PRELIMS

S P O N S O R E D B Y

QUARK “NATIONAL” QUIZ ‘14

V. Balasubramanian Ananth Kachroo Bhargav Vishwanathan

Rules of the prelims

25 questions.

16-20th questions star marked for tie breakers.

Don’t use electronic devices during the quiz.

5 teams to the finals.

1.

It refers to the downward-facing viewing geometry of an orbiting satellite.

It can also be used to represent the lowest point reached by a celestial body during its apparent orbit around a given point of observation.

In oncology, it is used to represent the lowest level of a blood cell count while a patient is undergoing chemotherapy.

Give me this term of Arabic origin.

Nadir

2. Connect

Chronic Halitosis

3.

FITB

Identify the name of the company that has been blanked out.

4.

Everything on this site was written, drawn, and coded by X.

The Y's real name is X and he lives in Seattle, Washington. He subsists on a steady diet of crickets and whiskey. He enjoys long walks on the beach, gravity, and breathing heavily through his mouth. His dislikes include scurvy, typhoons, and tapeworm medication."

X's description of himself . ID both.

X- The Oatmeal Y- Matthew Inman

5. What is this Ad Campaign about?

Morphy Richards

Epilators

6.

It is said that the only game that he ever plays is the original Gameboy Tetris.

He is so good at the game that he constantly dominated Nintendo Power's monthly high score lists.

In 1988 his name was on the high scores list so many times that Nintendo refused to publish his scores anymore.

He then decided to get them published under a pseudonym Evets Kaiznow.

Who are we talking about?

Steve Wozniak

7. Give me the Brand

Flying Machine

8.

In 1992 this world famous character uttered “math class was just too tough” and drew a lot of flack.

In 2009 ironically, this character became a computer engineer. The character’s 126th profession.

In 2013 the character also made a bollywood appearance.

Who are we talking about?

Barbie

9.

Mephedrone, is a synthetic stimulant drug of the amphetamine and cathinone classes.

Reportedly manufactured in China, it comes in the form of tablets or a powder, which users can swallow, snort or inject, producing similar effects to MDMA, amphetamines and cocaine.

Recently, a 19 yr old reportedly cut of his penis & stabbed his mother while high on this drug.

Give me its rather innocuous sounding slang name.

Meow Meow

10.

The following is one of the earliest instances of complaints against it. The Roman senates issued several edicts to prohibit ____ as it lead to the loss of precious gold to the Chinese.

“ I can see clothes of ___, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes… Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body.”

Complaints against what and how is it relevant in modern context?

Silk, products of the original Silk Road.

11.

These are inert, synthetic polymers that include Y along with carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and sometimes other elements.

They have low thermal conductivity, chemical reactivity & toxicity. They also do not support microbiological growth.

Typically heat-resistant and rubber-like, they are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, cooking utensils & insulation.

I haven’t given its most well known use, but what set of compounds am I speaking of?

Silicone

12.

Recently researcher have reasoned that the answer to this question is to reduce the energy requirements by using the upwash while avoiding the downwash by carefully synchronising their flaps.

The extra bit of upwash air which passes through the wingtips allows a free boost. This was observed by lowered heart beat rates.

What did the answer?

Why birds flew in a V-shaped pattern?

13.

1 • Such forms of Smart Art

gets its name from

2 • A name famous in the

world of Business

3 • What?

Chevron Lists

14

The old way was the breaking wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel, where the condemned would be strapped to a wheel to be clubbed to death.

The problem with this, however, was that the prisoner could be freed. This is precisely what happened in 1788, when a mob released the prisoner and broke the wheel.

This led to the invention of what was considered one of the most humane devices and one that brought equality to all.

Identify this device named after a professor of anatomy.

Guillotine

15.

X, which has been a pioneer in its field since 1946, was the main forerunner to the direct marketing strategy.

A technique called ‘carrot calling’ helped promote the sale of X artifacts. Representatives would travel door to door in a neighborhood and ask housewives to “run an experiment” in which carrots would be placed in an X artifact and compared with anything else which would result in people choosing X over the ordinary ones.

The main feature which distinguishes X artifacts from its competitors is it’s formerly patented “burping seal”.

X created a means for the housewife to maintain her obligations in the domestic sphere of the household while creating an independence. X?

Tupperware

16*.

This is an instrument also known as Zeusophone

How is it better know in the world of technology?

Tesla Coil

17*.

With a revenue of over $ 3.5 billion, the Welspun Group is an Indian multinational company whose core industry is Steel, Energy, Oil & Gas, and textiles.

Welspun acquired Christy, a Manchester based textile firm in 2006 and shifted manufacturing to its facilities in Anjar in Kutch and Vapi in Valsad.

What sporting association did the acquisition of Christy bring to Welspun?

Wimbledon Towels

18*.

Cast by J W Singer & Sons in the English town of Frome, to a design by Henry Poole RA, they had quickly become part of the Shanghai scene, and passers-by would affectionately stroke them in the belief that power and money would rub off on them.

They were known as Stephen and Stitt, a reference to two of the Shanghai division managers. While one is roaring, the other is quiet, representing the personalities of the two persons after which they are named.

What is being spoken about?

HSBC Lions

19*.

Shitala Mata was both worshipped and feared during her reign. It was believed that this goddess was both evil and kind and had the ability to inflict victims when angered. Portraits of the goddess show her holding a broom in her right hand and a pot of cool water in the other hand in an attempt to soothe victims. Shrines were created where many India natives, both healthy and not, went to worship and attempt to protect themselves from her. Some Indian women, in an attempt to ward off Shitala Mata, placed plates of cooling foods and pots of water on the roofs of their homes.

So who or what exactly is Sitala Mata?

Personification of small pox

20*.

This bird of Greek legend which is commonly associated with the kingfisher gives rise to a phrase denoting fourteen days of calm weather which were to be expected around the winter solstice - usually 21st or 22nd of December in the Northern Hemisphere as that was when the bird calmed the surface of the sea in order to brood her eggs on a floating nest.

Which phrase?

Halcyon Days

21.

During World War 2 chocolate became expensive and scarce due to rationing in Europe. In 1946, an Italian pastry maker named Pietro ____ started adding chopped hazelnuts to chocolate to stretch the supply as much as possible and created Pasta Gianduja, renamed “X” in 1964. What is X?

22.

This company was founded by Dr. Khwaja Abdul Hamied in 1935 in Mumbai and is run now by K.A. Hamied’s son, Dr. Yusuf Khwaja Hamied.

This company is the world's largest manufacturer of antiretroviral drugs. Roughly 40 percent of HIV/AIDS patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy worldwide take drugs manufactured by this company.

Former head of Johnson and Johnson India, Ajit Dangi once famously said "In Africa, X is a temple and Dr. Hamied is God.“

Give me the name of the company.

23.

The _____ ______ problem is a paradox in probability theory loosely based on the American Game Show Lets Make A Deal in which contestants need to choose the right door from several to get prizes. The name of the problem was based on the show's host. The famous statement of the problem was via a letter from Craig F. Whitaker to Marilyn vos Savant's column in the Parade magazine in 1990 (which is turn is a restatement of the problem as given by Steve Serbin in a letter to the American Statistician in February 1975).

What is this problem in probability theory?

Monty Hall

24.

Isolated first in 2004, this material is a 2-D crystalline allotrope of Carbon. On account of its structure, it is the only form of solid material in which each single atom is in exposure for chemical reaction from two sides.

It is very strong, an excellent conductor of heat and electricity and is predicted to transform mobile devices by making flexible cell phones & tablets a reality.

Besides, it is also expected to have extensive applications in fields like medicine, solar power, transistors & electrodes.

Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 "for groundbreaking experiments in this material”

Give me the name of this revolutionary material.

Graphene

25.

Forbes ranked this luxury brand No.57 on its 2012 list of the world's most powerful global brands.

Besides its own brand, it also sells products under the ‘Tudor’ brand name.

Founded by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, in 1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis, this company moved its base of operations to Geneva, Switzerland in 1919. It was felt that the new location would be more conducive to the image of the brand.

It has had a very visible association with Switzerland ever since.

What brand/company?

Rolex