Science & Technology Quiz

Welcome to the Prelims

presents

Research and hosting

Nexus Consulting

Bangalore

www.facebook.com/consultnexus

@funwithfundas

1.

The ten Fundamental Duties in the Constitution of India obligate all citizens to: 1. respect the national symbols of India2. to cherish its heritage 3. preserve its composite culture 4. assist in its defence5. to promote the spirit of common brotherhood 6. protect the environment and public property 7. develop _______ _________8. abjure violence9. strive towards excellence in all spheres of life10. every parent/guardian to ensure that their child was

provided opportunities for education

Fill in the blanks

Answer follows…

• Scientific Temper

2.

What two-word term, containing the Latin root

“to seek” explains why the riders don’t fly off?

Answer follows…

• Centripetal Force (from Latin centrum

“centre" and petere "to seek“), the inward force

that keeps an object moving in a continuous circle.

The main force is the wood pushing back on the

tires of the motorcycles and cars.

3.

The process was devised in 1844 when a gentleman of Great Harwood, Lancashire, treated cotton fibres with sodium hydroxide. The treatment caused the fibres to swell, shrunk the overall fabric size and made it stronger and easier to dye.

It was improved by H. A. Lowe in 1890. Lowe held the cotton during treatment to prevent it from shrinking, and found that the fibre gained a lustrous appearance.

What process, named after its inventor?

Answer follows…

• Mercerisation after John Mercer

4.

Used widely by Jewellers, watchmakers, printers, photographer, collectors of stamps and coins, and other professionals, these are small magnification devices used to see small details more closely.

Unlike a magnifying glass, it does not have an attached handle, and its focusing lens is contained in a housing that protects the lenses when not in use.

What is it called (5-letter term)?

Pic on next slide.

Answer follows…

• Loupe

*5.

Book 5 explains proportions of magnitude.

Book 8 deals with proportions in number

theory. Book 9 talks about the infinitude of

prime numbers. Book 10 tries to classify

incommensurable magnitudes by using the

method of exhaustion, a precursor to

integration.

What 13-part treatise are we talking about?

Answer follows…

• Euclid’s Elements

6.

They share their names, one with a purple anthropomorphic Tyrannosaurus rex, and another with a non-rigid airship.

For 1 point give either name, and for 1 more explain how one would associate it with the profession of Vittorio Storaro (among others).

Picture follows.

6.

Answer follows…

• Barneys or Blimps are the casings that

cover a camera, so that the microphones

don’t pick up the sound of the camera

motor

7.

In a _____ lens the portion in the top right is called the “cap”, a section broken off. They have two powers, created with curvatures at different angles.

a. Fill in the blank (1 pt)

b. These lenses are primarily used for correcting what? (1 pt)

Pic on next slide.

Answer follows…

• a. Toric lens – the doughnut is a ‘torus’

• b. Astigmatism

8.

The coiled brass portion is used in a technique called ‘scratching’ where a fingernail is run up and down, generating vibrations. Modern ones are even available as disposable, and sterilised.

What are these artefacts?

Pic on next slide.

Answer follows…

• Acupuncture needles

9.

From a museum review article:

“I was able to consult the 1779 edition of Olney Hymns in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. Printed in London by W. Oliver, it was in beautiful condition. The paper was almost as white and supple as it was when it came off the printing press.”

What changed in the late nineteenth century that gives recent books a relatively short life span?

Answer follows…

• Addition of acid to the paper-making

process. Acidity causes the paper to

become brittle and crumble

• The primary source of acid in modern paper

is the alum-rosin sizing agent introduced in

the manufacturing process. Size is added so

that writing and printing inks do not feather.

In the presence of moisture, the alum in the

sizing agent generates sulfuric acid.

*10.

Such fractals composed of ever-shrinking

mutually tangential circles are named for a

Greek mathematician whose work on conic

sections gave us the names of some more

common mathematical objects: the ellipse, the

hyperbola, and the parabola. Name them.

Pictures follow.

Answer follows…

• Apollonian Gaskets, after Apollonius of

Perga

11.

Give two words to connect.

The “Foundation” and something they established last year.

Art Levinson

Sergei Brin

Anne Wojcicki

Mark Zuckerberg

Priscilla Chan

Yuri Millner

The folks with the broad smiles for 2012

Cornellia I. Bargmann

David Botstein

Lewis Cantley

Hans Clevers

Napoleone Ferrera

Titia de Lange

Eric Lander

Charles Sawyers

Bert Vogelstein

Robert Weinberg

Shinya Yamanaka

Answer follows…

• The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences,

US$3 million each, recognizing excellence

in research aimed at curing intractable

diseases and extending human life. The

second column are the first 11 recipients.

12.

Following the recent meteorite strike in Siberia

there is renewed interest in figuring out a

solution where the object is blasted out of its

path with nuclear weapons before it even

reaches the earth.

In reality this may not be possible because

of what 1996 General Assembly resolution?

Answer follows…

• The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

• The CTBT disallows blasting of nuclear

weapons in space.

13.

South Africa, India, and Brazil have nearly run

out of supplies. The Mountain Pass facility in

California was shut down. China today controls

97% of supply. In 1992, the Chinese president

Deng Xiaoping famously quipped, “There is oil

in the Middle East. There is __ __ in China”.

What bunch of 17 different materials was he

referring to (clue: think 70s classic rock)?

Answer follows…

14.

They are an enigmatic group from Manchester, England, with their

name containing the 1909 Nobel winner for physics (an award he

shared with Ferdinand Braun). They were appointed by Brian Eno

to supervise the re-mastering of his back catalogue.

Last year they drummed up 8 min. of aural bliss, after working with

sound therapists to get advice on how to make the most effective

use of harmonies, rhythms and bass lines. It was allegedly proven

to reduce anxiety by 65% and slow heart rates by 35%. So much

that doctors advise one does not listen to it when driving.

Name them (1 point) and either name the song

or what was the Guinness Records sort of tag it

took on (1 point).

Larger pic follows.

Answer follows…

• Marconi Union

• Weightless – ‘the world’s most relaxing

song’

*15.

The famous person in the previous question was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy, one of the many recognitions he received for his stellar service to the land of his birth.

In 1932, he ensured that the person who occupied this seat (pic 1) was not cut off from contact when enjoying the warmth of summer at ____ (pic 2).

Who (1 pt.), and what is the blank (1 pt.)?

Pictures follow.

Answer follows…

• The Pope

• Castle Gandolfo

16.

A rendition of the logo of which organization

with origins in 1884, whose by-line says

“advancing technology for humanity?”

Answer follows…

17.

Though X, created in the mid-1920s, is touted as the

first to include Y, the truth is that the position actually

belongs to Rêve D'Or (Golden Dream) created in

1905 by Armingeat.

Nor is X the first modern one to feature synthetic

components. That honor belongs to Fougère Royale

(Royal Fern) by Paul Parquet for Houbigant in 1882.

Y are organic compounds that smell fruity or floral,

and are present in various natural materials, such as

orange rind, rose oil, pine essence, citronella and

cinnamon bark. What are X and Y? (1 pt. each)

Answer follows…

• X – Chanel No. 5

• Y – Aldehydes

18.

In Greek and Latin usage, scrolls were mostly

used for texts, and were stored on open racks. The

scrolls were flat suspended on handles. In a later

Christian era, they became valuable and protected

in leather cases. In general, Christian texts were

kept in Codex form- books with pages.

What two terms related to modern computer

usage would these storage methods evocate?

Answer follows…

• Sequential Access and Random Access

• Scrolls were sequential, and a codex was

random-access – could be opened at any page.

19.

A perfume atomiser,

metal plates hooked

to a battery, and a

small quantity of a

viscous fluid, all put

together in such a

contraption was the

basis for what 1909

investigation?

Answer follows…

• Millikan’s oil-drop experiment

20.

At Syene (now Aswan), some 800 km southeast of

Alexandria in Egypt, the Sun's rays fall vertically at

noon at the summer solstice.

Eratosthenes, who was born in c. 276 BC, noted that

at Alexandria, at the same date and time, sunlight fell

at an angle of about 7° from the vertical. He correctly

assumed the Sun's distance to be very great; its rays

therefore are practically parallel when they reach the

Earth.

Given estimates of the distance between the two

cities, what was he was able to calculate?

Answer follows…

• Circumference of the earth

21.

If the logo shown here appeared on a device

you own, what technology would the device be

capable of ?

Answer follows…

• Near Field Communication (NFC)

22.

Give a 6-letter word to connect the marked

portions.

Answer follows…

• Pileus, a cap worn in ancient Rome and

Greece, after which the cap-like cloud and

the top of a mushroom are named.

23.

He studied Finance and Information Technology at the University of Cape Town. In 2001, he moved to London, and began preparing for the First African in Space mission, training in Star City and Kazakhstan. In April 2002, he flew to the International Space Station as a cosmonaut member of the crew of Soyuz mission TM34.

Who is this, and what did he found in 2004 with a vision to create high quality software platforms that are free to use, share and develop? (1 pt. each)

Answer follows…

• Mark Shuttleworth

• Canonical

24.

By moving a needle across a surface and monitoring the electric current that flows through it, scientists can map a surface to the level of single atoms. It is so precise that it not only looks at atoms—it also can manipulate them into structures. Its development earned IBM researchers Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer a Nobel Prize and helped launch the emerging era of nanotechnology.

What invention?

Answer follows…

• Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM)

*25.

Thomas Nicely, a mathematics professor first noticed

this in 1994 when some inconsistencies appeared in

programming code he had written to enumerate

primes. He isolated the problem to a specific

computer he had added to his group of machines.

The problem was notified to the manufacturer,

verified on the Internet and assumed the name of the

FDIV bug.

What was the problem and who was the

manufacturer? (1 point each)

Answer follows…

• Intel, Floating Point Error

26.

The logo of this social networking service is inspired

by Calvin and Hobbes like comic strips where a little

asterisk would appear above a character's head in

funny discovery, refers to a popping noise. Like a pop

of self expression explaining to the world your

opinion. Logo for what?

Answer follows…

• Yelp

27.

When Sun Microsystems first released Java,

they promised WORA saying that the language

had cross platform benefits after creating the

program.

What is the full form of WORA – a slogan

that Sun created to sell the key benefit of

Java?

Answer follows…

• Write Once, Run Anywhere

28.

In biology, this word is used for the soft, usually

edible part contained in the shell of a nut or inside a

fruit. It can also be used for seeds or whole grains.

In computer terminology, it is the main component of

operating systems and is the bridge between

applications and actual data processing done by

hardware and the heart/core of the OS that

manages the computer’s resources.

What word, very familiar to Unix users?

Answer follows…

• Kernel

29.

This is Willie Fowler – an American astrophysicist. In

1983, if he was one half of a winning duo, who was

the other?

Answer follows…

• S Chandrasekhar – Nobel Prize for Physics

*30.

The term is used to denote a person who tries to of make use of technology to improve his or her life, only to be stymied by idiotic user manuals, nonplussed technical support staff or poor design.

Made of two parts, the second part of the term could mean a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement, or an agricultural labourer.

What’s the good word / term?

Answer follows…

• Techno-peasant

31.

As per the World University Rankings 2012-2013,

____ secures first place, followed by Stanford at #2

and Oxford, Harvard and MIT following in 3-5

positions.

Its 124-acre campus predates Hollywood. More than

30 of its students have won Nobel prizes, and one

alumnus – Harrison Schmitt – has walked on the

Moon. Home to Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it

has a faculty of about 300 teaching around 2,000

students.

Which University?

Answer follows…

• California Institute of Technology or

Caltech

32.

Wife of Ce’sar Drinklikafix and admirer of Obelix’scurves, she is a peerless tradeswoman and makes your mouth water with her freshly caught sea urchins and scorpion fish. Quite ironically, she is named after an alternate word for a disease.

Give her name and the disease – no part points

Answer follows…

• Hydrophobia and Rabies

33.

Some recent research to come with a success formula for what?

Answer follows…

• Nobel Prize

34.

It means lineage or

ancestry, or the origin or

history of a person or

thing. The etymology of

the word is from Anglo-

Norman for the foot of a

crane, from the

resemblance of a crane's

foot to the succession

lines in a genealogical

chart. What word?

Answer follows…

• Pedigree

*35.

Among animals it is used for a number of

unrelated structures. In crustaceans, it is the

forward extension of the carapace in front of the

eyes. Among insects, it is piercing mouthpart,

like those of weevils, as is the beak of a

vertebrate.

What term that is also associated with public

speaking?

Answer follows…

• Rostrum, which is a platform raised above

the surrounding level to give prominence to

the person on it

Finals follows

shortly…