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ASTRONOMY CLUB RIT SCIENTIA13 QUIZ COMPETITION PRELIMS

1. A prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. The point from which they appear to come, called the radiant, lies in the constellation Perseus. Answer: PERSEIDS 2. Anyone 18 or older may apply, but the fee depends on a users nationality. For Americans, its $38; if youre in Mexico, however its a mere $15 Answer: MARS ONE PROJECT 3. According to Herodotus, ___________ predicted the year of the May 28, 585 B.C. solar eclipse. Answer: THALES OF MILETUS 4. Founded in 1964 by Amar G Bose , known for its loudspeakers, noise cancelling headsets, and automotive sound systems. Answer: BOSE CORPORATION 5. The brightest star in the Ursa Minor constellation. Answer: POLE STAR 6. In this hypothetical experiment, which the physicist devised in 1935, a cat is placed in a sealed box along with a radioactive sample, a Geiger counter and a bottle of poison. Answer: SCHRODINGERS CAT EXPERIMENT 7. Abel proved that it was impossible to solve algebraic equations of this degree or higher. Answer: 5th ORDER 8. Identify this value beyond which a white dwarf would collapse into a neutron star and possibly a black hole. Answer: CHANDRASHEKHAR LIMIT 9. In 1978, two high school students, Curt Noll and Laura Nickel discovered the 25 th-one using a supercomputer. Identify these numbers of form 2P-1, named after a French monk.

Answer: MERSENNE PRIME 10. Crepuscular animals are those that are active primarily during _____________? Answer: TWILIGHT/ DAWN AND DUSK 11. Which star is located closer to the Earth? Answer: THE SUN 12. This element has the highest binding energy of any atom, and is thus the last element formed by normal stellar nuclear fusion. Answer: IRON (Fe) 13. This process made it feasible to mass produce fertilisers. In this process Nitrogen and Hydrogen are converted to Ammonia. Answer: HABER PROCESS 14. It is the 4x4x4 version of Rubiks Cube, released in 1982. Invented by Peter Sebesteny. Answer: RUBIKS REVENGE/ MASTER CUBE 15. According to the theory of plate tectonic, all the continents were once joined into a primordial landmass called____________? Answer: PANGAEA 16. Found directly below the Mohorovicic Discontinuity, it is over two thousand miles thick, and makes up nearly seventy-five per cent of the volume. Answer: MANTLE 17. Connect Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top, Bottom. Answer: QUARKS 18. Connect Lever, Wheel and Axle, Wedge, Pulley, Inclined Plane, Screw Answer: SIMPLE MACHINES 19. This person wrote what could be considered the first computer program, a plan on how to use Babbages Analytical Engine to calculate Bernoulli Numbers. Answer: ADA LOVELACE 20. The name for this substance is derived from Latin for through the smoke, some typical ingredients are musk, ambergris, civet, castor.

Answer: PERFUME 21. Name this substance which, with chemical formula C2 (OH4)2 is one of the major ingredients in candles. Answer: PARAFFIN 22. This element takes its name for the Latin word for Copenhagen. It has atomic number 72. Answer: HAFNIUM 23. Identify this largest Asian lake, believed to contain one-fifth of the worlds fresh water due to its incredible depth. Answer: LAKE BAIKAL 24. A region of space-time where space-time curvature becomes so strong that the general relativistic laws break down and laws of quantum gravity take over. Answer: SINGULARITY 25. This general form of geometry omits Euclids fifth postulate about parallel lines. Different flavours were advanced by Lobachevsky, Bolyai and Reimann. Answer: NON EUCLIDEAN