Highest Scoring Entry for 2007 Physics World Quiz Contest?

[physarrista]

Regarding 20,
I found a german article about German scientists being deported to the soviet union in 1946 and forced to work on soviet war technology.
http://www.mdr.de/doku/archiv/geschichte/3420056.html"

There is a scientist, named Helmut Groettrup, mentioned
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Gröttrup"
but it seems, he worked on rockets, not on missiles. Funnily, rockets and missiles translate to the same word in German: Rakete. So, maybe there's a translation error somewhere in the question?

I can't google up anything else.

 

[Kurdt]

Thats probably better than old Oswald.

A rocket and a missile are essentially the same thing.

 

[George Jones]

It seems I have found all except for 12 and 20.

If you have 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18, don't you have 12 by the process of elimination?

12 was probably the easiest question on the quiz, because I am familiar with the guy's situation. He's moving from the U.S. to Canada, in part, because of the athletics programmes at U.S. universities.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Regarding 20,
I found a german article about German scientists being deported to the soviet union in 1946 and forced to work on soviet war technology.
http://www.mdr.de/doku/archiv/geschichte/3420056.html"

There is a scientist, named Helmut Groettrup, mentioned
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Gröttrup"

There were a number of German rocket scientists who worked for the Soviets after the war. As near as I can tell, they were all let go before sputnik. For instance, in the link you provided, it says Helmut was allowed to return to Germany in 1955, two years before sputnik. Oswald Putze was also among these Germans.

I can't find any of the group that distinguished himself in any way. Yet the question asks for a 'lone' German who played a 'key' part.

 

[physarrista]

A rocket and a missile are essentially the same thing.

Oh, in that case I'd place my bet at that Helmut Groettrup type. I found another article, that named him as "the soviets biggest catch", but then I quickly lost the link again.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

If you have 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18, don't you have 12 by the process of elimination?

12 was probably the easiest question on the quiz, because I am familiar with the guy's situation. He's moving from the U.S. to Canada, in part, because of the athletics programmes at U.S. universities.

I suppose I could be in prison for a week before I noticed the walls around me. My eyes passed over that list of answers again and again and I never noticed it.
12

Carl Wieman

Source:
Process of elimination. I can't find a source for this.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Here's more on Herr Groettrup. Not 'lone'. I wonder if they mean von Braun himself. He didn't work directly for the Soviets, but his influence was key.

In the Soviet Union, Early Russian Ballistic Missiles were developed using the skills of a captive German rocket team headed by von Braun's assistant, Helmut Groettrup.

http://www.astronautix.com/articles/spulus50.htm"

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Here's a site that supports Groettrup.
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/r7.htm"

Groettrup G-4 IRBM evaluated against Korolev's R-3. R-3 project reformulated Nation: USSR. Program: Navaho. The NTS (Scientific-Technical Soviet) of NII-88 met in plenary session and subjected Korolev's proposal to withering criticism. The G-4 was found to be superior. After heated discussion, the Soviet approved further development of technology for the R-3, but not the missile itself. The decisions were: an R-3A technology demonstrator would be built and flown under Project N-1 (probably to prove G-4 concepts). Under Project N-2 both the RD-110 and D-2 engines would proceed into development test in order to prove Lox/Kerosene propellant technology. Packet rocket and lightweight structure research for use in an ICBM would continue under project N-3 / T-1. Winged intercontinental cruise missile studies would continue under project N-3 / T-2. Neither the G-4 or R-3 ended up in production, but the design concepts of the G-4 led directly to Korolev's R-7 ICBM (essentially a cluster of G-4's or R-3A's) and the N1 superbooster. Work on the G-4 continued through 1952.

Note the embolded words. It was the R-7 that lifted Sputnik.

 

[physarrista]

yep, good point.
I found http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/31258" article on physicsworld, which is probably the article they are referring to.
Both of the guys are mentioned.

The only scientist who had elected to stay was Helmut Gröttrup, yet that single German engineer would turn out to be more than sufficient to revolutionize Soviet missile technology...

I still think it's Groettrup, although that "lone" throws me a bit off.

Maybe submit two versions of answers.. or would that be cheating.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

yep, good point.
I found http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/31258" article on physicsworld, which is probably the article they are referring to.
Both of the guys are mentioned.



I still think it's Groettrup, although that "lone" throws me a bit off.

Maybe submit two versions of answers.. or would that be cheating.

The url you link to is physicsworld itself. That suits me. Let's go with Groettrup and submit. I don't have time as I am leaving just now for a week long vacation. All the answers are in this thread, and it only remains for someone to collect them and send them in.