Torquest -16Elims

Acknowledgments

This quiz is brought to you by the BCQC-COEP Quiz Club.Quiz set by Divij Ghose and IpshitaSpecial thanks to Aman Shaikh, Mustafa Abbas,

Vrushabh Gudade, and Somaditya Kar for contributionsHuge shoutout to our admin team for the day Karan

Agarwal and Omkar Borate

Rules

21 Questions. 11-15 are two part questions, each part is worth a point. Quizmaster is not God. We don’t need that hypothesis.

(Brownie points if you get the reference)Quizmaster’s decision is final and binding tho.

Please switch off all electronic devices. Anyone caught cheating or using a cell phone will be immediately disqualified.

Q. 1

It is claimed that James Thomson, brother of Lord Kelvin, who is known for his work on Water Wheels, Pumps and Turbines introduced the term X in English Scientific Literature. X is derived from a Latin word which can mean "to twist or turn" and is also the etymological root of words like distort & torture. X is also a term used by historians to denote twisted metal necklaces worn anciently. ID X

Q. 2

After the successful launch of SWAYAM, COEP's Satellite initiative now plans to build and launch a solar sail aircraft. Apart from the Japanese IKAROS, the only other such spacecraft to be successfully deployed is one developed by The Planetary Society, which is currently headed by Bill Nye. Identify this spacecraft, which derives its name from the fact that it uses photons for propulsion.

Q. 3

Ramesh Raskar is a COEP alumni who has been working in MIT Media Lab since 2007. He was in the news recently for winning the prestigious Lemelson-MIT prize. He developed a radical imaging system, a camera which records at a trillion frames per second, using laser pulses which last for 10−15 seconds. It is said to be so detailed that it shows light itself in motion. What is the name of this technology?

Q. 4

A ______ resistor is an electrical component made up of two conductive surfaces separated by a dielectric material, twisted 180° and connected. Once the ______ resistor is connected up in this way it effectively has only one side and one continuous surface. It provides a resistor that has no residual self-inductance, meaning that it can resist the flow of electricity without causing magnetic interference at the same time. FITB.(Image follows)

Q. 5

FITB in this 1971 song called "Bitch" by The Rolling Stones –

"Yeah when you call my name

I salivate like a ______ ___

Yeah when you lay me out

My heart is beating louder than a big bass drum“

As a set, the blanks would include around 40 elements including Bierka, Nalyot,Golovan,Arap and others

*Q. 6

This region, known as Tombaugh Regio, was in the news in 2015 owing to an event that was 9 years in the making. A recent study published in the science journal Nature suggests that its distinctive shape is to a large degree created by highly volatile nitrogen ice that unavoidably accumulates in the basin and forms a permanent reservoir of ice. The massive glacier making up much of the region will change shape with time, enlarging and shrinking.

Where would you find the Tombaugh Regio? And what distinctive shape are we talking about?

Q. 7

Although Murphy's Law is a major theme in this movie, something called the Kessler Syndrome is what sets the plot in motion. Kessler predicted that by 2000, the density of <deleted> would be so high that it would lead to a domino effect like scenario of collisions, rendering the use of <deleted> unfeasible for many generations. This prediction ,however, proved to be false, due to certain preventive measures.Which movie?

Q. 8

________ Day is an international professional day recognized in many technology companies. It is celebrated on the 256th day of each year. The number 256 was chosen because it is the number of distinct values that can be represented with an eight-bit byte. 256 is also the highest power of two that is less than 365, the number of days in a common year.

Mother Russia has made this a holiday by decree. FITB.

*Q. 9

X is a an airbreathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow. X engines have no rotating parts, don't have to carry oxygen and operate very efficiently at high speeds, which means they can potentially make space travel much cheaper.ID X, a technology which ISRO tested recently, thus making India one of only 5 nations to possess this technology.

Q. 10

__________ is a genus of dinosaurs. Its fossilized bones were discovered by the Geological Survey of India in the Narmada Valley, hence the name of the species is ______ Narmadensis. It was named so because of an unusual yet impressive crest on its head, which resembles a <deleted>.

You may know this name from another reference. FITB.

Q. 11a

The 'A' line is the altitude that produces an atmospheric pressure so low that water boils at normal temperature of human body. It represents the altitude beyond which humans can absolutely not survive in an unpressurised suit i.e. pressure suits are required above this altitude. Above earth, this altitude is about 18-19 KM.ID A

Q.11b The 'B' line lies at an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 mi)

above the Earth's sea level, and commonly represents the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space. Around this altitude, the atmosphere becomes too thin to support aeronautical flight, because a vehicle at this altitude would have to travel faster than orbital velocity to derive sufficient aerodynamic lift to support itself. That is, this is the line where aerodynamics stops and astronautics begins.

ID B

Q. 12a

This inorganic blue pigment, named after its constituent elements, was accidentally produced by Prof. Mas Subramaniam and his team when they were studying electrical properties of Manganese Oxide in 2009. It was in the news because of its vibrant, near perfect blue colour, durability, safety and heat reflecting properties, making it a "cool" colour. Commercial production of this pigment started in 2016. Which pigment?

Q.12b

This is a substance made of vertically aligned nano tube arrays of carbon, and is the blackest substance known, absorbing upto 99.965% of radiation in the visible spectrum. Initially developed for military and solar energy purposes, this substance caused outrage among artists because exclusive rights to use this colour were given to Anish Kapoor. What is the name of this substance?

Q. 13a

X was a brand of canned meat which became popular during WW2, and is still ubiquitous in the US and the territories it controlled in the Pacific. However, a Monty Python sketch portrayed X as tasting horrible, ubiquitous and inescapable, characteristics which led to its name being borrowed for irrelevant, unsolicited electronic messages, typically sent to a large number of people. ID X.

Q. 13b

Y is email that has been subscribed to and is therefore solicited, like news alerts, periodic messages from e-merchants or social networking sites, etc. The name is used to convey the fact that "Y is much better than X, but not as good as personal e-mail". ID Y

Tombstones of famous scientists who contributed to the field of thermodynamics. ID

Q. 14a

Q. 14b

Q. 15a

Google Doodle celebrating whose birthday?

Q. 15b

_____ Logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth values of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1, considered to be _____, instead of the "crisp" values of just 1 and 0. Introduced with the 1965 proposal of _____ set theory by Lotfi Zadeh, it now finds applications in control theory (high speed trains, helicopters, washing machines & vacuum cleaners, etc.) and artificial intelligence. FITB

Q. 16

When Microsoft was porting several million lines of code from 32-bit to 64-bit Windows, one particular third party software which had been part of Windows since Windows 95 developed a nasty bug which rendered its "collision detector" defunct. Since the code was completely uncommented and Microsoft didn't have the resources to debug it, it was discontinued in further versions. Which app?

Q. 17

In astronomy, an asterism is any pattern of stars recognized in the Earth's night sky. It may be part of an official constellation or it may be composed of stars from more than one constellation. The Belgian radio channel Studio Brussels and the MIRA Public Observatory identified one such asterism in January, but due to a misinterpretation, the news that there is a new constellation soon went viral. Who was the asterism dedicated to?

Q. 18

Created by Paul Bucheit, this web based service was initially codenamed Caribou, borrowing the name of a mysterious corporate project occasionally alluded to in Dilbert. Since it was launched on 1st April, and considering the parent company's history with pranks and the implausibility of such a service at that time, it was considered by many to be an April Fool's Day hoax. Which service, which is now the dominant service in its field?

*Q. 19

There is a story about an Indian temple in Kashi Vishwanath which contains a large room with three time-worn posts in it surrounded by 64 golden disks. Brahmin priests, acting out the command of an ancient prophecy, have been moving these disks, in accordance with the immutable rules of the Brahma, since that time. According to the legend, when the last move will be completed, the world will end. If the legend were true, and if the priests were able to move disks at a rate of one per second, using the smallest number of moves, it would take them 264−1 seconds or roughly 585 billion years or to finish, or about 127 times the current age of the sun.This is said to be the inspiration behind which mathematical game?

*Q. 20

In 1854, the Broad Street area of Soho district in London was hit by an epidemic. John Snow (yes, a real person), a physician investigating the outbreak made an important discovery, which went against the then dominant "miasma theory". He persuaded local authorities to remove the handle of a handpump, and within days the outbreak died out. What was his discovery?

Q. 21

Google, especially the Chrome team is known for their witty error messages.

In Google Chrome, “He’s Dead, Jim!” is an error message that lets you know that the tab has crashed.

Which character is this a reference/tribute to?