Mark Brader:
> These questions were written to be asked in Toronto on 1998-02-23,
> and should be interpreted accordingly... For further information...
> see my 2020-06-23 companion posting on "Reposted Questions from...
> the Canadian Inquisition (RQFTCI*)".
> I wrote one of these rounds and may have contributed to the other.
I wrote the science round.
> * Game 5, Round 4 - Science - Nuclear Physics
> Hey, it isn't rocket science. (We already had that in Game 3,
> remember?)
This was the 7th-easiest round of the season.
> This round contains several questions that refer to words that
> appeared in answers to earlier questions, although not always the
> immediately preceding questions. I'm going to take the simplest
> route to spoiler protection and post the entire round in rot13
> except for the first question. Please decode questions #2-10
> *one at a time* in turn as you have finished with the respective
> preceding ones. My apologies for any inconvenience.
> Oh yes. I think there are one or more questions where it might
> actually be possible to get the answer *before* decoding them.
> If you know the subject and want to show off, feel free to try
> it and tell us that you did. You will not be given extra points,
> though.
Dan Tilque did this on question #2.
> And if, after decoding the question, you realized that you guessed
> wrong as to what it was asking, then just say so...
> 1. The first two subatomic particles known were discovered by
> J.J. Thompson and Ernest Rutherford. They are present in all
> atoms of normal matter and carry equal and opposite electric
> charges, but one of the two is much more massive. Name *both*
> particles.
Electron, proton (not positron; see #9). 4 for everyone -- Joshua,
Erland, Dan Blum, and Dan Tilque.
> 2. In 1932, James Chadwick discovered a third particle that is
> present in most but not all kinds of atoms and has about the
> same mass as a proton. Name it.
Neutron (not neutrino; see #8). 4 for everyone.
> 3. The number of protons in an atom determines what element it's
> an atom of: for example, 6 protons means carbon. But carbon
> atoms can have 6, 7, or 8 neutrons, forming carbon 12, 13,
> and 14 respectively. What are these different versions of the
> same element called?
Isotopes (or nuclides, a slightly less specific word). 4 for
everyone.
> 4. What term is used for the division of an atomic nucleus into
> two smaller nuclei of similar size, and perhaps also a few other
> particles such as individual neutrons? Nuclei of some isotopes
> are unstable and will do it spontaneously, while others may do
> it if struck by a suitable particle.
Fission (not fusion, which is the opposite). 4 for everyone.
> 5. Particle physics experiments often involve accelerating various
> particles to form a beam that is aimed at some target. The first
> good particle accelerator was invented by Ernest Lawrence and
> named -- initially in jest -- after the nearly circular motion
> of electrons within it. What was it called?
Cyclotron. 4 for Joshua, Dan Blum, and Dan Tilque.
> 6. It has been established today that both protons and neutrons
> act like assemblies of three particles each, although these
> individual constituent particles have not been detected directly
> and possibly never can be. Their name is a word that Murray
> Gell-Mann found in the James Joyce novel "Finnegan's Wake".
> What is it?
Quark. 4 for everyone.
> 7. This word, coined in about 1936, referred at that time to
> particles heavier than electrons but lighter than protons,
> and was consequently derived from a root meaning "middle".
> Its meaning has shifted today to refer to any of certain
> particles that each consist of one quark and one anti-quark.
> What is the word?
Meson. (The obsolete form "mesotron" was acceptable.) 4 for
everyone.
> 8. The neutron was the first neutral subatomic particle discovered,
> but not the first predicted. In 1931 Wolfgang Pauli predicted
> a little neutral particle, to which Enrico Fermi gave a name
> with that meaning. Its mass """is""" either zero or too
> small to measure. It is so unreactive that it could easily
> pass through a whole planet, and hence its existence was not
> confirmed until 1956. Name it.
Neutrino. 4 for everyone.
In 2021 it is now clear that neutrinos do have nonzero mass, and in
fact several different masses, but after that it gets complicated.
See:
http://neutrinos.fnal.gov/types/masses/
> 9. Almost every subatomic particle has its corresponding
> anti-particle. Usually these are named in extremely prosaic
> fashion: quark and anti-quark, positive pion and negative pion.
> But the first one to be discovered, the anti-electron, is also
> known by a special name of its own. What is this name?
Positron. 4 for Erland, Dan Blum, and Dan Tilque.
There was attempt to rename the electron as the negatron, restoring
a prosaic pattern to the naming, but it failed.
> 10. The reaction of any particle and its anti-particle creates
> what product?
Energy. (Specific forms, such as photons, light, or gamma radiation,
were acceptable answers.) 4 for everyone.
> * Game 5, Round 6 - Miscellaneous - One-Word Names
> These questions all concern people who are/were known by one-word
> names.
> 1. What """is""" Donovan's surname?
Leitch. (Still alive.) 4 for Joshua.
> 2. By what name is François Marie Arouet better known?
Voltaire. 4 for Joshua, Dan Blum, and Dan Tilque.
> 3. By what one-word name """is""" British 1960s singer/actress
> Marie Lawrie known?
Lulu. (Still alive. Not "Little Lulu", the two-word name
of a 1930s/40s comic strip character.) 4 for Joshua, Erland,
and Dan Tilque.
> 4. Michel de Notre Dame lived in France from 1503 to 1566. By what
> name do we know him?
Nostradamus. 4 for Joshua, Dan Blum, and Dan Tilque.
> 5. By what name """is""" Edson Arantes do Nascimento famous?
Pelé. (Still alive.) 4 for Joshua and Erland.
> 6. Charles Dickens's illustrator, Hablot Knight Browne, was better
> known by what name?
Phiz. (Not "Boz", a pseudonym used at one time by Dickens himself.)
> 7. By what name do we call Tiziano Vecelli, who died in Venice
> in 1576?
Titian. 4 for Joshua, Dan Blum, and Dan Tilque.
> 8. What was Cher's surname at birth?
We originally expected the answer Sarkisian, but sources disagree
and we allowed La Pierre on a protest. 4 for Joshua and Dan Blum.
> 9. The former Yugoslav leader Tito sometimes used Tito as an
> additional surname, but what was his original name?
Josip Broz. 4 for Joshua, Erland, and Dan Blum.
> 10. By what name """do""" we know Leslie Hornby?
Twiggy. (Still alive.) 4 for Joshua.
Scores, if there are no errors:
GAME 5 ROUNDS-> 2 3 4 6 TOTALS
TOPICS-> Ent Lit Sci Mis
Joshua Kreitzer 20 32 36 36 124
Dan Blum 12 31 40 20 103
Dan Tilque 8 4 40 16 68
Erland Sommarskog -- -- 36 12 48
Pete Gayde 20 4 -- -- 24
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "The E-Mail of the species is more deadly
m...@vex.net | than the Mail." -- Peter Neumann