KREC QuizNet

Rajeev Murlidhar's Quiz - June 1998

Here are the Answers to the Quiz by Rajeev Murlidhar.

1. "I don't know what sort of an artist I am. In fact, I don't even know what art is".

Which famous artist, now a darling of mathematicians said this?

ANS : M.C. Escher. He is also credited with the first illustration of what is now the famous Penrose Triangle (the one that appears on the cover page of Godel, Escher, Bach - A Golden Eternal Braid).

2. What came third in this series of bills passed in the British Parliament? (It is something we all know) South Metropolitan Gas Bill, Felixstone Pier Bill ...

ANS: Indian Independence Bill.

3. He was once asked by a Caltech faculty member to explain why spin 1/2 particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics. He gauged his audience perfectly and said, "I'll prepare a freshman lecture on it." But a few days later he returned and said, "You know, I couldn't do it. I couldn't reduce it to the freshman level. That means we really don't understand it."

Who are we talking about?

ANS: Richard P. Feynman.

4. We all know that India got her independence on the stroke of midnight of 14th August, 1947. There is an interesting anecdote behind why this particular date and time was chosen. What ?

ANS: Funda is this. When Mountbatten became the Last Viceroy, (or soon after), it was decided that India be granted independence. When Mountbatten was in India (sometime in March '47, if I remember right), he was pressed by the Indian leaders to fix a date for the great event. Mountbatten impromptu came up with the date 15th August 1947. This was because, exactly 2 years before, on 15th Aug, 1945, when he was the Supreme Commander of the South Eastern Forces, the Japanses forces had surrendered after the Second World War. So, this date came kind of naturally to him. Later on, when the Indian leaders met astrologers, they were told that neither 14th or 15th was an auspicious day, but that midnight of 14th Aug was an auspicious moment. Hence the date & time.

Please look up "Freedom At Midnight" by Dominic Lapierre & Larry Collins to confirm all details.

5. A Norweigian explorer Sigerson, a secret agent by name Altamount and a sea captain Captain Basil - do these names ring a bell?

ANS: All aliases of Sherlock Holmes.

Sigerson is the name he travels under when he has put on a disappearing act after his famous duel with Prof. Moriarty at the Riechenbach Falls in The Final Problem.

Altamount is the name he works under in His Last Bow - The War services of Sherlock Holmes. In this he outwits the famous German agent Von Bork.

Capt. Basil is the name he uses to put up advertisements in the local newspapers.

6. What is special about the Rolex watch at the Wimbledon centrecourt ?

ANS: It is the only digital Rolex watch.

From some of my favourite books ...

7. Which novel begins this way ...

In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees.

And ends this way...

But after I had got them out and shut the door and turned off the light it wasn't any good. It was like saying good-by to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.

ANS: 'A Farewell to Arms' by Ernest Hemingway

8. Which book is prefaced thus...

The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book.
Books are well written or badly written, that is all.

ANS:The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

9. This author was the son of an unsuccessful ironmonger and evangelical preacher. He gained his unusual second name from an exiled Bulgarian general with whom his father was acquainted. His long line of jobs started with a railway clerk, and went on to include acting, teaching and journalism. He spent some time touring with theatrical companies, and he lodged for a while in Tavistock Place in London with his friend George Wingrave (who later became a model for one of his characters in two of his most famous works). He married & settled in 1888 Chelsea Gardens, London, where, working from his room, he commanded beautiful views of the River Thames and of the Surrey hills beyond. This was the setting for his most famous work. His other works include On Stage and Off, a collection of humorous pieces about the theatre, The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, a series of sketches and a monthly magazine called The Idler that he founded with some friends that gained a reputation for humorous works. One of his last jobs in his eventful life was as a ambulance driver in France during the First World War.

Who is this author?

ANS: it is Jerome K. Jerome. George is his friend in both his most famous works - Three Men in a Boat and the sequel Three Men on a Bummel ( a hilarious classic about their vacation in Germany). The clue I thought would help was "beautiful views of the River Thames and of the Surrey hills beyond. This was the setting for his most famous work." This was of course Three Men in a Boat.

10. "The music stopped and I stood still
and found myself outside the hill.
Left alone against my will....".

Where are these lines from ? Who spoke them ?

ANS: This was said by the lame boy who was left behind when the Pied Piper of Hamelin took all the children into the Mystery Mountain.

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