Le Questionnaire Des P Tits Génies

Quiz for our young geniuses LCPC's Open House Days, September 26-27, 2009

1) This year, LCPC is celebrating an anniversary. How many years ago was it created? □ 600 million years (LCPC was already operating even before dinosaurs roamed the planet!). □ 600 years (in the midst of the Hundred Years' War between France and England: LCPC in fact was built to make the English jealous). ■ 60 years (the Laboratory was born the same year as Bruce Springsteen, Pedro Almodovar, Meryl Streep, Maxime Le Forestier, Véronique Samson, Dan Ar Braz and Julien Lepers).

2) You no doubt noticed a barrier and checkpoint when entering the site. Why do you think they've been set up? □ The LCPC complex contains some wild animals. The barrier prevents them from escaping! ■ LCPC is a research laboratory, housing some very expensive equipment: we wouldn't want anyone to steal it! Besides, we need protection from spies, you never know! □ LCPC's blackberries are of a super rare variety. To protect them, the entire sector has been walled off and the entrance placed under surveillance.

3) What do you see happening in this photograph?

■ A test is being conducted on the strength of sheet metal (how much weight can it support, how it deforms, etc.). □ A coffee delivery robot is being built. □ Absolutely nothing: it's a modern work of art.

4) The Bouguer Building contains a "centrifuge". What exactly is that? □ A giant salad spinner, for days when LCPC staff organise a big picnic for everyone. □ It's one of the merry-go-rounds at the LCPC amusement park, to allow park employees to enjoy a ride between two scientific experiments (the device can hit 100 G!). ■ It's an instrument used to replicate the Earth's gravitational pull, in order to study structural resistance to earthquakes, for example.

5) What could an RUP be? ■ A Removable Urban Pavement Hint: Look at the □ A Really Unbelievable Pumpkin photo! □ A Recliner Used on the Patio 6) What does the term "anechoic" mean? ■ A room is said to be "anechoic" when there's no echo inside. □ It's a tool shaped like an ant. □ Someone "anechoic" has a nose misshapen due to a shock.

7) What do you see on this photo?

□ A huge spider □ The pendant of a guru in a Raelian cloning cult ■ The pavement fatigue carrousel

8) What is a "reference track"? □ A dance floor reserved exclusively for the company's best dancers. ■ A test track used, for example, to evaluate the attributes of a road (to determine if it's slippery or noisy when driving on it, etc.). □ A term used when hunting season is ready to open (today or tomorrow): the dogs must be trained to follow the prey's tracks! For this reason, the field used is called a "reference track".

9) What is this contraption used for? It's: □ A "smoothie" maker (for mixing fruit juices) ■ A filtration instrument to identify micropollutants in water (especially pollutants in road runoff) □ A peanut distributor

10) What could an "asphalt overlay" or "asphalt mix" be? □ A cooking technique used in the confection industry to sugar-coat candies, like for almonds. □ The name of a famous classical dance step: the dancer twirls around his or her partner, tracing a circle, also known as an "overlay". ■ A mix of gravel, sand and bitumen applied in one or more layers, to compose a road pavement.

Congratulations! You've finished the quiz…