24 Feb Medulla 2018: Round 1 Questions

The questions for Round 1 are given below. This round is open between 2100 hours to 0000 hours on 24th February, 2018. Please mail your answers to [email protected]; do not send your answers via any other means.

The answers will later be posted here.

Q1. Description of the logo of which entity?

Name: Spikey

Original Shape: Cumulated Icosahedron

Constituents: 60 equilateral triangular faces

Original skeleton: Image below.

 

Q2. Suggested causes of which common phenomena related to our body?

• Formation and bursting of bubbles due to separating phalanges
• Formation and rapid collapse of small vacuum cavities in the synovial fluid
• Quick stretching of ligaments
• Breaking of intra-articular adhesions

Q3. Although this (see below) is considered to be the scientist X’s greatest invention or discovery, X claims that, actually, Y is his greatest discovery.

Y is another scientist, who hailed from an impoverished family, worked for a bookbinder at a very young age, and was initially a laboratory assistant to X, who discovered the immense scientific talent that Y had acquired despite the lack of any formal education.

Give me X and Y.

Q4. Image A and Image B shows two effects observed during the total solar eclipse. A is called Baily’s beads, and B is called the Diamond ring. What is the cause of these two effects?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q5. This (below) is the Coat of Arms of a certain European city. The current population of the city is zero, effectively making it a “Ghost town”.

Name the city (0.5). Why is it a ghost town now? (0.5)

Q6. These tiny animals, whose collective name literally means “slow walkers”, are some of the most resilient creatures. They are found everywhere in this world, from Sahara to Antarctica, from mountain tops to deep sea trenches. They can withstand temperatures as cold as 1K and as hot as 420K. They can survive mass extinction events, as they have been here since the Cambrian period. They can survive ionizing radiations that are hundred times the lethal amount for humans. They can go without eating or drinking for thirty years, only to rehydrate and reproduce once again.

Name these amazing creatures.

Q7. The hex code for this colour is #FFF8E7, which is a slight beigeish white. What is this the average colour of? (0.5) This fact was found by a group of scientists in Johns Hopkins University. What is the exact name of this colour? (0.5)

Q8. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a hypothesis, first advanced by Edward Sapir in 1929 and subsequently developed by Benjamin Whorf, that says the structure of a language determines a native speaker’s perception and categorization of experience.

Which critically acclaimed science-fiction movie takes this hypothesis, twists it and turns it, and thus the whole plot revolves with it?

Round 2 will start at 2100 hours on 25th February, 2018 here.