ACF Regionals 2000
Tosssups by George Washington and Illinois B
1. He was executed in Fort Bliss for trying to foment a rebellion in Mexico. This general was an admirer of Porfirio
Díaz, but was flexible enough to be chief of staff of the army under Díaz’s successor. He joined forces with a group of
rebels led by fellow army officers in a coup that ousted Madero, which gained him the enmity of the Wilson
administration. FTP, identify this man, who only served for ten days as president of Mexico before being forced from
office in the summer of 1914 in favor of Venustiano Carranza.
Answer: Victoriano Huerta (WEAR-tah)
2. After being denounced by Tigellinus, he was arrested at Cumae and committed suicide. Earlier, he had served as
governor of Bithynia and as consul before becoming arbiter of elegance to emperor Nero, who he may have depicted
as Trimalchio in his most famous work. FTP, identify this Roman author, best known for a novel about Encolpius's
picaresque adventures, the Satyricon.
Answer: Gaius Petronius Arbiter
3. His two periods of prophecy were markedly different. The early period consisted mostly of angry pronouncements
that Judah would fall to Babylon due to the apostasy of the Jews of Palestine. After about 13 years of silence, his
later prophecies talked of the promise of the future, and especially of the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Supposedly given to trances, strange visions, and bizarre symbolic actions, he was said to have eaten a scroll on
which a prophecy was written. FTP, identify this prophet, known for his faith in a new covenant between God and the
Israelites as well being quoted in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction.
Answer: Ezekiel
4. In electrodynamics, this quantity is given by the cross product of a magnetic dipole with the external magnetic field.
In classical mechanics, it can be expressed as the cross product of an object’s angular velocity of precession and
angular momentum but is more commonly given as the lever arm crossed with an applied force. FTP, identify this
quantity, the time derivative of angular momentum and the twisting equivalent of force.
Answer: torque
5. His early works employed a "tubular" style derivative of Léger (lay-ZHAY), though the influence of Futurism on his
work can be seen in paintings like The Knife Grinder. He gave up painting around 1919 in favor of making
three-dimensional models, and taught Lissitzky at Vitebsk before moving to Leningrad, where he died in 1935. FTP,
name this Russian painter, who wanted to "free art from the burden of the object," which he did in works like White on
White, the father of Suprematism.
Answer: Kasimir Malevich
6. They might have reached their destination, if they hadn't stopped to rest in the Bear Paw Mountains. Their journey
began after an incident on the Salmon River left several prospectors dead, and they crossed the Missouri River into
northern Montana before being set upon by Nelson Miles. FTP, identify this Native American tribe, which tried to flee
to Canada in 1877 before being stopped, and which was led by a man who vowed to fight no more forever, Chief
Joseph.
Answer: the Nez Percé (nez purse or nay pur-SAY)
7. Based on the novel by Charles Portis, it chronicled 14 year old Mattie Ross's search for her father's killer in the
wasteland of Oklahoma. Aided by bounty-hungry Texas Ranger La Boeuf, played by Glen Campbell, and a "one-eyed
fat" federal marshal, Ross hunts down Tom Chaney and his cronies Moon and Ned Pepper, who were played by
Dennis Hopper and Robert Duvall respectively. FTP, what was this movie for which, by speaking lines such as "Fill
your hand, you son of a bitch" as Rooster Cogburn, John Wayne won the 1969 Best Actor Academy Award?
Answer: True Grit
8. This equation, based upon work that barely secured a doctoral degree five years earlier, was first proposed in
1889. It describes the requirements for the spontaneous starting of a reaction by relating the natural logarithm of the
reaction rate constant to the ratio of the activation energy and thermal energy. FTP, name this equation central to
studies of combustion, first proposed its namesake Swedish chemist?
Answer: Arrhenius equation
9. His first big hit was written in 1909 in support of E. H. Crump's mayoral campaign. After leading Mahara's
Minstrels, he taught at Huntsville's Agricultural and Mechanical College before forming his own orchestra, with whom
he had hits like Yellow Dog, Beale Street, and Joe Turner. FTP, name this American composer, whose most famous
songs are named for the cities of Saint Louis and Memphis, best known as the "father of the blues."
Answer: William Christopher Handy
10. The preface to the first edition suggests that it was found in a library in northern England, first printed in 1529,
written in the purest Italian. A prince seeks to make the fiancee of his dead son his own while trapping his own wife in
a dungeon, but the whole thing is foiled as a peasant, who turns out to be a descendant of a former lord of the castle,
leads the young Isabella though underground passages. The prince, Manfred, ends up doing penance in a
monastery. FTP, identify this 1765 work, considered by many the first Gothic novel, written by Horace Walpole.
Answer: The Castle of Otranto
11. He divided his empire into 36 chün, or provinces, and constantly exchanged governors to ensure no base of
support for a possible coup. His chief advisor was Li Ssu, and he ordered a massive burning of books three years
before his death. He built many roads, and several canals, one of particular note. FTP name this monarch, the first
member of the Ch'in dynasty, who died in 210 BCE and was born with the name of Cheng, but later changed it when
he became the self-proclaimed "First Emperor" of all China.
Answer: Shih Huang-Ti
12. Aiobhill is associated with the Dalcassians of North Munster and Cliodna is linked to the MacCarthys of South
Munster. In the 12th century, Norman leader Richard of Clare encountered one washing a bloody robe on a riverbank
who warned of his army's destruction. Referred to in Irish folklore as Bean Sidhe, the woman of the hills, they are
known for their keening. FTP, what are these supernatural females in Celtic myth whose wails presage death?
Answer: Banshees (accept Bean Sidhe before it is mentioned)
13. The fires that occur there during the late summer serves to clear away dense ground cover and to stimulate
germination in certain shrub seeds. It is similar to the Mediterranean climate but only receives 20 to 30 inches of rain
per year. Characterized by hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, its broad-leaved evergreen shrubs, bushes, and
short trees form a dense thicket. FTP, what is this scrubland biome found primarily in the Southwestern North
America?
Answer: Chaparral
14. It ends when Mehemet's xebec is blown fifty feet in the air by a waterspout somewhere in the Mediterranean. It
includes the Confessions of Fausto Maijstral; Kurt Mondaugen's story, which tells of his two and a half months at
Foppl's Siege Party; and a ballet in which Mélanie, as Su Feng, is spectacularly impaled when she forgets to put on
her chastity belt. FTP, identify this novel, winner of the Faulkner Prize for the best first novel of 1963, which also
includes Herbert Stencil and Benny Profane, a work of Thomas Pynchon.
Answer: V.
15. His reign got off to a good start with the victory at Marj al-Saffar. Other victories under his rule included Yarmuk,
which did away with the Byzantine threat; Qadisiya, where the Persians under Rusam were defeated; and Nehavend,
where the last vestige of Sassanid power was destroyed. FTP, name this man, who was assassinated by a slave in
644, ten years after he assumed the title of Amir al-Mu'munin, or Prince of the Faithful, as the successor to Abu Bakr
as caliph.
Answer: Umar ibn al-Khattab or Omar
16. Orphaned before he turned five, his siblings sent him to St. George's hospital, where he trained under John
Hunter before returning, at the age of 23, to Gloucestershire. One of the first doctors to associate angina with
artheriosclerosis, he won his greatest award, induction into the Royal Society, for correctly describing the nesting
habits of cuckoos. FTP, name the English doctor, who, fascinated with the folklore that milkmaids rarely caught
smallpox, invented the first vaccination.
Answer: Edward Jenner
17. His 1938 doctoral dissertation on Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England proved
influential in its prosopographic analysis of scientific communities. He began teaching at Columbia in 1941, where he
was co-director with Lazarsfeld of the Bureau of Applied Social Research, and his major work included studies of
reference groups, role theory, and deviance from a functionalist perspective. FTP, identify this American sociologist,
whose best known works include Sociological Ambivalence and 1951's landmark Social Theory and Social Structure.
Answer: Robert King Merton
18. The Shebele and Jubba Rivers drain this nation's southeastern plains. In the north central highlands lie Lake
Tana, and Tisisat Falls. Many of Africa's highest mountains line in this nation, the tallest being Mt. Talo. FTP name
this nation which some claim is the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, a nation that endured great famine in the
80's and has recently lost the region of Eritrea, with its capital and largest city being Addis Abeba.
Answer: Ethiopia
19. He was the first European ever to see Ethiopia’s Ogaden region, and was well liked by the natives. His father
translated the Koran into French, and his own literary career began at 15 when he wrote Théodore de Banville to
announce that he would be a Parnassian. A master of the prose poem, he established his reputation in works such as
“The Spiritual Hunt,” “A Season in Hell,” and “The Drunken Boat.” FTP, identify this leader of the French symbloists,
perhaps best remembered for his long relationship with another poet, Paul Verlaine.
Answer: Arthur Rimbaud (ram-BO)
20. At this battle the confederates managed to cut off Union supplies and the Northern line of retreat, but in so doing
the Rebs allowed the union army to get between them and their base. The battle was also the only fight of the war to
see a large Native American force fight for the South. The first Rebel assault was beaten off by a union general
named Jefferson C. Davis, and Southern General Earl Van Dorn's second assault was driven back down the
telegraph road. FTP name this engagement fought on March 7 and 8, 1862 in northern Arkansas, a key victory for
Union general Samuel Curtis.
Answer: Pea Ridge (accept Elkhorn Tavern)
OT1. He seems to have forgiven his former team for supposedly failing to mail his contract on time to his New
Hampshire home; either that or his falling out with the team he subsequently played 13 seasons for influenced his
decision about what hat to wear on his plaque. His only Gold Glove was in his rookie season of 1972, but he does
hold the all time record for putouts and games played at his position. His lifetime 376 home runs are also tops behind
the plate. FTP, name this 2000 Hall of Fame inductee, remembered for trying to wave a home run fair in the 1975
World Series for the Boston Red Sox.
Answer: Carlton Fisk
OT2. On account of his lawless and outrageous behavior, this deity was driven out of heaven and away from his
sister's court. While wondering in the land of Izumo he killed Koshi, an eight-headed dragon. He fashioned the sword
Kusanagi from its tail, but it was later taken from him by his son Okuni-nushi. FTP, who is this Shinto deity of winds,
storms and the sea, the son of Izanagi and younger brother of Amaterasu?
Answer: Susanoo No Mikoto or Susanowo
OT3. First discovered in rocks in the United States by Harris and Hopkins, and then independently in Italy by Rolla
and Fernando, this radioactive metal was synthesized in 1941. It was only positively identified in 1945 at Oak Ridge
by Marinsky, and even today, its 18-year lifespan makes it rare enough that it is, for the most part, used for small
batteries. For 10 points, identify this lanthanide, named for the titan who stole fire.
Answer: prometheum
ACF Regionals 2000
Boni by GW and Illinois B
1. Identify the following related to the development of special relativity for the stated number of points.
1. (5 points) Einstein’s first application of special relativity was in the generalization of these equations to describe
electromagnetic fields in inertial frames.
Answer: Maxwell’s Equations
2. (10 points) Perhaps the first person to ever directly observe a special relativistic effect, this British astronomer’s
attempts to measure parallax in 1725 were confounded by the aberration of starlight due to the Earth’s motion
although it did allow him to improve on Roemer’s value for the speed of light.
Answer: Reverend James Bradley
3. (15 points) This 1932 experiment used an interferometer with arms of different lengths which was fixed in the
laboratory and observed over the course of several months. The lack of interference fringes confirmed the invalidity of
the contraction hypothesis.
Answer: Kennedy-Thorndike experiment
2. Name the following British people for 5 points each, with a bonus 5 for all parts correct.
1. Name the English king whose mother aided a plot in which his father was killed with a hot iron applied to the
bowels.
Answer: Edward III
2. Name Edward III's sons who never ruled, but who had kings as their direct descendants.
Answer: Edward the Black Prince and John of Gaunt
3. Finally, name the 2 kings fathered by Edward the Black Prince and John of Gaunt.
Answer: Richard II and Henry IV
3. Identify these prose works from Heian Japan, for the stated number of points.
1. (10 points) This diary tells what court life in eleventh century Japan was like for lady Sei Shonagon.
Answer: The Pillow Book or Makura No Soshi
2. (5 points) This story by Murasaki Shikibu of a hero prince is related in terms of the succession of women he loves.
Answer: The Tale of Genji or Genji Monogatari
3. (15 points) This 935 work is the account of Ki Tsurayuki's homeward journey from the title province, where he was
governor.
Answer: Tosa Nikki or The Tosa Diary
4. Identify these works of architect Frank O. Gehry FTP each.
1. This European branch of a New York museum opened in 1997 and is structurally characterized by curving titanium
and limestone facades.
Answer: Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
2. "They told me not to build another brick lump," said Gehry about this four-story, stainless-steel clad art museum at
the University of Minnesota.
Answer: Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum
3. Currently under construction is this MIT complex that will house the Laboratory for Computer Science and the
Artificial Intelligence Lab.
Answer: Ray and Maria Stata Center
5. Identify the following concerning linear algebra for the stated number of points.
1. (10 points) This term is given to a vector which, when multiplied by a matrix, gives the same matrix multiplied by a
scalar.
Answer: eigenvector
2. (5 points each) These two quantities are given by the sum and product of a matrix’s eigenvalues, respectively.
Answer: trace and determinant
3. (10 points) The eigenvalues for a matrix can be determined by finding the roots of this equation, given by
subtracting a diagonal matrix and taking the determinant of the resulting matrix.
Answer: characteristic polynomial
6. Given an example of French grand opera, name its composer FTP each.
1. Robert the Devil
Answer: Giacomo Meyerbeer
2. The Jewess
Answer: Jacques-François-Fromental Halévy (ah-lay-VEE)
3. The Trojans
Answer: Hector Berlioz
7. Identify these famed sultans of the Ottoman Empire, FTP each.
1. Sultan from 1481 to 1512, he followed Mehmed II, worked to calm civil unrest and encouraged Jews fleeing Spain
to settle in Ottoman lands.
Answer: Bayezid II
2. This successor to Bayezid II, ruling from 1512 to 1520, was far less peaceful. He was known for his victories over
the Mamelukes in Syria and the Safavids in Iran. He had all of his brothers and four of his five sons assassinated.
Answer: Selim I
3. The one son Selim didn’t assassinate, he ruled from 1520 to 1566 and brought the Ottoman Empire to its territorial
apex, but his 1529 siege of Vienna proved unsuccessful.
Answer: Suleyman I or Suleyman the Magnificent
8. Economics isn’t only for right-wingers and Mike Zarren, you know. Given an economist revered by someone other
than arch-conservatives, identify him for the stated number of points.
1. (5 points) Perhaps the best known of all the post-Keynesians, this Canadian born economist wrote such influential
works about macroeconomics as The Affluent Society.
Answer: John Kenneth Galbraith
2. (15 points) This Nobel winner and author of The American Business Creed conceived of the idea of an eponymous
“tax” on currency exchanges that would take away some of the incentives to engage in currency speculation. His
ideas have become more popular in the wake of the Asian financial crises.
Answer: Alfred Tobin
3. (10 points) This 1998 Nobel laureate witnessed the 1943 Bengal famine as a child, and this experience inspired his
later studies of poverty and welfare such as Collective Choice and Social Welfare.
Answer: Amartya Sen
9. Answer these questions about the various misadventures of Napoleon III, FTP each.
1. He convinced himself he was a military genius and master of diplomacy because he led a combined
French-Piedmontese force to victory over the Austrians at this June 24, 1859 battle. The butchery was so bad that it
gave rise to the idea of the Red Cross.
Answer: Solferino
2. Though he had just about every veneral disease imaginable, he nonetheless led the French forces into this battle,
a decisive Franco-Prussian War disaster. This may have been a suicide attempt in disguise.
Answer: Sedan
3. Napoleon III’s most famous stupid idea was the installation of this Austrian prince on the throne of Mexico, and
then abandoning him when he found out that, yes, the United States really did mind.
Answer: Maximillian I of Austria
10. Identify these Ernest Hemingway stories about Nick Adams FTP each.
1. It's not a novel by Turgenev, but in this story Nick recalls how he received his first gun and how he hunted black
squirrels as a teenager with Ojibway Indians Billy and Trudy.
Answer: Fathers and Sons
2. After being tied up at gunpoint in the kitchen of Henry's lunchroom, Nick runs to warn Ole Anderson that two
hitmen are after him.
Answer: The Killers
3. A disoriented Nick visits an Italian battalion commanded by Captain Paravicini. Although his mission is to raise
troop moral, Nick wears a faux American uniform and lacks the requisite gifts of chocolate and cigarettes, and he
ultimately departs for Fornaci before he can appear on the line.
Answer: A Way You'll Never Be
11. Identify these Greeks who hid in the Trojan Horse FTP each.
1. One of the Atreides, this king of Sparta desired the return of his abducted wife, Helen.
Answer: Menelaus
2. This highly skilled carpenter designed and built the Horse for the Greeks.
Answer: Epeus or Epeos
3. Referred to by Virgil as "the guide", this member of the Epigonoi was a co-leader of the Argosean army with
Diomedes.
Answer: Sthenelus
12. Answer the following about what we expect from the Higgs boson for the stated number of points.
1. (5 points) Interaction with a Higgs boson changes this property of a particle.
Answer: Mass
2. (10 points) The Higgs boson falls into this class of bosons, one of which exists for every field force.
Answer: Gauge bosons
3. (15 points) The photon carries electromagnetic force and the graviton carries gravitational force. Five points for
one, 10 points for three, and 15 points for all four, name the four gauge bosons responsible for carrying the strong
and weak forces.
Answers: Gluon, W+, W-, Z0
13. Given the Elizabethan or Jacobean revenge tragedy, name the playwright who wrote it, for the stated number of
points.
1. (10 points) Antonio’s Revenge
Answer: John Marston
2. (5 points) The Duchess of Malfi
Answer: John Webster
3. (15 points) The Broken Heart
Answer: John Ford
14. Given some islands name the chain they are in FTP each.
1. Bougainville and New Georgia
Answer: The Solomon Islands
2. Bora Bora and Tahiti
Answer: The Society Islands
3. Enewetak and Bikini
Answer: The Marshall Islands
15. Name the following key figures of the early days of the Soviet Union FTP each.
1. He constructed the Red Army during the Russian Civil War only to be done in by an icepick to the brain.
Answer: Leon Trotsky or Lev Davidovitch Bronstein
2. This general led Russian troops to Petrograd to in August to overthrow the government of Aleksandr Kerensky, but
was killed in war with the Cossacks in April, 1918.
Answer: Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov
3. He was the only Pole among the early leaders, creaking the Cheka, the secret police force that became the KGB.
Answer: Feliks Dherzhinsky
16. Identify the following observational relations from astronomy, for the stated number of points.
1. (5 points) His law states that the area of an ellipse swept out by an orbiting body in a given amount of time will be
constant for any part of the orbit.
Answer: Kepler’s Third Law
2. (10 points) His law correctly gives the mean orbital distances from the Sun for the interior planets in terms of the
astronomical unit, but fails for the planets beyond Saturn.
Answer: Bode’s Law
3. (15 points) Used to correct Type Ia supernovae so that they may be used as standard candles, this correlates the
luminosity of the supernova and the time it takes to reach peak brightness.
Answer: Phillips’ Relation
17. Answer these questions about an American philosopher FTP each.
1. What philosopher argued that a boundary between analytic and synthetic statements does not exist in his 1951
article "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" but is better known to mathematicians for his work on set theory in "New
Foundations of Mathematical Logic"?
Answer: Willard Van Orman Quine
2. In this 1960 work, Quine sets out the views that translation between languages is indeterminate on the basis of
observable evidence and that the observable behavior of speakers is all that grounds attribution of meaning to their
expressions.
Answer: Word and Object
3. Quine claimed that the only legimate role of the study of knowledge was to describe the way knowledge is actually
obtained. What term did he use for the type of philosophy which followed from this claim?
Answer: Naturalized Epistemology
18. Identify these hills of Rome FTP each.
1. Named for a shepherd god, this hill was Romulus' choice for the first Roman settlement.
Answer: Palatine or Mons Palatinus
2. Among the many temples situated on this hill were the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus and the Temple of
Juno Moneta.
Answer: Capitoline or Mons Capitolinus
3. Named after a local war god, this northernmost hill of Rome provided a common appellation for the people of
Rome.
Answer: Quirinal or Mons Quirinalis
19. Identify the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez FTP each.
1. This novel chronicles the sucessive generations of the Buendia family and the Colombian town of Macondo.
Answer: One Hundred Years of Solitude or Cien Años de Soledad
2. In this novel, as Simon Bolivar journeys down a river from Bogota toward the sea, the Liberator recollects his life in
the context of the history he created.
Answer: The General in his Labyrinth or El General en su Laberinto
3. Set in Macondo in the aftermath of the pull out of the banana industry, this novella centers around the relationship
between the honorable Colonel and much-hated Doctor.
Answer: Leaf Storm or La Hojarasca
20. Identify these terms from crystal theory FTP each.
1. In three dimensions, there are 14 of these infinite arrays of discrete points with an arrangement and orientation that
appears exactly the same from whichever of the points the array is viewed.
Answer: Bravais Lattices
2. This type of primative cell is the region around a lattice point which is closer to that point than to any other lattice
point.
Answer: Wigner-Seitz primitive cell
3. The Fourier transform of a primitive cell from real space into momentum space produces this type of cell.
Answer: reciprocal lattice primitive cell
And now, for that ever-popular history of Antarctica bonus. FTP each name these persons or places associated with
Antarctica.
1. Perhaps most famous because of a Bass Ale commercial on the radio, this British explorer made four major
Antarctic expeditions, counting the disastrous Endurance expedition where his crew was marooned in ice floes for
nearly two years.
Answer: Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
2. First set up in 1928 by Richard Byrd for his Antarctic expedition, this principal American base in Antarctica lies on
the northeast fringe of the Ross Ice Shelf.
Answer: Little America
3. Supposedly the coldest place on earth, colder than even Lambeau Field, is this Russian research station, located
deep in Antarctica, founded in 1957 and continuously occupied until 1994.
Answer: Vostok
Given the date and some information name the following church councils, FTP each.
1. 325: in response to Arius bishop of Alexandria, and called by Constantine the Great.
Answer: Nicaea I
2. 451: in response to the Monophysites.
Answer: Chalcedon
3. 787: condemned the iconoclasts, called by empress Irene.
Answer: Nicaea II