RVQuizCorp

Under The Peepal Tree 2009

Sci – Tech Quiz

Prelims
1) When two viscous fluids of
different specific gravities are
mixed and slightly heated, the
heavier one creates an impression
of being brought to boil. Bubbles
rise to the top and froth-like
formation coupled with fumes
make people believe that it is
boiling.

An explanation given to explain

Dunking babies in oil in Hubli
2) Certain research results indicate that
listening to this kind of music may induce a
short-term improvement on the
performance of certain kinds of mental
tasks known as spatio-temporal reasoning.
This is called X effect.

A research was conducted with reasoning

tests before and after listening to the
music. It was found that, effectively, IQ
scores were 8 to 9 points higher after the
participants had listened to the music than
before.

X?
Mozart Effect
3) An almost exhaustive list:

Morris William Travers

Alfred Gibbs Bourne
Martin Onslow Forster
C.V.Raman
Jnan Chandra Ghosh
Maneklal Sakalchand Thacker
Satish Dhawan
C.N.R.Rao
S. Ramasesan
Govindarajan Padmanabhan
Goverdhan Mehta

Currently – X

ID X or put funda.
P. Balaram – Directors of
IISc
4) Connect
Celcius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin –
Temperature Scales.
5) Significance?
World’s last known case of Smallpox
6) Also called “your plastic pal
who’s fun to be with”, he finds
himself waiting several million
years to park cars for an exclusive
restaurant, staying on space ships
being driven into the hearts of
suns so that he can manually
work the teleport to save
everyone else on board, being
dropped several miles on to solid
rock, and being left to defend
himself against awesome military
technology.
Marvin, the Paranoid Android
7) What is called a
solidus if written as a
diagonal line or a
vinculum if written as a
horizontal line?
The line between the numerator and
denominator in a fraction
8) What’s blanked out?
“Hot Air” – Parody of Mac book Air
 :

9) X,Y :
Isaac Newton and James Chadwick
10) Video shows an exothermic
chemical reaction that results
from the ignition of a mixture of
carbon disulfide and nitric
oxide. It is a combustion
process in which a fuel is
oxidised.

The distinctive sound of the

reaction gives this reaction a
special name.
Barking Dog Experiment
11) 3rd March of this year was
celebrated as what? (Apart
from Datta’s birthday)

Such an event occurs 9 times

every century.
Square Root Day – 03/03/09
12) This picture is 1474 megapixel. Since no
camera exists to take such a resolution
picture, by what technique was this image
taken?
To demonstrate the resolution:
Pic1 - Before zooming
After zooming in to where the white hand
was:
Gigapan
 A B

h A and B are the same thing but are found on two different objects. Give me fun
, the tie breaker would be if you can give me where both A and B can be found .
13) These are the plaques on the satellites Pioneer and
Voyager, both of which are meant to give the finder of
the satellite an idea of where and what earth is all
about.
14) Whoitis??
The Zune Guy
15) X is the collective pseudonym under which
a group of (mainly French) 20th-century
mathematicians wrote a series of books
presenting an exposition of modern advanced
mathematics, beginning in 1935. With the goal
of founding all of mathematics on set theory,
the group strove for utmost rigour and
generality, creating some new terminology
and concepts along the way.
While X is an invented personage, a group
carrying his surname is officially known as the
Association des collaborateurs de X has an
office in Paris.
Notations introduced by the group include: the
Nicholas Barbouki
16) 2nd Dec, 1967, Denise Darvall and her mother were
run down by a drunk driver on Main Road, Salt River.
Denise’s mother died immediately. Denise had multiple
injuries including a skull fracture and extensive head
injuries. She could not be kept alive without mechanical
assistance, and was essentially brain dead. By 9 pm, the
resuscitation team stopped trying to revive Denise.

On 3rd Dec, 1967, Louis Washkansky underwent an

operation at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.
The operation was a success, but Washkansky had a
weakened immune system and died of double pneumonia
eighteen days later. Washkansky was a Lithuanian Jew,
who migrated to South Africa in 1922, aged nine.
Washkansky saw active service in World War II in East
and North Africa and Italy. Washkansky was an avid
sportsman, taking part in soccer, swimming, and
weightlifting. However, late in his life his health declined
substantially: he was diabetic, and had an incurable heart
First Heart Transplant
17) This word is commonly used internet slang
derived from an English word, which implies
dominance or humiliation of someone. The
original English word In hacker jargon this word
means obtaining control or “to compromise”. An
outside party who has gained unauthorized
access to system is said to have _____ the system.

What is the slang word and the word from which

it was derived?
Pwn/ pwn-ing from ‘own’
18) The value of X can be approximated
using a Monte Carlo method as follows:

*Draw a square on the ground, and then

inscribe a circle within it.

*Uniformly scatter some objects of uniform

size (for example, grains of rice or sand)
throughout the square.

*Count the number of objects in the circle,

multiply by four, and divide by the total
number of objects in the square.

*The proportion of objects within the circle

vs objects is found. X?
Pi = 3.141592653589……..
19) Fill in the Blanks
exp(i* ╥) = -1
20) X is a unit of quantum information. That
information is described by a state vector in a two-
level quantum-mechanical system, which is formally
equivalent to a two-dimensional vector space over
the complex numbers. In addition, the quibit should
have these properties.

• scalability
• can be initialized
• controlled unitary transformations
• measurable
• scalable

X has some similarities to a classical form of

information representation, but is overall very
different. But while in the classical form, information
is represented only by a set of discrete values, in X,
they can, in addition, be represented by their
Quantum Bit/ Qubit/ Qbit
21) The X hypothesis, proposed by James
Lovelock, was first scientifically formulated in the
1960s by Lovelock as a consequence of his work
for NASA on methods of detecting life on Mars.
It is an ecological hypothesis proposing that the
biosphere and the physical components of the
Earth (atmosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere and
lithosphere) are closely integrated to form a
complex interacting system that maintains the
climatic and biogeochemical conditions on Earth
in a preferred homeostasis.
It was named after the Greek supreme goddess of
Earth. The theory was initially, said to be a way
to explain the fact that combinations of chemicals
including oxygen and methane persist in stable
Gaia Hypothesis
22) Citing trademark infringement concern,
T-mobile is demanding that blog site
Engadget Mobile stop using ______ in its
logo. In a letter posted sent to Engadget, T-
Mobile pronounced, "Based on the different
character of the goods and services offered
by the Deusche Telekom Group and
Weblogs, we assume that it is in the best
interest of both of our entities to ensure
that the particular services can be clearly
separated and that consumers are not
confused..." And it's not an early April Fool's
joke, they say. It's not totally unreasonable,
there is precedent for this sort of thing. Like
The colour magenta
A manual for the general working of a very “simple” d
The new iPod Shuffle 3G
24) X received a posthumous
honorary fellowship in 2002 from
Britain's Royal Society of
Chemistry, which is the United
Kingdom's professional body for
chemical scientists. The fellowship
is generally exclusive to eminent
scientists. X was made a fellow for
contributions to forensic
chemistry, and the award has
been described as "tongue-in-
cheek" for the generally serious
Sherlock Holmes
25) The simplest method to measure temperatue
this way is to count the number of _____ in 15
seconds and add 40. The sum usually approximates
the temperature within a few degrees Fahrenheit.

The original formula for determining temperature

from ____ appears to have been published in 1897
by A.E. Dolbear, a physics professor at Tufts College.
Since Dolbear’s time, formulas have been devised
for various sub-species. For example:

Field ______: T = 50 + (N - 40 / 4)

Snowy Tree _______: T = 50 + (N - 92 / 4.7)

Katydid: T = 60 + (N - 19 / 3)
Chirping of a Cricket