Round 4 First Half

Transylvania University Academic Tournament

Feb. 12, 2000

1.

Why are flashing lights on police cars blue and red?
Answer: Blue is easier to see during the day; red is easier to see at night

2.

Find the second derivative of the natural logarithm of x.
Answer: -1/x² (negative one over x squared -or- negative x to the negative second power)

3.

During Nixon's 1972 Presidential campaign, what did the acronym CREEP stand for?
Answer: Committee for the Re-election of the President.

4.

What is the definite integral, evaluated from 0 to $2*\pi$ (read: two pi), of $\sin x$ (read: sine of x)?
Answer: 0

5.

What mineral is part of chlorophyll?
Answer: magnesium

6.

In five-dimensional space, what is the dimension of a hyperplane?
Answer: 4

7.

Women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft was the mother of what famous author?
Answer: Mary Shelley; or Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley

8.

What type of bond cleavage is occurring when a bond between two atoms is broken, and each of the atoms involved retains one of the electrons?
Answer: homolytic cleavage

9.

What Austrian philosopher was a close friend of Bertrand Russell, was captured in WWI and imprisoned in Italy, was given a chair at England's Cambridge University, is credited with largely producing the so-called ``linguistic turn'' in philosophy?
Answer: Ludwig Wittgenstein

10.

What term is used to describe the minimum kinetic energy that molecules must possess to overcome the repulsions between their electron clouds when they collide?
Answer: activation energy

11.

She created advancements in torpedos and invented a technology which is today used in cellular telephones. However, she is best remembered for being ``the most beautiful girl in the world'' and starred in such movies as Samson and Delilah, Ecstasy, and Copper Canyon. She died on January 19, 2000. Name her.
Answer: Hedy Lamarr

12.

This question requires multiple answers. Name the two cities destroyed in 79 ad when Mt Vesuvius erupted..
Answer: Pompeii and Herculaneum

13.

Abdel Bassett Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhiman are scheduled to stand trial for violating Britain's Aviation Security Act in connection to what Dec 21, 1988 event?
Answer: Bombing of Pam Am flight 103

14.

This Egyptian god was the daughter of Re and represented the home and the domestic cat.
Answer: Bast OR Bastet OR Ubasti

15.

What American politician was known as ``The Boy Orator of the Platte''?
Answer: William Jennings Bryan

16.

Peptidoglycan characterizes the cell walls of what group of organisms?
Answer: Choose one: bacteria, prokaryotes, or Monerans

17.

``One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it:-it was the black kitten's fault entirely.'' This line opens what children's novel, written by Lewis Carroll?
Answer: Through the Looking Glass

18.

What song did Weird Al Yankovick use in his treatment of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace?
Answer: ``American Pie''

19.

What allotrope of carbon was discovered in the last 10 years and is named after the architect of geodesic domes?
Answer: Buckminister Fullerenes (Bucky Balls)

20.

A hydrocarbon possessing seven carbons may be called what?
Answer: heptane

21.

Solve for x: x²-x-624=0 (x squared minus x minus 624 equals zero).
Answer: x=26,-24 (x equals twenty-six and negative twenty-four)

22.

Beowulf is famous for slaying Grendel and Grendel's mother; what creature did he slay as an old man?
Answer: a dragon

23.

The novel, The Man in the Iron Mask, is the third book in a triology by Alexandre Dumas. What was the first book?
Answer: The Three Musketeers

24.

What Chinese dynasty ended in 1368 with the overthrow of the last Mongol emperor?
Answer: Yuan dynasty

25.

What Spanish ruler launched the ``Invincible'' Armada against England in 1588?
Answer: Philip II

26.

Why was the Space Needle built?
Answer: For the 1962 World's Fair (accept World's Fair)

27.

The sum of two numbers is 17. Their difference is 5. What is their product?
Answer: 66

28.

One pipe can drain a swimming pool in eight hours. With another pipe in use, the pool is drained in ten hours. How long would it take the second pipe to drain the pool by itself?
Answer: 40 hours

29.

During which century did Johann Gutenberg invent moveable type?
Answer: the 15th century; the 1400s

30.

During World War II, what designation was given to Americans deemed unfit to serve in the Armed Forces?
Answer: 4-F

31.

This question requires multiple answers. Name the 8 Reindeer.
Answer: Dasher, Dancer, Donner, Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Prancer, Vixen

32.

What is the effect of writing a bar over a Roman numeral?
Answer: it is multiplied by one thousand

33.

In which U.S. city was Martin Luther King assasinated?
Answer: Memphis

34.

Guatama Siddhartha is more commonly known by what name?
Answer: the Buddha

35.

Rocks which have been subjected to extreme heat and pressure are classified as?
Answer: metamorphic

36.

Who wrote Charlotte's Web?
Answer: E.B. White

37.

George Wallace served as governor of which state in the U.S.?
Answer: Alabama

38.

What large work for chorus, soloists and orchestra made Johannes Brahms famous?
Answer: The German Requiem

39.

This question requires multiple answers. Name the three parts of a leaf.
Answer: blade, petiole and stipule

40.

Find the limit, as x approaches zero, of the rational function whose numerator is x⁴ + 4x³ - 14 (x to the fourth power plus four x cubed minus fourteen) and whose denominator is x⁴ + 3x + 2 (x to the fourth power plus three x plus two).
Answer: -7