The Inquire Clubs Critical Questions

These first 5 questions were not thought of by the Inquire Club, but instead by
students at the University of Chicago. These questions can be used by applicants as
prompts when writing their admissions essay, however the Inquire Club simply used
them as discussion points and does not take credit for the questions themselves.
1. Whats so odd about odd numbers?
2. Choose a word, tell us what it means, and then explain why it cannot (or
should not) be translated from its original language.
3. Create your own group of threes, and describe why and how they fit together.
4. Were pH an expression of personality, what would be your pH and why?
5. Why are you here and not somewhere else?
The following were created by Inquire Club Members:
1. Why are concepts between languages not always translatable?
2. Why would a ruler set up an entity outside of his immediate power where
people learn about universal truths besides those the ruler dictates?(Why
create universities?)
3. Do we kill flowers because theyre beautiful?
4. Are black holes hot or cold?
5. What does it mean if you have the same dream twice?
6. What language do bilingual people think in?
7. How do animals talk?
8. Why is heaven up and hell down?
9. How did people originally figure out that the moon was closer to Earth than
the Sun?
10.How do you think about another dimension when youve never seen it?
11.Why is rap music so vulgar?
12.What are colors?
13.How/Where do stereotypes come from?
14.Is geometry real or just an idea?
15.How was the first language written?
16.Why do humans stop growing?
17.Is oxygen really deadly and it takes 70 years to kill us?
18.How do we need our sense and why do we have them?
19.How do you know if youre being oppressed?
20.How do we define being alive?
21.Who was the first person to conceive of racial segregation and why?
22.How can we understand what light is like when it behaves like nothing weve
ever seen?
23.Why are some sounds appealing to the human ear?(Why do we like certain
generas of music?)
24.Why do we care about the way we look?
25.Where do idioms come from?
26.Why is winking associated with being sexy?
27.Can time be real when it is only a manmade thing?

28.We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true
and sufficient to explain their appearances-Newton. Was he right?
29.What is humans did not have the faculty of sight, could we have made it this
far?
30.How does a piece of glass give us immense power?
31.Why should we want to explore?
32.If you cant see it, is it there?
33.Is the self reliant on sensation or matter?
34.Do we have free will?
35.Do numbers exist?
36.If you were deprived of any sensory stimulation your entire life(born in a
white room and never allowed to leave), what would you be able to think
about? Could you still imagine?
37.Why is the speed of light 3x10^8m/s and why is that the cosmic speed limit?
38.Why are human beings bothered by not knowing things?
39.If you lined up billiard balls a light year long and hit one end, would the ball at
the other end shoot off instantaneously? Or would the energy take time to
travel?
40.Why dont I look like a tree?
41.Why is light hot?
42.Why does energy=motion?
43.Why does 1+1=2?
44.What is on the edge of the universe?
45.What did the beginning of the universe look like?
46.Can you observe the beginning?
47.What do you need to start a universe?
48.If you are given only a stick, what can you figure out about the universe?
49.Why does tea brewing look like a galaxy?
50.Why are there only 7 basic units of measurement?
51.Are there forms of energy besides the big 3: mass, thermal, and chemical?
52.How were electrons discovered?
53.Why are liquids rarer than gases?
54.. . . .