Round 2 First Half

Transylvania University Academic Tournament

Feb. 12, 2000

1.

Name the US president who wrote While England Slept?
Answer: John F. Kennedy

2.

What is the function of the renal vein?
Answer: Carries processed blood away from kidneys.

3.

This question requires a polynomial answer. Find the least common multiple of x²-1 and (x-1)² (read: x squared minus 1 and the quantity x minus 1 quantity squared)
Answer: x³-x²+x+1 (x cubed minus x squared plus x plus one)

4.

Who was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England?
Answer: Harold II

5.

Two fair six-sided dice are tossed. What is the probability that the sum appearing is at most three?
Answer: 1/12 (one-twelfth)

6.

After Jesus' resurrection, which remaining disciple was not present when Jesus visited them in the upper room?
Answer: Thomas or Didymus

7.

The Amish are a sect of what religious group?
Answer: Mennonites

8.

In 1856, what explorer soldier, and statesman was the first Republican presidential candidate?
Answer: John C. Fremont

9.

If you get this question right, that would be double-plus ungood for the other team. What novel introduced terms like ``double-plus ungood'' into the vernacular?
Answer: 1984

10.

Painters Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko are associated with what artistic movement?
Answer: abstract expressionism

11.

In a bag is a quarter, four dimes, and five pennies. You pull a coin out of the bag and get to keep it. What is the expected value of this experiment?
Answer: seven cents

12.

What is the real name of Dr. Seuss?
Answer: Theodore Geisel

13.

Tbilisi is the capital of what nation?
Answer: Georgia

14.

What structure is responsible for the synthesis of anti-diuretic hormone (ADH)?
Answer: hypothalamus (note: the posterior pituitary stores and releases it, but does not synthesize it.)

15.

What mineral's concentration is regulated by parathyroid hormone?
Answer: calcium

16.

Which ancient Greek philosopher is the author of the text from which the philosophical term ``metaphysics'' is derived?
Answer: Aristotle

17.

In which general direction does the Rhine River flow?
Answer: north

18.

State the number of distinct permutations of the letters in the word KENTUCKY.
Answer: 20160

19.

The Mojave desert is principally in what present-day nation?
Answer: the U.S.A.

20.

Solve for x: 8x-54=3x-5x (eight x minus 54 equals three x minus five x).
Answer: x = 5.4 (x equals five and four tenths) or (x equals five and two fifths)

21.

The name of the ancient Sumerian writing known as cuneiform, is derived from the Latin word cuneus which means what?
Answer: Wedge

22.

Created mostly to oppose Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party, what party was formed by Daniel Webster and Henry Clay in the 1830s?
Answer: Whigs

23.

What is the product of the five smallest nonnegative integers?
Answer: 0

24.

The Sand Creek Massacre of the Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians occurred in what western state?
Answer: Colorado

25.

According to Christianity, on what day did God create the sun and the moon?
Answer: The fourth day.

26.

Name the quantum or elementary ``particle'' of the electromagnetic field.
Answer: photon

27.

Which medieval philosopher and author of Summa theologica is known as ``the angelic doctor''?
Answer: Thomas Aquinas

28.

Which nation leads in the production of kiwi fruit?
Answer: New Zealand

29.

What is the standard frequency of AC power in Europe?
Answer: 50 Hertz

30.

Name the chamber of the mammalian heart which pumps oxygenated blood to the general body circulation.
Answer: left ventricle

31.

What composer of English discant style preceded the Burgundian school?
Answer: John Dunstable

32.

What sect of Hellenistic philosophy is associated with a porch?
Answer: Stoicism (``stoa'' in Greek means "porch")

33.

The tangent of an angle in the second quadrant is negative one. What is the cosecant of this angle?
Answer: $\sqrt{2}$ (the square root of 2 or radical 2)

34.

Who said ``History is bunk.''?
Answer: Henry Ford

35.

What is the process by which a substance is transformed directly from the solid phase to the gas phase?
Answer: Sublimation

36.

Seventeenth-century Englishman George Fox was the founder of what religious movement?
Answer: The Religious Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers

37.

Who first postulated the idea that matter has wavelike properties?
Answer: Louis de Broglie

38.

Find the median of the following set of numbers: 45, 27, 17, 75, 62, 95, 12, 39, 24, 17, 25, 11.
Answer: 26

39.

What is the southernmost state in the continental United States?
Answer: Florida

40.

Who was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court?
Answer: Sanda Day O'Connor