This weekly quiz document contains questions on various topics including science, history, literature and geography. Some key details include:
- The quizmaster is Pankaj Rodey and it is the May 2021 edition of the K-Circle weekly quiz under lockdown.
- Questions cover topics like the Torino scale for measuring asteroid impact hazards, the origins of the words "Belarus" and "Beluga whale", Robert Hooke's observations of cork under a microscope, eponyms related to space missions and sports stadiums named after leaders, and more.
- Other questions involve decoding acronyms, identifying elements and diseases from clues, summarizing literary feuds between authors, explaining scientific concepts through images
4. What does this scientific scale rated 1 to 10 measure? A 10
on this scale is considered ‘most disastrous’.
This scale is named after a town that is an important
industrial and cultural centre in Southern Europe. What is
the scale called? The car photo may serve as a clue.
7. The Name of this country and the name of
this species of Whale found primarily in the
Arctic region, both originate from the word
for ‘white’ in the official language of this
country.
Name both.
10. While studying a naturally occurring material under the microscope, in his work
‘Micrographia’ 17th century English scientist Robert Hooke noted:
I could exceedingly perceive it to be all perforated and porous, much like a Honey-
comb, but that the pores of it were not regular. It had a very little solid substance, in
comparison of the empty cavity that was contain'd between. The Interstitia, or walls
(as I may so call them) or partitions of those pores were neer as thin in proportion to
their pores, as those thin films of Wax in a Honey-comb are to theirs.
Hooke called these structures _X_ as they reminded him of small rooms used by
hermits, the first documented use of this term in this context.
Give the term and what material did Hooke observe under microscope, used widely
in the winemaking industry?
13. A typical microphone used in music concerts has a
'gain pattern’ as shown where it picks up sound with
high gain, or sensitivity, from the front and sides,
but steeply lower when sounds are from the rear
with the gain following this curve.
Owing to the shape of this pattern what name, a
reference to human anatomy is used for such
microphones?
16. 2 colloquial words owing their origin to celestial objects:
A) This word comes from Latin astrum meaning star. The
sense in which it is used colloquially comes from the
practice of calamities being blamed on an unfavourable
position of a planet, and "star" here is probably meant in
the astrological sense of "destiny, fortune, fate."
B) This word that literally translates to "to observe the
stars" comes from Latin word ‘Sidus’ meaning star and the
sense in which it is used colloquially is probably a metaphor
from navigation in old times, as sailors would carefully
observe the heavenly bodies to contemplate and decide
their course on the sea.
23. Similar to the group of nations known as the "BRICS": Brazil,
Russia, India and China, what acronym, that sounds like the
name of a mammal, is formed by this group of countries?
26. In the early 18th century, English astronomer John
Flamsteed accused this person of trying to gain all the
honour of his work while withholding the payment from the
Queen that would have allowed Flamsteed to complete his
publications.
He described this man as “insidious, ambitious and
excessively covetous of praise”.
To Flamsteed’s disappointment, a few months later,
allegedly due to his close connection with the Queen, this
person gained knighthood.
After his knighthood, to express his sentiment against this
person’s alleged immoral wrongdoings, Flamsteed referred
him in his literature with his initials as what?
30. This disease, an occupational hazard in the mid to late 19th century was
caused due to a continuous exposure to certain chemical element used in a
specific industry.
Such exposure at factories caused a slow deterioration of bones of the jaw
resulting in facial disfigurement and sometimes fatal brain damage. The
disease was called ______ jaw, as a reference to the chemical element.
FITB and which industry?
Something in the picture with the animals is homophonous with the blank.
33. Name these 4 chemical elements:
A is derived from the present day common
name of a country and element B is named
after the ancient Roman/Latin name of the
country’s present day national capital.
C is derived from the Latin name of a present
day country and D is derived from the
common name of the present day national
capital of this country.
36. Some award winning short stories from sci fi author Ted
Chiang feature a fictional online game loosely modelled
after the popular game Age of empires. This game is
called “Age of _X_”.
One of the rarest elements in Earth's crust, _X_ is an
element found in anomalously large quantities at
specific places on earth in the form of a sediment layer
among certain rocks.
From scientific evidence so far, the “Age of _X_” found
in this sedimentary layer is about 66 million years.
Which element?
38. IRIDIUM is found in abnormally large quantities at
the K-T boundary confirming the belief that the KT
impact event was an extra-terrestrial impact causing
extinction of dinosaurs.
43. The branch of an apple tree
and a weapon featured on this
stamp is a reference to a
popular legend of a 14th
century folk hero who is an
expert at using this weapon
and has special expertize at the
so called apple shot (Shooting
an apple off someone's head
from a distance).
Name the weapon and the
country.
47. In the late 16th century an academic institution in Florence tasked a young
Galileo Galilee to calculate the exact dimensions of a structure being referenced
in a 14th century literary work.
Galileo's first job was to work out just how wide the vaulted roof might be.
From the descriptions in the book he knew that the centre of the roof lay in
Jerusalem, and that the diameter of the circle must be equal to the radius of
the Earth.
This meant that the boundary of the roof would pass through Marseille in
France on the western side and through Tashkent in modern-day Uzbekistan on
the East.
Galileo's next problem was to work out just how thick the roof would have to
be to stop it from collapsing.
After studying the proportions of size and thickness of other dome structures in
Italy he concluded that the roof would have to be 600 kilometres thick, thus
rendering it impossible for anything or anyone to be ‘inside’ this structure.
What structure and referenced in which literary work was Galileo studying?
55. WINTER CAPITALS AND KARGIL (Union territory of
Laddakh)
Summer capitals:
Leh, Mumbai, Gairsain, Srinagar
56. In the early 1920s, posters like these were used by some
governments to convince people to join the military.
Which event is depicted in the posters?
With which country / geographic location is the blanked out
word generally associated now?
77. This painting created in the early 14th century
inspired the name of a deep space mission of ESA.
Taking its name from this artists name, what was
the space probe named and what unparalleled
record does this space mission hold ?
79. GIOTTO. This image is believed to have been
inspired by the artist’s observation of the passage of
Halley’s Comet in 1301.
Giotto holds the record of closest approach to
Halley’s comet in 1986. Abt 600 km close it took the
first pictures of the comet surface.
80. This popular national leader _X_, whose
daughter later became the head of the state
for the country, was assassinated in the 1970s.
Several persons who masterminded the
murder fled the country and were given
asylum by the government of another country,
that was led by ‘chairman’ _Y_.
Name the 2 cities that have famous sport
venues named after _X_ and _Y_.
84. Sculptures like this are seen on display at Tibetan monasteries
especially during the Tibetan new year.
The process of creating these sculptures is time-consuming, and
demanding, both physically and artistically since the artists are
forced to make the sculptures in freezing cold temperatures, and
they regularly dip their hands into ice-cold water to keep them
cold.
What material is used for making these sculptures?
87. This statue was discovered in Tibet in the
1930s by an expedition of German
Scientists to Tibet.
Perhaps attracted by the swastika carved
at the centre, the team carried it back to
Germany.
This statue was quite appropriately called
____ ___sharing its name with a Marvel
Comics superhero and film franchise.
What?
In 2012, Geochemical analyses by the
German scientists concluded that this
statue may be the only known illustration
of a human figure to be carved from a
certain naturally occurring material.
What was the material used for this
sculpture?
91. According to some archaeological evidence, this bone from
the ankle of a sheep called astragalus is a precursor to a
certain implement used in some forms of entertainment
today.
This device in its modern form has also been instrumental
in early work in a field of mathematics known for theories
from Pascal and Fermat.
Precursor to what and which mathematics field?
94. In the mid 18th century, a British inventor commercialized
his invention and decided to make money by charging
royalties for huge savings that his invention could bring by
savings in the amount of coal which was used in certain
machines, used principally in the mining industry.
Some prospective customers wanted to use this new
invention but they did not have the original machine to
begin with. This made it impossible to calculate the “actual
savings” required for payment of royalties.
What unit of measurement that may be suggestive of the
name of a certain “father of medicine” owes its origin to
the method used by this inventor to calculate royalty
amount for such prospective customers?
98. X claimed that he had been unfairly labelled anti-Semitic for his portrayal of
a character in his 1996 novel.
Another author, _Y_ joined the critics and said that he wished _X_ had
expressed similar feelings after _Y_ was subject to severe criticism from X
for his earlier work.
The literary feud continued with bitter words exchanged regularly in the
media and finally ended in 2012 when X and Y ended the face-off. On the
occasion, X remarked about the feud:
"Should we be free to burn religious books? Maybe we should – but should
we also be surprised when the believers we have offended respond in fury?
I couldn't answer that question at the time and, with all good will, I still
can't. But I am a little proud, in retrospect, that I spoke against the easy
trend, reckoning with the wrath of outraged western intellectuals, and
suffering it in all its righteous glory. And if I met Y tomorrow? I would
warmly shake the hand of a brilliant fellow writer.“
Name the 2 writers.
100. X: John Le Carre (David Cornwell) The Tailor of
Panama
Y: Salman Rushdie
101. A fisheye lens is an ultra wide-angle lens that produces a visual distortion like this:
The fisheye image of this excerpt from a 19th century book about Euclid's Elements.
And the fisheye image of this excerpt from a 1652 book named for a Biblical monster
Are precursors to something that in present day form is believed to be loosely modelled on
IBM typeball:
What?
112. According to an anecdotal account; during the US Nuclear
weapons development program(called Manhattan project),
when English physicist Paul Dirac learned that his friend and
another physicist _X_ was indulging into a certain pastime,
he remarked:
“_X_, they tell me you are indulging in ------. I do not see
how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and also do
------- at the same time. They are in opposition. In science
you want to say something that nobody knew before, in
words which everyone can understand. In ------ you are
bound to say something that everybody knows already in
words that nobody can understand.“
FITB and name X.
115. This animated platypus is the mascot of the Linux based OS
Darwin named for British naturalist Charles Darwin.
The name of this mascot, _X_ is a reference to the name of
another contemporary English biologist who was a strong
advocate and proponent of Darwin's theory of evolution.
The original creators of Darwin say about this mascot:
“In retrospect we probably should have originally had a _______
character [instead of the platypus], but this just gives us the
chance to give _X_ a sidekick. Keep tuned.”
Name the mascot and Fill the blank, the animal that the
developers think, would have been more appropriate than the
platypus.
119. X and Y are food items popular in east Asia prepared from the
same legume:
To prepare X, this legume is fermented which causes it to undergo
inoculation with Rhizopus, a type of filamentous fungus. As fungus
mould growth declines, a solid mass is formed by the mycelium.
Typically, X is harvested after 48 hours of fermentation with its
distinguishable whitish colour, firm texture, and nutty flavour.
To prepare Y, the legume is grinded and soaked and the paste is
subjected to boiling and centrifugation. A filtration process then
extracts liquid from the paste. This liquid is then subjected to
coagulation using chemicals CaSo4 or MgCl2 resulting in a solid
mass.
Name X, Y.
122. This Is the case-back of a limited edition of watches from
watchmaker company Citizen.
This engraving is an acknowledgement of the nickname given to
this series of watches that are designed to be used by divers and
swimmers.
What nickname?