Dry RoundOpen SciTech Quiz 2014

1

‘The X encompasses, within a single abstract “jewel,” all the computations that can ever be feasibly performed by means of unitary transformations, the central operation in quantum mechanics (hence the name).  Mathematically, the X is an infinite discrete space: more precisely, it’s an infinite collection of infinite sets, which collection can be organized (as can every set that it contains!) in a recursive, fractal structure.  Remarkably, each and every specific problem that quantum computers can solve — such as factoring large integers, discrete logarithms, and more — occurs as just a single element, or “facet” if you will, of this vast infinite jewel.  By studying these facets, my colleagues and I have slowly pieced together a tentative picture of the elusive X itself.’

What is being talked about here?

Answer

1

Unitarihedron.

2

What does the y–axis represent? Be as specific as possible.

Answer

2

Shannon entropy.

3

A –5 point starting credit.5 points for using a thought experiment that contradicts the results of a widely accepted real experiment.5 points for each mention of "Einstien", "Hawkins" or "Feynmann".10 points for pointing out that you have gone to school, as if this were evidence of sanity.10 points for offering prize money to anyone who proves and/or finds any flaws in your theory.10 points for each statement along the lines of "I'm not good at math, but my theory is conceptually right, so all I need is for someone to express it in terms of equations".20 points for each use of the phrase "self-appointed defender of the orthodoxy".40 points for claiming that when your theory is finally appreciated, present-day science will be seen for the sham it truly is. (30 more points for fantasizing about show trials in which scientists who mocked your theories will be forced to recant.)

What are the above excerpts taken from?

Answer

3

John Baez’s Crackpot Index.

4

According to Alfred Renyi, what is X in the following ‘reaction’?

Satz X Satz

Answer

4

A mathematician i.e. a machine that turns coffee (Satz = Kaffeesatz) into theorems (Satz = Lehrsatz).

5

Where is this audio clip taken from?

Answer

5

Greetings in 55 languages from the Golden Record aboard the Voyager 1.

6

X is a 160 million dollar project that is mired in controversy over the wisdom of locating it the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. While some of India’s leading conservationists have been rallying to prevent its construction at the site, several international figures such as Nobel Laureates Sheldon Glashow and Masatoshi Koshiba have written to India’s PM urging that the project move forward. ID X.

Answer

6

India-based Neutrino Observatory.

7

What is the significance of this approximate equality?

27 (3/2)12

Answer

7

The chromatic scale exists because of it.

8

In 2011, Edward Nelson, an ultrafinitist, did something that could have potentially lead to Don Knuth losing a lot of money. However, as pointed out by Terence Tao, there was a subtle mistake in Nelson’s work that completely invalidated it.

What did Nelson do or try to do?

Answer

8

He claimed a proof of the inconsistency of the Peano axioms of arithmetic.

9

‘During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), mathematics was suspect for being too abstract, aloof from the concerns of the common man and the struggle to meet the basic needs of daily life in a still largely agrarian society. But during the Cultural Revolution, when Chinese mathematicians discovered the mathematical manuscripts of X, these seemed to offer fresh grounds for justifying abstract mathematics, especially concern for foundations and critical evaluation of the calculus. At least one study group in the Department of Mathematics at Chekiang Teachers College issued its own account of The Brilliant Victory of Dialectics – Notes on Studying X’s `Mathematical Manuscripts'. Inspired by nonstandard analysis, introduced by Abraham Robinson only a few years previously, some Chinese mathematicians adapted the model X had laid down a century earlier in analyzing the calculus, and especially the nature of infinitesimals in mathematics, from an X-ist perspective. But they did so with new technical tools available thanks to Robinson but unknown to X when he began to study the calculus in the 1860s. As a result, considerable interest in nonstandard analysis has developed subsequently in China, and almost immediately after the Cultural Revolution was officially over in 1976, the first all-China conference on nonstandard analysis was held in Xinxiang, Henan Province, in 1978.’ ID X.

Answer

9

Karl Marx.

10

A Formal Language for Analyzing ContractsAdvances in Distributed SecurityCoalition Design for Security Protocols

The above are the titles of some of the essays and papers authored by Nick Szabo, whose language and phraseology has been shown to have a high correlation with that of X using reverse textual analysis, leading to speculation that they are both the same person. ID X.

Answer

10

Satoshi Nakamoto.

11

‘I, X, son of the late Vincenzo Y, Florentine, aged seventy years, arraigned personally before this tribunal, and kneeling before you, Most Eminent and Reverend Lord Cardinals, Inquisitors-General against heretical depravity throughout the entire Christian commonwealth, having before my eyes and touching with my hands, the Holy Gospels, swear that I have always believed, do believe, and by God's help will in  the future believe, all that is held, preached, and taught by the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church…’

What is this the beginning of?

Answer

11

The Recantation of Galileo Galilei.

12

X and Y were classmates at Stuyvesant High School. Both went on to concentrate in physics at Harvard. Both have written bestselling popular books on string theory. X has also hosted a documentary on the same while Y has written the libretto for an opera called Hypermusic Prologue. ID X and Y.

Answer

12

X: Brian Greene. Y: Lisa Randall.

13

The following photograph was taken in Vietnam in 1967. ID the bald man.

Answer

13

Alexandre Grothendieck.