disabled. This led him to devise an elaborate system of strings and pulleys to help others lift him from bed. This system was the eventual cause of his own death when he was entangled in the ropes of this device and died of strangulation.
  • 6.
  • 7.
    *Q3. FITB(all blanksare the same) ___________ strongly believed in causal determinism, which is expressed in the following quotation from the introduction to the Essai philosophique sur les probabilités: “We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.” This intellect is often referred to as ____________demon.
  • 8.
  • 9.
    Q4.Who was thescientist? In 2012, a mountain rescue worker and his neighbor discovered a diplomatic mailbag from Mont Blanc. This was established to have come from the remains of a Boeing 707 that crashed into the mountain in 1966. the mail was handed over to the Indian embassy in Paris. The most notable passenger onboard this flight was an Indian Scientist , whose life was cut down at the age of 56. Who?
  • 10.
  • 11.
    Q5. What isall the equipment for?
  • 12.
  • 13.
    Q6. What doesthe tweet mean? Google's first ever Tweet in February 2009 read: "I'm 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010.“
  • 14.
  • 15.
    Q7. This isan artist’s impression of________
  • 16.
  • 17.
    *Q8. Which country? Becauseof its top level domain name, this country has earned the notoriety for being associated with the most number of phishing sites on the internet.
  • 18.
  • 19.
    When X’s documentscame up for sale in February 2011, it was feared they would end up in some Silicon Valley company’s hand where he is bit of an icon. A British Journalist raised funds to buy the papers. Google’s staff joined in because they believed the author’s work was close to their heart. The papers were eventually purchased jointly by Google and National Heritage memorial fund. *Q9. NAME THE AUTHOR X & WHERE THEY ARE ON DISPLAY.
  • 20.
    Alan Turing &Bletchley Park
  • 21.
    Q10. This isthe OST of a famous Science fiction TV series. Identify the TV series.(This TV series is often said to have served as an inspiration for kids to study science)
  • 23.
    Q11.This is aninspiration for which Engineering marvel?
  • 24.
  • 25.
    Q12.This poster isa funny take on which scientific experiment/theory/principle?
  • 27.
    *Q13. Identify X,Y&Z. Thesound system used at Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Sistine Chapel in Rome and the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca (non exhaustive) is made by the company Y. Y makes Z that have been lauded for their performance. Z has been used in the Space Shuttle to help prevent anacusis. Y was founded by X who was in the news recently. X believed that traditional measures of audio equipment are not relevant to perceived audio quality and therefore does not publish the specifications for Y products, claiming that the ultimate test is the listener's perception of audio quality according to the listener's preferences.
  • 28.
    Y: BOSE X:Amar Bose Z:Noisecancelling headphones
  • 29.
    Q14.What does this2010 doodle Commemorate?
  • 30.
  • 31.
  • 33.
    Q16. Connect &Identify X.
  • 34.
    Fields Medal 2014winners. X = Manjul Bhargava
  • 35.
  • 36.
  • 37.
    Q18.Identify X &Y. 1) X is an integral character in the Command & Conquer: Red Alert series, being responsible in Red Alert for altering the course of history using a time traveling device he created to remove Adolf Hitler from existence in an attempt to prevent the horrors of World War II, inadvertently leading to Soviet Union's rise to power and conflict with Europe. 2) The X refrigerator is an absorption refrigerator which has no moving parts, operates at constant pressure, and requires only a heat source to operate. It was jointly invented in 1926 by X and his former student Leó Szilárd and patented in the US. This is an alternative design from the original invention of 1922. The refrigerator was not immediately put into commercial production, the most promising of their patents being quickly bought up by the Swedish company Y to avoid competition to its refrigerators.
  • 38.
  • 39.
    Q19.Identify X andFITB The character X lives a double life as a member of an all-animal espionage organization referred to as The OWCA ("Organization Without a Cool Acronym"). It was made a ____ because of the animal's striking appearance and the lack of public knowledge of the animal, which allowed the writers to make things up about the species. Critical reception for the character from both professionals and fans have been considerably positive. Many environmentalists also rated this TV series highly for spreading awareness among people about the existence of such an animal.
  • 40.
  • 41.
    *Q20. Identify X&Y. JLA:Age of Wonder (2003) is a two-issue mini-series from DC Comics' Elseworlds line, in which Superman lands in Kansas in the 1850s and emerges on the world stage at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. He teams up with X but ends up working with Y, who eventually deploys a death ray during World War I. In real life, Y claimed to have created a death Ray although it could never be verified because he died before he revealed it.
  • 42.
  • 43.
    *Q21. Identify X. Xwas a Polish mathematician. He was known for outstanding contributions to set theory (research on the axiom of choice and the continuum hypothesis), number theory, theory of functions and topology. This is XKCD’s tribute to X.
  • 44.

Editor's Notes

  • #4 Hint: Although it is a disorder this is projected as an embarrassment to a man & his manhood.
  • #6 Y’S RELEASE IS GOVERNED BY VARIOUS PROTOCOLS.
  • #18 African Country
  • #20 He has also invented the LU Decomposition which is used for solving matrix Equations.
  • #24 Hymenocallis
  • #34 Marya Mirzakhani ; Artur Avila ; Martin Hairer; X
  • #36 Think prizes.