1. Laplaces Demons A Science & Technology Quiz By: Mohit Karve Avaneendra Bhargav

2. Question 1 According to determinism, if someone knows the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe, their past and future values for any given time are entailed; they can be calculated from the laws of classical mechanics. This was put forward by a very famous mathematician in 1814 and has a devilish status among cosmologists? What am I talking about? 3. Answer Laplaces Demon 4. Question 2 Total quantity of X: 21 Million. Subunit: Satoshi (10^8 Satoshis = 1 Unit of X) 5. Answer 6. Question 3 In his recently released autobiography, this scientist mentions that the popular portrayal of Fred Hoyle is wrong, and the answers given by him made sense even to Hawking. The book is titled 'My life in four cities' when translated to English. Who is this? 7. Answer Jayant Narlikar 8. Question 4 Barren Island volcano in Andaman & Nicobar islands is the only known active volcano in India and last activity was recorded in 2004. Because of that it was thought to be linked with certain natural disaster which happened the same year, which later turned out to be false. Which natural disaster? 9. Answer Tsunami 10. Question 5 In physical cosmology, the paper, was created by Ralph Alpher, then a physics PhD student, and his advisor George Gamow. The work, argued that the Big Bang would create hydrogen, helium and heavier elements in the correct proportions to explain their abundance in the early universe. Gamow humorously decided to add the name of his friend, the eminent physicist to this paper in order to create the whimsical author, a play on the Greek letters. Name him and what the paper is known as. 11. Answer Hans Bethe & paper 12. Question 6 This is the most abundant metal in the human body. There is approximately 1 Kg of it in the average human body. What metal is it? 13. Answer Calcium 14. Question 7 John Michael Keogh filed Australian Patent 2001100012 for "Circular Transportation Facilitation Device". This was his way for pointing out flaw in the patent system. For his jocular efforts he was awarded Ignobel in 2001. What was the patent for? 15. Answer Wheel 16. Question 8 Jown Fewster and Benjamin Jesty had achieved the same result more than 20 years prior to the more widely credited discoverer. In 1796, he (the credited discoverer) scraped off some pus from the blisters of a milkmaid, and infected an 8 year old boy, James Phippes. Over time, testing showed that Phippes was resistant to a certain disease. Who was the credited discoverer, and what disease did he create a vaccine against? 17. Answer Edward Jenner, Small pox 18. Question 9 19. Answer IPv4 vs. IPv6 20. Question 10 Phenyl Ethene (C6H5CH=CH2) is an oily liquid with a pleasant odour in monomer form. When converted to a polymer, is a transparent thermoplastic in its normal form. It is highly flowable above 100 degrees C, which makes it possible to obtain detailed shapes. Worldwide production is estimated to be in billions of kilograms. It degrades very slowly, and applications are generally intended to be single use, causing it to be a significant pollutant. What polymer is this? 21. Answer Thermocol/Polystyrene 22. Question 11 One month before their departure, three people had no misconceptions about the danger of their journey. Being government employees, they were unable to purchase life insurance (very expensive at the time). To provide for their families in case of disaster, they signed many items and had them posted to their families on the day they left. This way, if they did not return, the families could at least sell the autographs. Luckily, they did not need the failsafe, and survived the trip (a first in that era). This act became a tradition followed by all subsequent people who did a similar thing. The insurance memorabilia was never needed, but it did get close for the group that departed one journey later. Name (any) one of the original three men. 23. Answer The Apollo 11 astronauts. Any of Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin or Michael Collins will do. Apollo 13, of course, came close to disaster, but they eventually returned safe. 24. Question 12 Similar to the 'Spinach contains a large amount of Iron' myth, there is another. While the spinach myth was a result of a typo that changed the position of the decimal point, this myth has a more intentional origin. It was spread by the British during the Second World War, to hide the fact that they had a radar. They attributed the ability to shoot down enemy aircraft at will to the excellent eyesight of their anti-aircraft gunners, whereas it was actually radar doing all the hard work. What myth? 25. Answer Carrots improve eyesight 26. Question 13 In the regular scientific context, a _______ splits light into its constituent wavelengths. The word has been in media focus recently in a completely unrelated context. What word? 27. Answer PRISM 28. Question 14 In January 2013, self-described 'eccentric millionaire' John ______ was wanted in Belize, allegedly having murdered someone. A short global chase later, it also turned out that he had been spying on government officials using infected laptops and using women as honeytraps. According to a recent video demonstrating 'How to uninstall _________ _________,' he has not had any ties with the eponymous software in question for the past fifteen years. Who is this man? 29. Answer John McAfee 30. Question 15 This molecule absorbs visible light across the spectrum, except green (this explains the green colour of the molecule). It is extremely vital, and has been hypothesised to be an interstellar molecule. It works by converting non-green light into energy by the process of resonant energy transfer. What (family of) molecule(s)? 31. Answer Chlorophyll 32. Question 16 It is commonly assumed that the name __________ is a reference to the science fiction author X, as a nod to his contributions to the field of robotics, but that is not the case. ___________ is an acronym that suggests the capabilities of the machine. It is updated sporadically, and currently weighs 48 Kg, and is 130cm tall. It is capable of a human-like walk and can also run. It is meant to be a personal assistant for physically handicapped people in the future, but at the moment is a development prototype. What is the blank? 33. Answer Asimo 34. Question 17 The unofficial lunar land speed record is held by ___________, the last man to walk the moon. At 18 Km/hr, there is nothing controversial about the record. The reason that is it unofficial is that there were no impartial observers to verify the speed. Who is this gentleman? 35. Answer Eugene Cernan 36. Question 18 The material is an alkali-aluminosilicate developed by Corning (glass manufacturer). It is scratch and shatter resistant, and finds application chiefly as protection for __________________. FITB. 37. Answer Screens 38. Question 19 Charon, Hydra, Nix, P4, P5. P4 and P5 have now been formally named Kerberos and Styx. What is this underworldly connection? 39. Answer Moons of Pluto 40. Question 20 One explanation of the effect is that small pockets of vaccuum form in joints and then collapse rapidly. It was suspected that this act causes athritis, a claim that has now been proven wrong by various researchers. Particularly, in 2009, Dr. Donald Unger won the IgNobel prize for medicine, by virtue of performing the act on his left hand, but not his right, for sixty years, and showing no athritis or other ailments in his left hand. What is being described? 41. Answer Cracking your knuckles/joints 42. Question 21 PayZippy is a recently started online payment processing company based in India. It aims to compete with existing providers such as BillDesk and offer a universal online wallet that could be used on the parent company's website, or on other websites, to make purchases. The parent company is one of the few well known online shopping portals in India. What is the parent? 43. Answer FlipKart 44. Question 22 It is one of the most popularly known species of this class of animal. It possessed three horns on its head, though the use of the three horns is debated. Some researchers believe that the horns were a defence mechanism against predators, whereas others believe that the horns were primarily for display and courtship. The species was rendered extinct by what is believed to be a meteor impact in the Yucatan peninsula. What species? 45. Answer Triceratops 46. Question 23 The theorem rather counter intuitively states that given a ball in 3D space, it is possible to decompose the ball into pieces, such that the pieces can be reassembled into two balls identical to the original ball. What theorem? 47. Answer Banach-Tarski theorem 48. Question 24 ____X____ _____Y______ (two words) is a canonical example of a zero sum game, formulated in 1950. It suggests that the two participants, who have no means of interacting with each other before they play, would prefer to not cooperate even when cooperation is mutually beneficial. Recently, a study conducted on two groups - X and students, showed that contrary to perception, the group of X tended to cooperate more than the group of students. What is XY? 49. Answer Prisoners Dilemma 50. Question 25 First incident - 21 Aug 1945. Casualty - Harry Daghlian. Second incident - 21 May 1946. Immediate casualty - Louis Slotin. Several others died many years later as a consequence of this incident. The central entity in both incidents was something called the 'Demon Core' (due to these accidents). The demon core was finally consumed in the third of a series of operations, codenamed Crossroads, in July 1946. The second pair was an act of military aggression, in August 1945. The first was a test, like Crossroads. Name the first. 51. Answer Trinity. Crossroads was the second test involving nuclear fission. the acts of military aggression, of course, were Hiroshima and Nagasaki 52. Question 26 In the 1950s, there weren't many tech jobs in the area around Stanford University, which was a hindrance to the university's attraction as a technical school. One of the professors at Stanford knew William X, who was looking to start a semiconductor business, and pitched the idea of starting his business in California. X's ailing mother lived in California, and thus X was convinced about starting out with a small team in Mountain View (current home of Google) in 1956. Less than two years later, eight of the brightest engineers left to form Y Semiconductor, a company that would (in terms of people who worked there) spawn many semiconductor giants, including Intel and AMD, most of which were set up in the same area. It could be said the entire Silicon Valley exists today because X Semiconductor was founded in Mountain View. Name X and Y. 53. Answer Shockley and Fairchild 54. Question 27 The Department of __________ oversees X, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing(IIRS), The Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), North-Eastern Space Applications Centre (NE- SAC) and the Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL). Of all of these, X is perhaps the most well known. What is it? (Blank not required) 55. Answer Indian Space Research Organisation 56. Question 28 He originally debuted as a character named 'Jumpman' in 1981 as a carpenter. When a later game was being developed around him, the creator tentatively titled him 'Mr. Video'. Slightly later, employees of the parent company were involved in a heated rent dispute with the landlord of their warehouse, an Italian named, _______ Segale. Though the dispute was resolved, the company is said to have named thie characted after that landlord. The character was not expected to be a major success, but is now among the most well known such characters in history. What is the blank? 57. Answer Mario 58. Question 29 X gears is a system for picking speeds, though technically the system uses sprockets and not gears. The word derives from a French word for a train leaving the tracks. 1960s band Cream has an album that is named __________ gears, because one of the band members was talking of getting something with X gears, which was misheard as ____________ gears, the last name of a British PM. What is X? ( blank not required) 59. Answer Derailleur gears (the album was Disraeli Gears, the PM being Benjamin Disraeli) 60. Question 30 61. Answer 62. Question 31 We have all tried to solve the problem shown in image 1, but one mathematician actually proved why it is unsolvable and invented a whole new branch of mathematics called 'Graph Theory'. Solution of problem lies in the solution of the problem 2 (shown in img 2), it is known as Seven Bridges of Knigsberg.Which mathematician? 63. Answer 64. Question 32 Connect: P versus NP problem Hodge conjecture Riemann hypothesis YangMills existence and mass gap NavierStokes existence and smoothness Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture 65. Answer Unsolved Millennium Prize Problems 66. Question 33 Why are following lines famous Krakatoa positively casts off fumes generating sulphurous vapours. Kings play cards on fairly good soft velvet. Kings play chess on fine grain sand. 67. Answer Taxonomical classification pnemonic 68. Question 34 A mathematician related wavelength (denoted as ), and momentum (denoted as p) (where h is Plancks constant). Claiming that all matter, not just light, has a wave-like nature. Who? 69. Answer Louis de Broglie 70. Question 35 71. Answer 72. Question 36 Rules of the Internet is a list of protocols and conventions, originally written to serve as a guide for those who identified themselves with the Internet group Anonymous. The list serves as a summation of popular catchphrases and axioms commonly associated with a website. At the time of the archival, there were 18 rules in the entry, despite it mentioning that 48 existed. e.g. 1) Do not talk about rule 2-33 34) There is porn of it. No exceptions 36) Anonymous does not forgive 37) There are no girls on the internet which website? 73. Answer 4chan 74. Question 37 -------- always increases is the third law of thermodynamics. It literally means disorder in an isolated system always increases, what is scientific term, FITB 75. Answer Entropy 76. Question 38 There are two books titled Principia Mathematica, one by Newton and the other by Alfred Whitehead and a mathematician who won the Nobel prize for literature. Who was the other writer? 77. Answer Bertrand Russell 78. Question 39 Canabelt, a 2009 video game single handedly invented the genre of games which later spawned a wave clones. Most notable of them is the one made by Imangi studios, which genre? 79. Answer Endless Running Games 80. Question 40 What is the interaction of multiple elements in a system to produce an effect different from or greater than the sum of their individual effects? The term comes from the Greek word or from , meaning "working together. 81. Answer Synergy 82. Question 41 The new respiratory virus that emerged in the Middle East last year appears to make people sicker faster than SARS, but doesn't seem to spread as easily. Because of this threat lot of Indians have cancelled their trip to Haj. What is this virus called ? 83. Answer MERS virus 84. Question 42 It was clear that his discovery was an important one as it gave further proof of the quantum nature of light. So, he was confident of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics that year but was disappointed when the Nobel Prize went to Richardson and to de Broglie in the next year. He was so confident of winning the prize in the subsequent year that he booked tickets in July, even though the awards were to be announced in November, and would scan each day's newspaper for announcement of the prize, tossing it away if it did not carry the news. Who? 85. Answer C V Raman