Quintessential Theory

Review and Quiz for Quizkrieg

The Gen-Tech Quiz at UVCE’s annual Tech fest- Impetus drew a huge crowd. Quizmaster for yet another edition was Arul Mani.. A fantastic quiz yet again.

MSRIT team of Karthik and Nishant won the quiz followed by the BMSCE team.

The quiz was a general one with a huge Tech flavour to it

Impetus 2008

29 April 2008

QM: Arul Mani

Winners: Nishant & Karthik- MSRIT

1) This naming convention in programming is an ironic reference to the country from which the person who created it comes. In his country names are ‘reversed’ compared to most other European names; the family name precedes the given name. What practice?

Ans: Hungarian notation after Simonyi

2) Quanta Computers was founded by Barry Lam in 1988, and is still headed by him. They were named original design manufacturer for the XO-1 project and given a contract in 2007 for one million units. How does the layman know the XO-1 project?

Ans: OLPC or One Laptop per Child Programme

3) This law has often been illustrated using the example of fax machines: a single fax machine is useless, but the value of every fax machine increases with the total number of fax machines in the network, because the total number of people with whom each user may send and receive documents increases. It is named after the engineer who first used this idea to describe what he observed in connection with his 1974 invention IEEE 802.3. Which law?

Ans: Metcalfe’s law- Robert (Bob) Metcalfe

4) This German optician is remembered for the discovery of the dark absorption lines in the Sun’s spectrum now known by his name. He lends his name to a research organization with 56 branches across Germany- this organization came up with the MP3 algorithm. Who?

Ans: Franhauffer

5) The term was in use in Middle English Literature to mean ‘to know’. The term can be found in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of bath’s Tale: ‘For well ___ thy patience is gon..’ It gained much attention in the international media because ‘it blends whimsy and new technology’. Identify the term.

Ans: wOOt (Last year’s MW Word of the year)

6) Sparkler (launched on September 12, 1997), Pumpkin, Abigail, Brutus, Chelsea, Playground, Cricket, Kestrel, Ladybird, Merlin, Hopper, Mantis, Tiger, Mustang and Dolphin (anticipated for 2008). Codenames associated with what?

Ans: Java

7) A ruler falls in love with a local dancer named Bhagmati who lives in the village of Chichlam. He builds a city and names it Bhagyanagar after her. Sometime later she converts to Islam, following which the city is given a new name based on her new Muslim name. Identify the city, now a state capital in India.

Ans: Hyderabad

Identify this Indian pilgrimage destination. It has three names, of which one comes from two rivers; the other a Pali corruption of this name while the third name comes from the Sanskrit for ‘shining’. Which town?

Ans: Benaras / Varanasi / Kasi

9) Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgin, Scales, Scorpion, Archer, Sea-goat, Water-bearer and Fish. What are we talking about?

Ans: Symbols associated with the Zodiac

10) The Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment Corporation has had all sorts of problem with maintaining their web presence since 2006. What has caused these difficulties?

Ans: Cuz of YouTube

11) The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. This coating, practically all of which was worn away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands and folds of the robes; the larger one was painted carmine red and the smaller one was painted multiple colours. The lower parts of the statues’ arms were constructed from the same mud straw mix while supported on wooden armatures. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks or casts. This description was true till 2001. What?

Ans: Bamyan Buddhas

12) This 7 letter word is a term denoting globalization- arising from the fact that a company in the food business has a worldwide presence. If you add the letter ‘a’, to this word, you can be referring to a magazine founded by David Bunnell that caters to consumers of a specific Apple Product. Give me one of the two words.

Ans: McWord and MacWorld

13) He was one of the Traitorous Eight who founded Fairchild Semiconductors. The library at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge University is named after him and his wife. He is one of the primary donors at Caltech and a laboratory complex was dedicated in his name in 1996. Who?

Ans: Gordon Moore

14) What variation of a six letter word resulted because Silicon Valley engineer Tim Beauchamp refused in 1997 to relinquish the domain that he was using as a site for math and astronomy?

Ans: Google- Googol

15) What place name would early versions of MS-Word offer you as a correction if you typed in the word ‘Cooperation’ leading thus to the term ___ Effect for the ludicrous spell check on MS-Word?

Ans: Cupertino

16) Dan Bricklin is said to ahe invented the electronic spreadsheet with the introduction of _________ in 1979. What was ____ ?

Ans: Visicalc

17) They are essentially the tops of submerged mountain range that is a continuation of the Arakan Yomas in Burma. They occupy an area of 3185 square miles and lie 121 km south of Cape Negrais. What are we talking about?

Ans: Andaman & Nicobar Islands

1 Which Indian state is said to derive its name either from a dynasty that ruled over the area or from the Sanskrit word for the Coconut Palm tree?

Ans: Kerala

19) This small town in Karnataka is home to the oldest stud farm in Asia. Tipu Sultan is said to have begun breeding horses here. Which small town?

Ans: Kunigal

20) Which legendary Indian won the International marshal Tito award for the best railway sportsperson in 1984, 1985, 1989 and 1990?

Ans: P.T Usha

21) The Chance RT-52 is a small unit built by Chance Coach Inc measuring only 25’ 11’’ in length. It normally carries 19 to 23 passengers and is built to handle short run abouts. The most well known use of this unit resulted in what well known term?

Ans: Wiki – from the Wiki shuttle

22) Which scholar who wrote the Sarvadarsana Sangraha was also instrumental in the founding of Vijayanagar by Harihara and Bukka?

Ans: Vidyaranya

23) This award was instituted in 1991- its first recipient was Vishwanathan Anand. Last year, the award was given to the shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu. Among other things, the winner gets Rs 5, 00,000/-. Name the award.

Ans: Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna

24) The airport that serves Venice is named after which famous explorer and traveler who lived in the city?

Ans: Marco Polo

25) Complete this quote, attributed to one of the wives of the Persian king Nader Shah: “If a strong man should take five stones, and throw one north, one south, one east and one west, and the last straight up into the air, and the space between filled with gold and gems, that would be equal the value of ______”

Ans: Kohinoor

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