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SAMASYA 2017Reflections 2017Department of physicsPondicherry university

Special thanksSreejesh SK and Sudev NM for their helpful contributionsAnurag Panicker for Guinnea Pigging the whole quizThomas Augustin and Archana Aravindan for help with the logistics

Instructions:The prelims consists of 20 questionsEach question is for one point, no negatives. Part points will be given at the quizmasters discretionWrite down your answers on the paper. For questions with two parts mention the parts clearly.Questions 11-20 are star marked. These will be used to resolve a tie if necessary6 Highest scoring teams will be selected for the finalsAll the Best!

1Experts say that the following are the criteria for a land mass to be classified as X:elevation above the surrounding areadistinctive geologya well-defined areaa crust thicker than the regular ocean floor

According to these criteria a new landmass termed Zealandia, which neighbours New Zealand and is mostly submerged in the ocean, might qualify to be the 8th XWhat is X?

AnswerContinent

2In microgravity you have to rely on capillary action, pumps or fans. Thats what the larger waste disposal systems [on the spacecraft] use. Part of the design takes elements of that and miniaturizes it.This is one of the winning entries to NASAs Space____ challenge.The challenge asked for designs for a system that would be essential in emergency situations where astronauts would have to remain in their space suit for several daysFIB with a four letter word.(Image follows)

Answer

3What historic disease has recently been making headlines with outbreaks being reported in Zimbabwe and Sydney is being talked about here?We forget about it - deliberately perhaps. And we seem to forget as well just how simple it is to cure and prevent. It is prevented if we dont boil vegetables to a paste, and as for the cure: Its so easily treated with one vitamin tablet a day or by fresh vegetables and fruit. When the rules for eating properly are neglected by a significant sector of the population, and their forgetfulness is allied with government cutbacks for social services, the outlook for outbreaks gets a lot grimmer.

AnswerScurvy

4

ID the character whose shoes this actor stepped into for this twitter exchange.

AnswerCaptain Kirk from Star Trek

5ID the two personalities

6Plutos _____ also known as the Tombaugh Regio, after the man who first spotted itis a wide, smooth swath that covers about 990 miles of the dwarf planets surface. We Earthlings first saw it clearly in July of 2015, when NASAs New Horizons spacecraft beamed back a set of up-close Pluto portraits. As interplanetary messaging, this was nearly as romantic as Saturns rings. Pluto has sent a love note back to Earth,NASA reported. Memes proliferated, showing the planet holding its _____ out to Earth, begging for acceptance back into the planetary ranks. (Image Follows)FIB

AnswerIts Icy Heart

7A first edition of this work could become the most expensive print sold of the revolutionary text when it goes under the hammer with a guide price of at least $1m (790,000) this month.Written in Latin, and published in 1687, it laid out ground breaking theories, and introduced a more rigorous mathematical method to physical science.ID the seminal work

AnswerNewtons Principia Mathematica

8At the Award Ceremonies on 10 December the winners receive three things: a Diploma, a Medal and a document confirming the prize amount. Each Diploma is a unique work of art, created by foremost Swedish and Norwegian artists and calligraphers. Medals are handmade with careful precision and in 18 carat recycled gold.ID this honour.

AnswerThe Nobel Prize

9On the next slide is the google doodle for 23rd February 2017.ID the news making scientific event that inspired the doodle

Answer7 exoplanets were discovered in a compact solar system only 39 light years away from us

10Xis amechanically-interlocked moleculecomposed of five interlocking macrocycles that resembles the_______ rings. The molecule is a linear pentacatenane or a [5]catenane. It was synthesized and named byFraser Stoddart and co-workers in 1994Give the inspiration for the Xs name, that was in the news around this time last year. (Image follows)

ANSWERX- Olympiadane

11ID this effect that is named after the Austrian Physicist who first proposed it.

AnswerThe Doppler Effect

12Most people with X need to takeantiretroviral drugs(ART) each day to stop the virus from replicating and causing damage to their immune system. These have to be taken over a lifetime because the virus can hide away in tissues such as lymphoid and gut cells; if ART is stopped, the virus quickly re-emerges from these cells.But a new therapy that combines vaccines with an anti-cancer drug is showing positive results wherein one of its patients has been virus free for seven months now without regular use of ARTs.ID X

AnswerHIV

13This years edition of this annual natural event started on February 13, said Ashish Kumar Behera, the divisional forest officer of Berhampur division.The Odisha Forest Department has set up observation camps and is patrolling along the coast to ensure no outsiders enter the 4.5-km long stretch of the beach that is witness to this event. The coasts have been fenced and speedboats have been deployed to restrict the entry of fishing trawlers, Behera told IANS.The scale of this years occurrence is expected to break previous records.What is this annual occurrence?

AnswerThe large scale egg laying of Olive Ridley turtles on the coast of Ganjam district in OrissaAbout 4 lakh eggs are expected to be laid this year.

14ID the scientist whose gravestone this is

ANSWER

Ludwig BoltzmannHe is buried in the Viennese Zentralfriedhof; His tombstone bears the inscription of the entropy formula:

15Marie Curie and Linus Pauling are the only two individuals to receive Nobel Prizes in two different fieldsYou probably know that Curie received it in Physics and Chemistry. Pauling received his first in Chemistry. What was unique about his second?

AnswerHe received the Nobel Peace Prize for being a peace activist who ever since 1946 has campaigned ceaselessly, not only against nuclear weapons tests, not only against the spread of these armaments, not only against their very use, but against all warfare as a means of solving international conflicts."

16When Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a balloon 24 miles above New Mexico in 2012, he broke more than the world record for the highest-ever freefall. About a third of the way down, Baumgartner reached 843.6 mph, and in doing so became the first person to achieve something.What was this achievement?

AnswerHe became first ever person to achieve supersonic speed in free fall.893mph is about 1343kmph or Mach 1.24

17The piece of wood you are about to see was taken to space aboard the International Space Station in 2010.This was done as a kind of an ironic tribute to the importance the tree has in todays scientific world.What is so special about it?

ANSWERThis is a piece of wood from the same Apple tree that Isaac Newton had credited as his inspiration for his theory of Gravitation

18

Created by artist Yayoyi Kusama, this is one installation in the series titled the Infinity ________ Rooms.FIB with the central material used to create this kaleidoscopic artwork

AnswerInfinity Mirrored Rooms

19The coordinated, marching-band-like motion of electrons in vanadium dioxide is detrimental to X as it prohibits random motion with a large number of collisions that generally produce X. But this motion helps Y.This makes the substance a rule breaker as according to the Wiedemann-Franz Law these two phenomenon always go hand-in-hand.It shows a drastic breakdown of a textbook law that has been known to be robust for conventional conductors

Id X and Y

AnswerX- HeatY- Electricity

20Yes, the surface is fine and powdery. I can kick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers, like powdered charcoal, to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles.Who said these words and what is being described?

ANSWERNeil ArmstrongAbout his first step onto the surface of the moon

Special mention

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