• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Washington University High School Academic Challenge VIII January 28, 2006 Round 2 Written by members of Washington University Academic Team Edited by Lori Currier, Ryan Jacobson, Sean Phillips and Jon Pinyan

1. The number of players on the field at one time on a rugby team, it is also the number of Popes named Innocent. Douglass Adams has said he was not making a joke in the base of this number, even though in that base, 6 times 9 really does equal 4-2 (“four-two”). For 10 points, name this prime Fibonacci number that Jennifer Garner was before she was 30, which some consider unlucky. ANSWER: 13.

2. The most prominent of them was Clement Vallandigham, a congressman from Ohio. Their name was given to them by opposition Republicans, who thought they attacked like vicious snakes. They earned this reputation as vocal opponents of Lincoln's curtailing of civil liberties and most notably as proponents of immediate peace talks with the Confederacy. For ten points, who were these Civil War peace Democrats? ANSWER: Copperheads (accept Peace Democrats before "name")

3. This man frequently stated that he was born on July 4th, 1900, although records later showed that he was probably born on August 4th, 1901. After learning the trumpet under the watchful eye of Joe "King" Oliver, he moved to Chicago and developed both as a bandleader and later as a jazz vocalist. One of his first recordings was on Bessie Smith’s classic “St. Louis Woman” playing the cornet. For 10 points, identify this man, known for many songs including "Hello Dolly" and “What a Wonderful World.” ANSWER: Louis Armstrong

4. This play is referenced in the final lines of Shakespeare in Love, and the movie’s heroine shares her name with the heroine of the play. Additionally, both women disguise themselves as men, though the lady in the play is a page to the Duke Orsino rather than an actor. For 10 points, identify this Shakespearean comedy, named for a holiday, in which confusion ensues between Viola and her twin brother Sebastian. ANSWER: Twelfth Night, or What You Will

5. His first experience in politics came in 1977 when he was named the Minister of Agriculture, and in 1981, he was named Minister of Defense. He continued to hold various governmental positions until 1999, when he became head of the Likud Party, and in February 2001, he was elected Prime Minister. For 10 points, name this man, Prime Minister of Israel until January 2006, when he suffered two strokes. ANSWER: Ariel Sharon

6. He earned the enmity of Metternich, who considered him an enormous source of problems. He was on similarly rocky terms with Cavour and the Italian monarchy, which imprisoned and exiled him. This antagonism with authority began when he joined the Carbonari and later organized a new political movement. Liberation and the establishment of democratic republics across Europe was the goal of, for 10 points, what founder of the Young Italy movement and early associate of Giuseppe Garibaldi? ANSWER: Giuseppe Mazzini

7. Today’s are a measly 42 microns thick, weaved into a coil, and then coiled up again. In use, it reaches a temperature of about 4600 degrees Fahrenheit. Over time, thin spots develop in it; it breaks and can no longer function as a resistor. For ten points, identify this part of our incandescent light bulbs, a thin wire made of tungsten. ANSWER: filament

8. Its subtitle is The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death. Characters that make appearances from the author’s other works include Eliot Rosewater from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and Howard W. Campbell, Jr. from Mother Night. Throughout the novel, the main character hops back and forth in time including the time of his own death, as he sits in the makeshift prison in Dresden. For 10 points what is this novel about Billy Pilgrim by Kurt Vonnegut? ANSWER: Slaughterhouse-Five

9. Pencil and paper ready. At our last quiz bowl tournament, Shelbyville High finished a game with a score that was a multiple of both seven and 13, but 4 more than a multiple of 11. Since a team’s score must be positive, but less than 800, and quiz bowl scores are multiples of five, for 10 points what was Shelbyville High’s score in that game? You have 15 seconds. ANSWER: 455 (455 = 5*7*13 and 451 = 11*41)

10. His birth name signifies that he came from a line of blacksmiths, though he was not known for being a blacksmith. It can be said he led a prolific life: aside from his vast military conquests, he kept 500 concubines, and it is estimated 16 million modern humans can trace their ancestry to him. For 10 points, identify this Mongol whose troops killed far more than that number as he united large portions of Central Asia under his rule. ANSWER: Genghis Khan

11. 60,000 World War I soldiers were killed by them, and the mayor of a French alpine town was once convicted of second degree murder for failing to warn his town of one. If you are ever caught in one, remember to find airspace near your head and use a swimming motion to reach the surface. You could even use skis as a shovel. For ten points, identify the term for a cascade of snow down a mountain. ANSWER: Avalanche

12. He played his college football career at the University of Minnesota starting as their quarterback in 1973, breaking their records for passing yards, attempts, and touchdown passes. After being the backup safety for the Steelers in Super Bowl XIII, he was traded to the 49ers and after being cut by the Giants started coaching for his alma mater. Hired to coach Tampa Bay in 1995, he led them to the playoffs three times but was fired in 2001 after brutal playoff losses. For 10 points who is this coach who has had a tumultuous year with the death of his son and the success of his Indianapolis Colts? ANSWER: Tony Dungy

13. The Hyphen War was the dispute over what to call this country. A hyphen had previously been used between 1918 and 1920, and again between 1938 and 1939, but one wasn’t used outside of those periods of independence. One attempted compromise would have had a hyphen used in one of its two official languages, and not in the other. For 10 points, name this defunct country whose underlying cultural differences ultimately resulted in the Velvet Divorce and whose capital city used to be Prague? ANSWER: Czechoslovakia

14. Born in Nevis in the West Indies, this man gave a six-hour speech at the Constitutional Convention that vigorously insisted that the United States should have a king. Although he later denied making such a speech, he was a staunch supporter of a strong national government, a view he made known in his most famous writings. For 10 points, identify this man, one of the authors of the Federalist Papers and who served as the first Secretary of the Treasury. ANSWER: Alexander Hamilton

15. Pythagorean triples are actually very easy to generate. Start with any odd integer, a, such as 13. Now take the result, subtract one, and divide by two. You are left with a second number, b. Adding one to b gives us yet another number, c, such that a2+ b2= c2. For 10 points, using this technique, give the Pythagorean triple whose smallest element, a, is 13. ANSWER: 13, 84, 85

16. In 1965, a collection of articles he wrote was published as The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine- Flake Streamline Baby. John Glenn tried to use this author’s 1979 book, The Right Stuff, as part of his argument for why Glenn should be president in 1984, to the author’s chagrin. His initial notoriety came in the sixties following Ken Kesey and his merry gang of pranksters in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. For 10 points who is this author known for his white suits and for works like The Bonfire of the Vanities? ANSWER: Tom Wolfe

17. Natural ones include beets, curry powder, and strawberries, but the more commonly used of these color-changing chemical compounds include malachite green and phenol red. They are usually weak acids or bases and can be used to determine the extent of a specific chemical reaction. For ten points, name these compounds, valued for the color change they experience when bound to hydrogen or hydroxide ions. ANSWER: pH indicators

18. In 1819 the German chemist Friedrich Ferdinand Runge first isolated this white, crystalline substance. It is structurally similar to adenosine, and is therefore able to bind the same receptors. The result is an increase in the hormones adrenaline and norepinephrine, causing an increase in heart rate. These effects should seem familiar if, for 10 points, you are a drinker of tea or coffee, both of which contain this substance? ANSWER: Caffeine 19. This incident featured attacks on two American destroyers, although one attack was later proven to be false. Robert McNamara, despite personal doubts, testified before Congress that these attacks were wholly unprovoked. For ten points, what was this incident which led to increased US involvement in Vietnam, a confrontation in a body of water off Vietnam’s coast? ANSWER: Gulf of Tonkin Incident

20. Hercules had to deal with several of these during his tenth labor. After slaying the guardians, Hercules then encountered the priest Cacus who stole some. They were eventually sacrificed to Hera who had used a gadfly and a flood to impede Hercules’ progress with them. Name, for 10 points, these animals, an example of which is one into which Zeus transformed Io. ANSWER: cow

21. The Peruvian newspaper La Republica incorrectly reported this author’s death in 2000. Since then, he has published his memoir, Living to Tell the Tale, and another novel, Memories of my Melancholy Whores, to go along with such works as Chronicle of a Death Foretold and No One Writes to the Colonel. For 10 points, identify this magical realist author of Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude. ANSWER: Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1. Answer these questions about electrolysis for 10 points each. [10] Name the type of electrochemical cell in which electrolysis occurs ANSWER: Electrolytic cell [10] Off of what element’s half cell reaction are most Standard Reduction Potentials based? ANSWER: Hydrogen [10] Name the equation that governs the voltage difference over time of an electrochemical cell. ANSWER: Nernst equation

2. Identify the U.S. state from its current governor for 10 points each. [10] Kathleen Sebelius ANSWER: Kansas [10] Kathleen Blanco ANSWER: Louisiana [10] Janet Napolitano ANSWER: Arizona

3. For ten points each, identify the major figures in a controversial art purchase. [10] The painting in question, a seventeenth century work featuring two classical Greeks, one a poet, the other a philosopher. ANSWER: Aristotle with a Bust of Homer [10] The painter of the work, who dominated Dutch artistic life with paintings such as the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. ANSWER: Rembrandt van Rijn [10] The New York museum that paid two million dollars in 1961 for the work, a then- unprecedented amount. ANSWER: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

4. For 10 points, answer these questions about a recent NASA mission. [10] Pluto, the last planet not yet explored in detail will be visited by this unmanned probe, launched January 19. ANSWER: New Horizons [10] New Horizons will cut its journey time significantly and increase its speed with a gravity boost from this planet. ANSWER: Jupiter [10] New Horizons is forecast to arrive in the vicinity of Pluto in what year? ANSWER: 2015

5. Identify these political scandals from US history from a list of people somehow involved for ten points each. [10] Union Pacific railroad executive Thomas Durant, Representative Oaks Ames, future president James Garfield ANSWER: Credit Mobilier [10] Senator Albert Fall, oil businessman Harry F. Sinclair, President Warren Harding ANSWER: Teapot Dome [10] Security guard Frank Wills, White House aide John Ehrlichmann, ANSWER: Watergate

6. Authors commonly use pseudonyms when publishing their work. Answer the following questions about such names FTPE. [10] “Mark Twain” is actually a term he learned during his days on the Mississippi. ANSWER: Samuel Langhorne Clemens [10] This short story writer’s real name was William Sydney Porter. ANSWER: O. Henry [10] He published his A History of New York under the name Dietrich Knickerbocker. ANSWER: Washington Irving

7. Pencil and paper ready. Consider the following list of numbers: 60, 90 and 135. [10] For 5 points, what is the greatest common divisor of these three numbers? ANSWER: fifteen [10] For 10 points, what is the least common multiple of these numbers? ANSWER: 540 [10] For 15 points, what is the geometric mean of these numbers? ANSWER: 90

8. Answer these simple Mendelian genetics questions for ten points each. Assume that the tall allele is dominant, short is recessive. [10] If a homozygous dominant tall plant mates with a short plant, what is the probability that their offspring will be a short plant? ANSWER: 0 [10] What fraction of the F2 generation will probably be tall plants? ANSWER: 0.75 [10] What is the name for the square that you probably used to visualize this Mendelian genetics problem? ANSWER: Punnett’s Square or Punnett Square

9. Identify the famous thinker behind these quotes for 10 points each. [10] “I think, therefore I am.” ANSWER: Rene Descartes [10] “In this best of possible worlds, all is for the best.” ANSWER: Voltaire (or Francois-Marie Arouet) [10] “Man was born free and everywhere he is in chains.” ANSWER: Jean Jacques Rousseau

10. Jazz music has come in many flavors over its history. Answer the following questions regarding New Orleans and Chicago jazz for ten points apiece. [10] What instrument was the only woodwind used in both forms? ANSWER: clarinet [10] Chicago-style Jazz added two instruments to the classic New Orleans instrumentation. One instrument was the piano. What was the other instrument added, a relatively recently-created woodwind? ANSWER: saxophone [10] What New Orleans composer, creator of such songs as "Black Bottom Stomp" and "London Blues", was memorialized in a 1992 Broadway musical? ANSWER: Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton

11. For ten points each, name these Russian Tsars: [10] He was the first to adopt the title in 1547. ANSWER: Ivan IV or Ivan the Terrible [10] He was officially the first of his line, but he felt he deserved a title better than “the first.” In addition to Tsar, he adopted the title “emperor” in 1721 to reflect the transformation of Muscovy into the Russian Empire. ANSWER: Peter the Great or Peter I [10] He abdicated to his son Alexei and then his brother Mikhail. All would be murdered in 1918. ANSWER: Nicholas II

12. Answer the following questions turnover at the Federal Reserve for the stated number of points. [5] Until January 31, 2006, this man is Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. ANSWER: Alan Greenspan [10] This man, a former chairman of the Department of Economics at Princeton University, was nominated to take Greenspan’s place. ANSWER: Ben Bernanke [15] Bernanke was a Bush appointee twice in 2005. In June 2005, he was appointed to the chairman of this group, which provides much of the economic policy of the White House. ANSWER: Council of Economic Advisers

13. Identify these biblical Judges, for 10 points each. [10] This was the only female judge. ANSWER: Deborah or Dvora [10] This left-handed judge killed the king of Moab with a hidden sword. ANSWER: Ehud [10] This judge used the jawbone of an ass to kill Philistines. ANSWER: Samson

14. Pencil and paper ready. For 10 points each, find the prime factorization of the following numbers. [10] 60 ANSWER: 2^2 * 3 * 5 (two squared or two to the second, times three times five) [10] 84 ANSWER: 2^2 * 3 * 7 (two squared or two to the second, times three times seven) [10] 288 ANSWER: 2^5 * 3^2 (two to the fifth times three squared or three to the second)

15. For 10 points each answer the following about TV shows featuring quasi-famous people you wish would just go away already. [10] This ABC hit features such names as Masta P and Tatum O’Neal waltzing and doing the cha cha with professional ballroom dancers. ANSWER: Dancing With the Stars [10] This FOX show was evidently more worthwhile than Arrested Development because we get people like Dave Coulier on the ice with Nancy Kerrigan. ANSWER: Skating With Celebrities [10] Hosted by quasi-comedian Ant, this VH1 show details the lives of out of shape “stars” like Biz Markie and Danny Baldwin as they try to shed the weight. Guess they ran through their money and couldn’t afford decent liposuction. ANSWER: Celebrity Fit Club

16. And now it’s time for Name That Brontë! For 10 points each, given a brief plot description, identify which of those famous literary sisters penned the novel described. [10] Agnes, the daughter of a financially ruined minister, takes on the job of a governess to earn enough money to care for herself. ANSWER: Anne (Agnes Grey) [10] Orphaned Jane attends Lowood School, and eventually becomes the governess for Adela, the ward of Mr. Rochester. ANSWER: Charlotte (Jane Eyre) [10] Orphaned Heathcliff loves Catherine Earnshaw, but her family spurns him. He returns years later a wealthy man, determined to find her again. ANSWER: Emily (Wuthering Heights)

17. For 10 points each, name these physical constants from their values: [10] 6.626 x 10-34 Joule-seconds ANSWER: Planck’s constant [10] 6.022 x 1023 ANSWER: Avogadro’s Number [10] 0.529 x 10-10 meters ANSWER: Bohr radius

18. Answer the following about the works of Ray Bradbury for 10 points each. [10] The title of this work deals with the temperature “at which book-paper catches fire.” ANSWER: Fahrenheit 451 [10] This collection of stories deals with refugees from Earth who come into conflict with natives of their new planet. Some of the stories include “The Summer Night,” “The Watchers,” and “There Will Come Soft Rains.” ANSWER: The Martian Chronicles [10] This early Bradbury work is about two boys, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, who live in Green Town, Illinois, and deal with a nightmarish carnival run by Mr. Dark one October evening. Its title comes from a line spoken by a witch in Macbeth. ANSWER: Something Wicked this Way Comes 19. Answer these questions about the Bill of Rights for ten points each. [10] The primary author of the Bill of Rights was this Virginian and future president. ANSWER: James Madison [10] Known as the “father of the bill of rights,” Madison’s work was heavily based off this other man's Virginia Bill of Rights. ANSWER: George Mason [10] You probably know that Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution. Which state was the first to ratify the Bill of Rights? ANSWER: New Jersey

20. For ten points each, name these Napoleonic battles. [10] This 1798 battle took place at night when Admiral Nelson divided his ships of the line into two groups and captured or destroyed twelve of the fifteen French ships present. ANSWER: Battle of the Nile or Battle of Aboukir Bay [10] The Austrian army crossed the Bormida River, surprising the forces of Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. Timely reinforcements by Desaix turned defeat into victory for the French at this 1800 Italian battle. ANSWER: Marengo [10] Reinforcements also changed the tide of this 1815 battle, when Prussian forces under Blücher engaged the French right flank, forcing Napoleon to commit his reserves in this Belgian battle. ANSWER: Waterloo

Load more

  9

Copy Link