PHYSICS QUIZ2015

RULES1. Each team gets +10 points for each correct answer on their

respective question, unless stated otherwise.2. There is NO negative points for direct questions and pass.3. Pass can only be provided to those who have not pounced.4. For pass question, +10 will be awarded for correct answer.5. The team which pounces gets +20 points for correct answer

and (-10) for a wrong answer.6. In case of any DISCREPANCY, consult Shakul Pathak.

Otherwise, for heaven’s sake, DON’T disturb.

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS• There are 6 questions during the quiz, meant exclusively for the

audience.• Apart from these, any question not answered by any of the 6

teams, will pass on to the audience.• While answering these questions, people in the audience are

expected to raise their hands ; and to NOT shout out their answer.

• Correct Answers will be rewarded.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

ROUND 1

IDENTIFY THIS FAMOUS PHYSICIST.1.

IGOR IRODOV

INITIAL BLUEPRINT FOR WHAT?2.

THE FIRST PLANE BY THE WRIGHT BROTHERS!

It results from emissions of photons in the Earth's upper atmosphere, above 80 km from ionized nitrogen atoms regaining an electron, and oxygen and nitrogen atoms returning from an excited state to ground state. They are ionized and the excitation energy is lost by the emission of a photon of light, or by collision with another atom or molecule.

What are we talking about?

3.

AURORA

This machine uses a powerful magnetic field to align the magnetization of some atoms in the body, and radio frequency fields to systematically alter the alignment of this magnetization. This causes the nuclei to produce a rotating magnetic field detectable by the scanner—and this information is recorded to construct an image of the scanned area of the body.

What are we talking about?

4.

MRI – MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

This consists of a gain medium inside a highly reflective optical cavity, as well as a means to supply energy to the gain medium. In its simplest form, a cavity consists of two mirrors arranged such that light bounces back and forth, each time passing through the gain medium.

Light of a specific wavelength that passes through the gain medium is amplified ; the surrounding mirrors ensure that most of the light makes many passes through the gain medium, being amplified repeatedly. What is being explained here?

5.

LASER

Forget LED light bulbs. Scientists have created the world's thinnest light bulb using a wonder material, in a layer just one atom thick. The wonder material is famous for being stronger than steel and more conductive than copper.

Name the material.

6.

GRAPHENE

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

Jack Cover spent most of his career as a nuclear physicist who worked in aerospace and defense, including playing a significant role in supplying parts for NASA‟s Apollo project. In 1970 he diverted his research to finding a weapon that could incapacitate assailants without killing them. He received a patent for his design in 1974, and by 1980 Cover had sold the Los Angeles Police Department on using his new gadget to help apprehend violent suspects.

He named it after an invention by a Tom Swift, a legendary fictional inventor that inspired Jack. What gadget?

1.

TASERAcronym for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”.

WHAT, IN THE WORLD OF PHYSICS, IS THE ‘GNAB GIB’?

2.

REVERSE OF THE BIG BANG IS ‘GNAB GIB’

The metric expansion of space eventually reverses and the universe collapses, ultimately ending as a black hole singularity.

PERSONALITIES

ROUND 2

Decades before India made a name for itself in the field of education, the tiny princely state of Travancore aimed it high in higher education and The University of Travancore, now Kerala University, came into existence on November 1, 1937. It made an unsuccessful bid to enlist services of X as Vice Chancellor of its fledgling university for a monthly pay of Rs 6000.

X politely declined the invitation saying he wanted to join Princeton University in America.

Who was X ?

1.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

2. In the 1970s, X also directed two projects, Project Devil and Project Valiant, which sought to develop ballistic missiles from the technology of the successful SLV programme.

While X was working on a senior class project, the Dean was dissatisfied with his lack of progress and threatened to revoke his scholarship unless the project was finished within the next three days. X met the deadline, impressing the Dean, who later said to him, "I was putting you under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline“. He narrowly missed achieving his dream of becoming a fighter pilot, as he placed ninth in qualifiers, and only eight positions were available in his country’s air force.

In 1998, along with cardiologist Soma Raju, X developed a low cost coronary stent, named the “X-Raju Stent”. In 2012, the duo designed a rugged tablet computer for health care in rural areas, which was named the “X-Raju Tablet".

Who’s X?

APJ ABDUL KALAM

X was an Italian nuclear scientist born in 1901 in Rome. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in 1938. X was, along with Dr. Oppenheiner part of the team that created the first nuclear bomb, Little Boy. The hundredth element in the Periodic Table is named after him.

Identify X.

3.

In addition to his work in theoretical physics, X has been credited with pioneering the field of quantum computing, and introducing the concept of nanotechnology and assisted in the development of the atomic bomb.

He developed a widely used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behaviour of subatomic particles, which later became known as X diagrams.

X also became known through his semi-autobiographical books (Surely You're Joking, Mr. X! and What Do You Care What Other People Think?)

4.

X was a young physicist who had a theory explaining what happens to stars when their nuclear fuel runs out. His calculations showed that if a star was large enough it literally collapsed into ‘nothing’ of huge mass and gravitational pull, or simply, a black hole.

Sir Arthur Edington vehemently disagreed with X and ridiculed him at a meeting at the Royal Astronomical Society. He said X's ideas were "stellar buffoonery". Edington thought stars ended their lives as lumps of metal called white dwarves.

Identify X.

5.

SUBRAHMANYAM CHANDRASEKHAR

Identify the person.

He is standing next to his greatest work.

6.

EDWIN HUBBLE AND THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

He is one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society in 1888.Both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing his life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in his greatest invention. In retrospect, he considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have it in his study.

Who is ‘he’?

1.

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

CONNECT

2.

ROUND 3

To test which theory were the following tests proposed in 1916 ?

1. the perihelion precession of Mercury's orbit2. the deflection of light by the Sun3. the gravitational redshift of light.

1.

THEORY OF GENERAL RELATIVITY

Six types of flavours of what : • Up • Down • Top • Bottom • Strange • Charm

2.

Identify the phenomenon involved.

3.

ZEEMAN EFFECT

This class of particle derives its name from the Greek word for intermediate, because its predicted mass was between that of the electron and proton.

What are we talking about?

4.

MESONS

Two paintings by Van Gogh. What scientific phenomenon, called by Feynman as, “the most important unsolved problem of classical physics” are these supposed to depict?

5.

Turbulence

The Annus Mirabilis papers are the 4 papers of Albert Einstein published in the Annalen der Physik scientific journal in 1905.

These four articles contributed substantially to the foundation of modern physics. Three of them were on Brownian Motion, Relativity and Matter-Energy equivalence. The fourth one is what won him the Nobel Prize in Physics.

What was the subject of the fourth paper?

6.

Photoelectric Effect

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

WHICH FAMOUS EXPERIMENT IN THE FIELD OF QUANTUM MECHANICS IS DEPICTED?

1.

SCHRODINGER’S CAT

‘Since I was aware that there exists an infinite number of points on the orbit and accordingly an infinite number of distances the idea occurred to me that the sum of these distances is contained in the area of the orbit. For, I remembered that in the same manner Archimedes too divided the area of a circle into an infinite number of triangles’.

Who said these words while he was describing a law formulated by him?

2.

Johannes Kepler

CONNECT

ROUND 4

1.

NIKOLA TESLA

2.

SUPERCONDUCTIVITY

3.

THOMAS YOUNG

4.

ISAAC NEWTON

5.

CERN

6.

HEINRICH RUDOLPH HERTZ

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

1.

ALESSANDRO VOLTA

The current members of the Committee are:• Ingemar Lundström, chairman• Lars Brink• Börje Johansson• Björn Jonson• Anne L'Huillier

Which prestigious committee?

2.

NOBEL COMMITTEE FOR THE

PHYSICS PRIZE

ROUND 5

1.

SAFETY SLIDE

RESONANCE

2.

SAFETY SLIDE

MAGNUS EFFECT

3.

SAFETY SLIDE

CORIOLIS FORCE

4.

SAFETY SLIDE

EXPERIMENT DEMONSTRATING THE DIAMAGNETIC NATURE OF WATER

5.

SAFETY SLIDE

LEIDENFROST EFFECT

6.

SAFETY SLIDE

MEISSNER EFFECT

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

A few physical attributes particularly suit X:

• His long, thin torso offers low drag.• His arms span 6 feet 7 inches (201 cm)—disproportionate to his height

of 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm)—and act as long, propulsive "paddles“.• His relatively short legs lower drag, and add the speed enhancement of a

hydrofoil.• His size 14 feet provide the effect of flippers.• His hypermobile ankles can extend beyond the pointe of a ballet dancer,

enabling him to whip his feet.

1.

MICHAEL PHELPS

A piece of wood, gifted by Royal Society, was taken to the International Space Station in May 2010 and was returned safely; which created headlines (might not be of many newspapers, but of many science magazines).

What was all this about?

(snapshot in the next slide)

2.

ROUND 6RAPID FIRE

THE WINNERS

THANK YOU