SCIENCE DAY QUIZ IISER MOHALI

PRELIMS

The rules(and most questions) are straight forward. Each correct answer gets you 1 point.

The questions numbered with multiples of 5 are ‘*’ marked. Hence, will be considered in case of a tie.

Top 6 teams will be selected for the Finals.

1

__________ is an unofficial holiday celebrated among chemists and chemistry students on October 23, between 6:02 AM and 6:02 PM.

6.02 X 1023 AVOGADRO NUMBER

2

Jonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist. He discovered and developed the first successful inactivated X. In 1957, when the X was introduced, ______ was considered the most frightening public health problem of the post-war United States. Annual epidemics were increasingly devastating. The 1952 epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died.

Identify X.

POLIO VACCINE

3

Tetrahedron Cube Octahedron Dodecahedron Icosahedron

In Euclidean Geometry, the _________ solid is a regular, convex polyhedron with congruent faces with the same number of faces meeting at each vertex.

[not so helpful HINT: Named after a Greek philosopher]

PLATONIC SOLID

4

Identify the Medal. It is honored for fundamental contributions to Mathematics. It is handed out once in every four years, to a mathematician under the age of 40.

The inscription reads “ To transcend one’s spirit and to take hold of the world ”. The person embossed is Archimedes ( No, its not Archimedes medal).

FIELDS MEDAL

5*

Identify this Indian Physicist. He is known for his contributions to string theory. He also received the 2012 Fundamental Physics Prize, an endowment worth around 3 million USD.

ASHOKE SEN

6

After an accidental meeting between Jamsetji Tata and Swami Vivekananda on a ship in 1893 where they discussed Tata's plan of bringing the steel industry to India, Tata wrote to Vivekananda five years later:

“ I trust, you remember me as a fellow-traveler on your voyage from Japan to Chicago. I very much recall at this moment your views on the growth of the ascetic spirit in India... I recall these ideas in connection with my scheme of Research Institute for India, of which you have doubtless heard or read ”

Which Institute is being talked about here?

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE

7

Performed in 1908, X involved measuring the force on _________ in a glass chamber sandwiched between two electrodes, one above and one below. With the electrical field calculated, one could measure the ________’s charge, the charge on a single electron calculated as 1.592×10-19 C. At the time, the existence of subatomic particles was not universally accepted.

Identify this famous experiment.

MILLIKAN'S OIL DROP EXPERIMENT

8

The X is an equinoctial sundial, consisting a gigantic triangular gnomon with the hypotenuse parallel to the Earth's axis. On either side of the gnomon is a quadrant of a circle, parallel to the plane of the equator. The instrument is intended to measure the time of day, correct to half a second and declination of the Sun and the other heavenly bodies.

In the early 18th century, Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur constructed five Xs in total and they were completed between 1724 and 1735.

JANTAR MANTAR

9

POLAR

10*

A __________ = 6 feet or 1.8288 metres, is a unit of length in the old imperial system, used especially for measuring the depth of water. It was originally based on the distance between a man's outstretched arms.

It is also a common verb in the English language.

FATHOM

11

This is a picture of a football. It is made of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons.

Chemistry Connect.

BUCKMINSTER FULLERENE (C60)

12

The name X in Greek means "fine, small, thin" and the earliest attested form of the word is in the Mycenaean Greek.

X is the name of various fractional units of currency used in the Greek-speaking world from antiquity until today. During Classical and Hellenistic times a X was always a small value coin, usually the smallest available denomination of the currency.

The term X was first used by physicist Léon Rosenfeld in 1948, who adopted the denomination to denote a particle of small mass.

LEPTON

13

A ___________ is an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal (level) or vertical (plumb).

The instrument has a vial, common on most ordinary ________ today, has a slightly curved glass tube which is incompletely filled with a liquid, usually a colored spirit or alcohol, leaving a bubble in the tube. At slight inclinations the bubble travels away from the center position, which is usually marked.

Alcohols such as ethanol are often used rather than water. Alcohols have low viscosity and surface tension, which allows the bubble to travel the tube quickly and settle accurately with minimal interference with the glass surface.

SPIRIT LEVEL

14

The area of a cyclic quadrilateral with sides p,q,r,s is given by:

𝐴 = 𝑆 − 𝑝 𝑆 − 𝑞 𝑆 − 𝑟 𝑆 − 𝑠 where S =𝑝+𝑞+𝑟+𝑠

2

Identify the Ancient Indian Mathematician, who derived this result ?

[He is also famous for his insights into division by 0]

BRAHMAGUPTA

15*

Zbtb7 is a gene that may act as a master switch for cancer, and is responsible for the proliferation of cancer throughout surrounding cells. The gene is unique in that it is needed for other oncogenes to cause cancer.

Discovery of the gene was first published in the January 2005 issue of Nature. It was originally called "POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic factor" but was renamed to Zbtb7.

Why was it renamed ? (HINT: copyright violation)

Original name is an backronym of the Pokémon media franchise. A Nintendo subsidiary, The Pokémon Company, not wanting the bad press inherent with its trademark sharing a name with a cancer-causing gene, threatened the authors with legal action in December 2005

16

There are 10 kinds of people in the world.

People who know binary numbers and _________________

Fill in the blanks. Who are these 10 kinds of people?

Courtesy(xkcd comics)

PEOPLE WHO DON’T

10 = 2 in Binary number system.

17

The X are seven problems in mathematics that were stated by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000. As of July 2013, six of the problems remain unsolved. A correct solution to any of the problems results in a US $1,000,000 prize being awarded by the institute.

The Poincaré conjecture was solved by Grigori Perelman, but he declined the award in 2010.

State X.

MILLENNIUM PRIZE PROBLEMS

18

The following verb was adopted by Macmillan Dictionary, in the aftermath of something that happened in 2006.

[HINT: Astronomy]

PLUTO

19

The X experiment, performed in 1797–98 by British scientist X, was the first experiment to measure the force of gravity between masses in the laboratory, and the first to yield accurate values for the gravitational constant(G). Because of the unit conventions then in use, the gravitational constant does not appear explicitly in X’s work. Instead, the result was originally expressed as the specific gravity of the Earth, or equivalently the mass of the Earth, and were the first accurate values for these geophysical constants.

CAVENDISH EXPERIMENT

20*

What is this list ? [The timeline should help]

CHEMICAL WEAPONS USED IN FIRST WORLD WAR

Finals

Infinite Rebound I

Quotes

Differential

Infinite Rebound II

King of the Hill

INFINITE REBOUND I

There are 6 questions (General Science). Each carry 10 points ( No negatives).

Each successive question goes to the team numbered next to the team that answered.

If no team answers, we go back to the same team for the next question (privilege for a max. of 2 questions).

1

Modern X mainly uses vermilion, which is an orange-red pigment. Vermilion is the purified and powdered form of cinnabar, which is the chief form in which mercury sulfide naturally occurs.

As with other compounds of mercury, X is toxic and must be handled carefully. Sometimes, red lead (lead tetroxide) is added to X.

In early 2008, allegations of high lead content led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to recall batches of X from several manufacturers.

Unlike US, the use of X is a part of India’s Cultural identity.

SINDOOR

2

Although named after Dutch astronomer X, the law was first accurately described by the scientist Ibn Sahl at Baghdad court, when in 984 he used the law to derive lens shapes that focus light with no geometric aberrations in the manuscript “On Burning Mirrors and Lenses” .

SNELL’S LAW

3 What is this list ? There are 32 in total.

BLOOD GROUP SYSTEMS

In the "ABO" system, all blood belongs to one of four major groups: A+/-, B+/-, AB+/-, or O+/-.

But there are more than two hundred minor blood groups that can complicate blood transfusions. These are known as rare blood types. Whereas common blood types are expressed in a letter or two, with maybe a plus or a minus, a smaller number of people express their blood type in an extensive series of letters in addition to their 'AB-' type designation.

4

X, also known as acetylsalicylic acid with IUPAC name 2-acetoxybenzoic acid is a salicylate drug, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication.

The active ingredient of X was first discovered from the bark of the willow tree in 1763 by Edward Stone of Wadham College, Oxford University. He had discovered salicylic acid. X was first synthesized by Felix Hoffmann, a chemist with the German company Bayer in 1897.

ASPIRIN

5

Equation of what? It’s a closed curve. (Famous logo of comics character)

•Courtesy (wolfram)

BATMAN

6

X (1816-1892) was a German inventor and industrialist. X’s name has been adopted as the SI unit of electrical conductance(with symbol S). He was also the founder of the electrical and telecommunications company X.

WERNER VON SIEMENS

INFINITE REBOUND II

1

X (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female domestic sheep, and the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, part of the University of Edinburgh, and the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics near Edinburgh in Scotland, the United Kingdom. She was born on 5 July 1996 and died from a progressive lung disease 5 months before her seventh birthday.

She has been called "the world's most famous sheep" by sources including BBC News and Scientific American.

DOLLY- THE SHEEP

2

The X effect is a term referring to the apparently mysterious 'anecdotal' failure of technical equipment in the presence of certain people. The term was coined using the name of the Austrian theoretical physicist X.

Lacking an aptitude or interest in experimental work, many theorists have earned a reputation for accidentally breaking experimental equipment. X was exceptional in this regard, it was said that he was such a good theorist that any experiments would self-destruct simply because he was in the vicinity. For fear of the X effect, the experimental physicist Otto Stern banned him from his laboratory in Hamburg despite their friendship.

Who ?

PAULI EFFECT

Wolfgang Pauli. Yes, the guy with the famous exclusion principle.

3

In Biology

In vivo- is experimentation using a whole, living organism.

In vitro- is experimentation in glass, with partial or dead organism.

In situ- means to examine the phenomenon exactly in place where it occurs

What does In silico mean?

PERFORMED ON COMPUTER OR VIA COMPUTER SIMULATION

A forest of synthetic pyramidal dendrites grown in silico

4

Connect

SATELLITE NAVIGATION SYSTEM

NAVSTAR Global Positioning System: USA

GLONASS: Russia

BeiDou Navigation Satellite system: China

Galileo Navigation Satellite system: Europe

5

Which phenomena is being observed?

AURORA BOREALIS/AUSTRALIS

6

X (16 April 1838 – 26 May 1922) was a Belgian chemist, industrialist and philanthropist.

In 1861, he developed the ammonia-soda process for the manufacturing of soda ash(anhydrous sodium carbonate) from brine (as a source of sodium chloride) and limestone (as a source of calcium carbonate). Its called the X process.

Above, is also the famous photograph of the fifth X conference in physics, attended by many notable physicist like Einstein, Neils Bohr, Heisenberg etc.

Identify X.

ERNEST SOLVAY

“QUOTES”

You will be shown famous science quotes, make appropriate guesses.

This is more of a filler round. But, the points count.

For every correct answer, you credit 5 points. Write down the answer in the sheet provided. Questions open to all.

1

“ Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of

any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple

of science are written the words: ‘Ye must have faith’ ”

2

“ If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of

Giants.”

3

“A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a

black cat which isn't there.”

4

“Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.”

HINT: Famous novelist and playwright, most notable work: Pygmalion.

1

“ Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of

any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple

of science are written the words: 'Ye must have faith ”

MAX PLANCK

2

“ If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of

Giants.”

ISAAC NEWTON

3

“A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a

black cat which isn't there.”

CHARLES DARWIN

4

“Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.”

HINT: Famous novelist and playwright, most notable work: Pygmalion.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

DIFFERENTIAL

Each question carries 2N+5 points (N is the number of teams that did not answer/answered wrong).

Write the answers in the sheets provided. Questions open to all.

1

Some have dubbed Dutch engineer Vic Hayes as the "father of X" due to his involvement in negotiating the initial standards within the IEEE while chairing the workgroup.

The Australian radio-astronomer John O'Sullivan developed a key patent used in Xas a by-product in a CSIRO research project, "a failed experiment to detect exploding mini black holes the size of an atomic particle". In 1992 and 1996, Australian organization CSIRO (the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization ) obtained patents for a method later used in X to "unsmear" the signal.

X is now a commonplace thing.

2

At the University of Cambridge in England, a ‘X' is a student who gains first-class honours in the third year of the University's undergraduate degree in mathematics. The highest-scoring student is the Senior X, the second highest is the Second X, and so on.

The rankings are communicated to each student privately. Therefore the names of only some 20th-century Senior Xs (such as Crispin Nash-Williams, Christopher Budd, Frank P. Ramsey, Donald Coxeter, Kevin Buzzard, Jayant Narlikar, Jacob Bronowski and Ben J. Green) have become publicly known.

The name is also associated with a very famous garments(jeans) brand.

3

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson(27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), is better known by his pen name X, is a famous writer.

According to one popular story, Queen Victoria herself enjoyed his work Y so much that she suggested he dedicate his next book to her, and was accordingly presented with his next work, a scholarly mathematical volume entitled An Elementary Treatise on Determinants. Of course, she was shocked.

Identify the author X and his famous work Y.

LEWIS CARROLL, ALICE IN WONDERLAND

4

Kalam observed a painting that was hung in the reception lobby of NASA, depicting a battle scene in which rockets are being launched against oncoming troops. Kalam took a closer look and realized that the painting was of a battle between X’s army and colonial British troops on Indian soil.

X was the first to create Military grade rockets. Though the Chinese were the first to invent rockets, X’s rockets were amazing with the use of iron casings, which allowed the attainment of greater chamber pressures and accordingly, greater range. Some of these rockets could fly 1000 yards.

Who is X? (He is also touted as the rocket man of India)

TIPU SULTAN

5

Clara Ma, won the NASA Essay contest in 2012.

What was this contest about (that made her famous)?

NAMING MARS ROVER- CURIOSITY

6

Three quarks for Muster Mark!

Sure he hasn't got much of a bark

And sure any he has it's all beside the mark.

But O, Wreneagle Almighty, wouldn't un be a sky of a lark

To see that old buzzard whooping about for uns shirt in the dark

And he hunting round for uns speckled trousers around by Palmer-

stown Park?

Hohohoho, moulty Mark!

You're the rummest old rooster ever flopped out of a Noah's ark

And you think you're cock of the wark.

Fowls, up! Tristy's the spry young spark

That'll tread her and wed her and bed her and red her

Without ever winking the tail of a feather

And that's how that chap's going to make his money and mark!

And that's how that chap's going to make his money and mark!

Above is a poem by James Joyce in his classic work Finnegans Wake.

Which important term in physics was adopted from this? [The rhyme scheme should help]

QUARK

7 CONNECT

SPACE AGENCIES

POCKOCMOC: Russian Federal Space Agency

CSA: Canadian Space Agency

JAXA: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

CNSA: China National Space Administration

ESA: European Space Agency

8

Alkaloid theobromine is sometimes used as a drug to treat high blood pressure. Its effects are similar to caffeine but on a smaller scale. However, it can be poisonous to dogs as they metabolize this compound very slowly. What commonly enjoyed food contains theobromine and thus should not be given to dogs?

CHOCOLATE

9

On whose tombstone is it written,

“ He lies here, somewhere”

WERNER HEISENBERG

10

The New Delhi counter closed at 11:45 PM (14 July 2013) and the revenue collected was Rs 68,837 as the country bid adieu to the harbinger of good and bad news for generations of Indians.

The last ______ was sent to Rahul Gandhi.

What event are we talking about here?

CLOSURE OF INDIAN TELEGRAM

KING OF THE HILL

This is the last obstacle you face.

The round has a rapid-fire format. There are six ballots, pick one.

You can answer a maximum of 6 questions in 50 seconds. Each question carries 5marks.

Rapidfire

Top

Up

Down

Bottom

Charm

Strange

TOP

1

What are up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom?

2

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen won this for the first time in 1901.What?

3

Who gave the structure of Benzene?

4

The type of cell division that produces eggs and sperms is called meiosis.

True or False?

5

What mathematical day is celebrated every year on March 14 (3/14)?

6

Spelunking is the study of ?

ANSWERS

What are up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom?

Ans: Types of Quarks

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen won this for the first time in 1901.What?

Ans: Nobel Prize

Who gave the structure of Benzene?

Ans: August Kekule

The type of cell division that produces eggs and sperms is called meiosis.

Ans: True

What mathematical day is celebrated every year on March 14 (3/14)?

Ans: Pi Day

Spelunking is the study of ?

Ans: Caves

UP

1

What is the name of the star closest to the earth?

2

Fear of spiders is known as ‘acrophobia’.

True or False.

3

Which element is used in making the filament of an electric bulb?

4

Name the science fiction writer, who wrote the three laws of robotics.

5

What famous islands west of Ecuador were extensively studied by Charles Darwin?

6

Paleontology is the study of?

ANSWERS

What is the name of the star closest to the earth?

Ans: Sun

Fear of spiders is known as ‘acrophobia’.

Ans: False (Arachnophobia)

Which element is used in making the filament of an electric bulb?

Ans: Tungsten

Name the science fiction writer, who wrote the three laws of robotics.

Ans: Isaac Asimov

What famous islands west of Ecuador were extensively studied by Charles Darwin?

Ans: Galapagos

Paleontology is the study of?

Ans: Prehistoric Life

DOWN

1

In statistics, the middle value of an ordered set of values is called what?

2

Ornithology is the study of?

3

Mercury is the hottest planet in the solar system.

True or False.

4

Pure water has a pH level of around ____.

5

Name the Largest desert in the world.

6

A change of the DNA in an organism that results in a new trait is known as a _______.

ANSWERS

In statistics, the middle value of an ordered set of values is called what?

Ans: Median

Ornithology is the study of?

Ans: Birds

Mercury is the hottest planet in the solar system.

Ans: False (Venus)

Pure water has a pH level of around ____.

Ans: 7

Name the Largest desert in the world.

Ans: Antarctica

A change of the DNA in an organism that results in a new trait is known as a _______.

Ans: Mutation

BOTTOM

1

Newton’s law states that action and reaction forces act on different bodies.

True or False.

2

Scattering of light by particles in a colloid or fine suspension is called __________ effect.

3

Entomology is the study of?

4

Expand CFC.

5

Who wrote the famous book ‘A brief history of time’?

6

Which is larger, the set of real numbers or the set of natural numbers?

ANSWERS

Newton’s law states that action and reaction forces act on different bodies.

Ans: True

Scattering of light by particles in a colloid or fine suspension is called __________ effect.

Ans: Tyndall Effect

Entomology is the study of?

Ans: Insects

Expand CFC.

Ans: Chlorofluorocarbon

Who wrote the famous book ‘A brief history of time’?

Ans: Stephen Hawking

Which is larger, the set of real numbers or the set of natural numbers?

Ans: Real numbers

CHARM

1

Rickets is caused by the deficiency of Vitamin __.

2

Special relativity states that speed of light is constant in all mediums.

True or False.

3

Boson is named after which Indian scientist?

4

Ernest Rutherford was awarded a Nobel prize in which field?

5

Mycology is the study of?

6

What is the latest Android OS ?

ANSWERS

Rickets is caused by the deficiency of Vitamin __.

Ans: D

Special relativity states that speed of light is constant in all mediums.

Ans: False (Constant in all inertial frames)

Boson is named after which Indian scientist?

Ans: S.N.Bose

Ernest Rutherford was awarded a Nobel prize in _________.

Ans: Chemistry

Mycology is the study of?

Ans: Fungi

What is the latest Android OS ?

Ans: KitKat

STRANGE

1

Oncology is the study of?

2

Turing Prize is awarded in which field?

3

Elements with same atomic number and different mass numbers are called Isotopes.

True or False.

4

Light Sabers are weapons used in which movie series?

5

Which chemical is produced via the Haber’s process?

6

Which Indian woman was popularly known as the Human Computer?

ANSWERS

Oncology is the study of?

Ans: Cancer

Turing Prize is awarded in which field?

Ans: Computer Science

Elements with same atomic number and different mass numbers are called Isotopes.

Ans: True

Light Sabers are weapons used in which movie series?

Ans: Star Wars

Which chemical is produced via the Haber’s process?

Ans: Ammonia

Which Indian woman was popularly known as the Human Computer?

Ans: Shakuntala Devi

AND THE WINNER IS…

CREDITS

Quiz Team: Ashish, Bharat, Prabhu, Panda and Srikanth (IISER Mohali Quiz Club)

We thank IISER M Faculty, Students and all Participants.

Other people who contributed : Harsh, Devwrat, Manas, Arul, Sumit.

We also thank Jimmy Wales, co-founder Wikipedia.

DEVWRAT DUBE(Convener)

IISER MOHALI QUIZ CLUB – A Brighter Lamp

09646643326

MS11015@IISERMOHALI.AC.IN