Science Trivia Challenge - 8 June 1 PM CST

[micromass]

I will be hosting a science trivia challenge this sunday 8 june at 1 PM CST.

There will be 25 questions about all kinds of scientific knowledge.

Everybody is welcome!

 

[interhacker]

Awesome! Are there any rules?

EDIT: Have trivias happened on PF before? I'd appreciate it if anyone can give me a link so I know how they work.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I'm in! Hope I can get a few points :)

 

[micromass]

Awesome! Are there any rules?

EDIT: Have trivias happened on PF before? I'd appreciate it if anyone can give me a link so I know how they work.

Don't worry, you'll do fine! The rules are simple, the first person to answer a question gets 1 point. I announce who gets the points and my announcement is final

Googling the answer is allowed. Who ends up getting the most points is the winner!

 

[interhacker]

Fun fact: June 8 is also the day when the final episode of Cosmos: A Space-time Odyssey will be released. :)

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Fun fact: June 8 is also the day when the final episode of Cosmos: A Space-time Odyssey will be released. :)

Maybe we can have a Cosmos question!

 

[adjacent]

Fun fact: June 8 is also the day when the final episode of Cosmos: A Space-time Odyssey will be released. :)

it's going to end

 

[interhacker]

Maybe we can have a Cosmos question!

that would be cool.

 

[Evo]

Awesome micro!

 

[Matterwave]

42

I am awaiting my winnings...

 

[interhacker]

42

I am awaiting my winnings...

The answer to life, the universe and everything. Lol.

 

[interhacker]

Damn. It turns out 1 PM CST is 11 PM in my local time. :(

 

[adjacent]

Damn. It turns out 1 PM CST is 11 PM in my local time. :(

Me too

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Me too

Damn. It turns out 1 PM CST is 11 PM in my local time. :(

So what? Sounds like a party! I'll bring the chips and salsa! :)

 

[adjacent]

So what? Sounds like a party! I'll bring the chips and salsa! :)

hahaha. Yeah

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Reminder for trivia tomorrow! Be there!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Trivia starting in 35min!

 

[reenmachine]

Scores for this week:

CAF - 1
Evo - 1
Jackyruth - 1
DavidSnider - 2
trollcast - 4
interhacker - 5
jbunniii - 6
Jonathan scott - 17

Winner: Jonathan Scott

 

[adjacent]

meh ~~~

 

[micromass]

QUESTIONS:

1) Let's put a cube on a table, resting on one of its sideplanes. What happens to the pressure applied by the cube on the table when I double the dimensions of the cube (using the same material)?

Doubles

2) This Greek letter is used to express a change or difference in values, in the upper case. A triangular area of alluvial deposit at the mouth of a river is named after this letter, because its shape resembles this letter in the upper case. Which letter is this?

Delta

3) Which metal has atomic weight about 50 and is named after the Norse goddess of beauty and fertiliy Freyja. This element is very well-known to all PF-users.

Vanadium

4) The meaning of this word is "A marsh at the inlet or outlet of a lake or a river". It is from a Cajun version of Choctaw word for creek. It is also part of the name for a restaurent on the Pirates of the Carribean at Disneyland.

Bayou

5) Which band performed the great song "Born on the Bayou"?

CCR

6) What number can be measured with the Buffon Needle Experiment?

Pi

7) Pi has been said to have the property that all finite sequences occur with equal probability in the decimal expansion of pi. This property of pi has not yet been proven. What do we call a number with these properties?

normal

8) What is the effect called that hot water may freeze faster than cold water?

Mpemba effect

9) Why is it easy to lose cell phone reception when traveling over a hill or down a valley, but the radio keeps playing without interruption?

Different wavelengths

10) In 1954 Soviet surgeon Vladimir Demikhov surgically created what animal that shocked the world?

Two headed dog

11) This solar system object was once a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt. It is now locked in a retrograde orbit around Neptune. It is the coldest object that has yet been measured in the solar system with estimated temperatures of 38K. What object is this?

Triton

12) Helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon are collectively known as "Noble Gases", and do not react easily to form compounds. Out of these, which one is present in the largest amount in the air we breathe?

Argon

13) One way to create darkness is by repelling light. Lene Hau was the first person able to stop light completely in 2001. She accomplished this by sending light beams through super cooled atoms that had reached what state of matter?

Bose-Einstein condensate

14) Where in the human body would you find erythrocytes, leucocytes and platelets?

Blood

15) General Sherman, the world's largest living organism (in terms of volume) at the beginning of the 21st century, is a ...

Tree

16) What are Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka known for?

Stars in Orions belt

17) What was the maiden name of Buzz Aldrin's mother?

Moon

18) The Milky Way is part of a much larger cluster of galaxies. What is the name of this group?

Virgo supercluster

19) What event lasts approximately 26000 years and was first discovered by Hipparchus?

Precession of the equinoxes

20) All the continents on the Earth at one time were part of one super continent before plate tectonics began breaking them apart. The name given to this continent was of course Pangea. But what was the name of the ocean surrounding Pangea?

Panthalassa

21) Chicxulub is a town in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. What is located near this town that bears the same name?

Crater that wiped out the dinosaurs

22) How many integers are there in the pH scale?

15

23) What islands would you associate H.M.S Beagle with?

Galapagos Islands

24) The idea that everything is made up of a few simple parts originated during the 400's B.C., in the philosophy of atomism. Atomism was founded by which Greek Philosopher?

Demicritus

25) Lead is to plumbum as antimony is to

Stibium

 

[micromass]

Join us next week for another trivia!

 

[Borek]

Strange, http://www.thetimenow.com/cst/central_standard_time states it is 12:50 pm now, which means trivia challenge starts in about 10 minutes.

Is there anybody traveling at relativistic speeds here? Or should I just sue them?

 

[micromass]

Strange, http://www.thetimenow.com/cst/central_standard_time states it is 12:50 pm now, which means trivia challenge starts in about 10 minutes.

Is there anybody traveling at relativistic speeds here? Or should I just sue them?

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/central-time/

 

[Borek]

22) How many integers are there in the pH scale?

And what was the intended answer?

 

[micromass]

And what was the intended answer?

15 was the answer

 

[Borek]

http://www.thetimenow.com/cst/central_standard_time

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/central-time/

Sadly, thetimenow is a first hit in google for "cst time now".

If I will ever do a trivia quiz, starting hour will be given in Warsaw time. Everyone attending the quiz at the correct moment will get 1 point just for showing up.

 

[Borek]

15 was the answer

So you were not aware of the fact it is possible to prepare solutions with pH=-1

 

[jbunniii]

Borek is technically right. Current central STANDARD time is 1:00pm. However, America only uses standard time during the winter months. The rest of the year we* use daylight saving time (clocks shifted one hour later) so it is 2:00pm central daylight time.

* Except for Hawaii and Arizona, which don't use daylight time

 

[dlgoff]

This is a screenshot from http://www.worldtimezone.com/. Maybe fill in the boxes in this image with the start times and post?

 

[mfb]

To avoid issues with time zones, you can always give times relative to the time of posts. "5 hours after this post" is the same for all users, assuming they set the displayed time zone correctly.

pH=15 should be possible in theory, too, right? Just based on the available number of water molecules...

 

[Borek]

pH=15 should be possible in theory, too, right? Just based on the available number of water molecules...

I am not sure. In theory yes, but in practice even strong bases are way too weak, and they won't be dissociated 100%. Kb for NaOH is something like 0.6 (compare that with Ka for HCl in the 10^-4 range).

This is quite convoluted, as pH is in general defined using H⁺ activity, not concentration, and in highly concentrated solutions activity coefficients take some unexpected values (initially they go below 1, but then they rise). So while there is no doubt it is possible to have solution with pH higher than 14, I have no idea whether it can get up to 15. I know solutions with pH around -1 were reported in the literature.

 

[drizzle]

Today's trivia was very good, I liked it. :DNot that I answered any question. :red face:

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Thanks for the trivia MM!

 

[adjacent]

The trivia was very good, I even got -1 point. lol

 

[Evo]

That was fun, and I think the length of time was perfect.

 

[Matterwave]

Was there a thread where you submitted answers or were they supposed to be PM'd to Micromass?

 

[micromass]

Was there a thread where you submitted answers or were they supposed to be PM'd to Micromass?

It happened in the chatroom! I notice I forgot to add the answers to my questions... Dumb me... Let me fix that.

 

[Matterwave]

There's a chat room? ._.

 

[micromass]

There's a chat room? ._.

https://www.physicsforums.com/chat/flashchat.php

 

[Matterwave]

Also, I've heard that there's a fungus that lives underground and spreads across like 3 states...I vaguely remember reading this on cracked...if true, wouldn't that be much larger than any tree in terms of volume?

 

[Evo]

I posted about the fungus, I was ignored, but I do believe the fungus is larger.

The largest living fungus may be a honey fungus[201] of the species Armillaria ostoyae.[202] A mushroom of this type in the Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, U.S. was found to be the largest fungal colony in the world, spanning 8.9 km² (2,200 acres) of area.[203][204] This organism is estimated to be 2400 years old. The fungus was written about in the April 2003 issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research. While an accurate estimate has not been made, the total weight of the colony may be as much as 605 tons[vague]. If this colony is considered a single organism, then it is the largest known organism in the world by area, and rivals the aspen grove "Pando" as the known organism with the highest living biomass. It is not known, however, whether it is a single organism with all parts of the mycelium connected.[204]

It seems to be an issue of whether it is truly a single organism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_organisms#Fungi

 

[Matterwave]

Somebody has some 'splainin' to do...