Siddhartha Gadgil
Ulka Kelkar
21 March 2010
Percy Spencer, an American engineer
was working on a radar set when he
found that the peanut chocolate bar
in his pocket had melted.
What did he invent as a result?
ANSWER
Microwave oven
The yubiwa pipe, a finger ring that would
allow the wearer to smoke a cigarette
down to its nub, was the first successful
product of a well-known company.
The profits from the yubiwa pipe were
used to develop an electro-mechanical
gadget that has made this company
famous.
Name the gadget or the company.
ANSWER
Casio calculator
“The principal components of _________
are millions of tiny microcapsules, about
the diameter of a human hair.
In one incarnation, each microcapsule
contains positively charged white
particles and negatively charged black
particles suspended in a clear fluid.
When a negative electric field is applied,
the white particles move to the top of the
microcapsule ….”
What is being described?
ANSWER
E-ink
This device grew out of a scrapped
NASA project related to Mars
missions, but is targeted at
earthbound customers.
Name the device.
ANSWER
Bloom Box
(Bloom Energy
Server)
The local daily weather forecast is
presented to you in an unusual
form by this gizmo, invented by
Robin Southgate in 2001 as a
variation of a common household
appliance.
What gizmo?
ANSWER
Toaster
In the 1800s, physician
John Gorrie invented
this device as a way of
controlling tropical
diseases.
This device is still used
widely, but not for
medical reasons.
What is this device?
ANSWER
Air conditioner
This wheeled variation of a common
gadget won the Ignobel for
economics since it increased
productive work hours.
What is it?
ANSWER
Clocky
What is this musical LED-lit household
gizmo?
Hint: it relates to the subject of a keynote talk in
the IISc Centenary Conference!
ANSWER
Cutting a cake into equal slices
Complete this series:
Ace, Magic, Winger, _______
(bigger than the other gizmos)
ANSWER
Nano
This popular device for personal use was
first marketed in the UK under the
name Stowaway.
When an early version of this device was
being tested by its developer, his wife
had felt excluded by it, so he got the
engineers to make a two-person version
(which was not marketed).
What is this gadget?
ANSWER
Sony Walkman
This device has been used extensively by
the Karnataka government for
processing land records and by the
police to track traffic offenders and
issue tickets.
What is it?
ANSWER
Simputer
This photo from
the 1950s shows a
camera with two
lenses: one that
took a regular
picture, and the
other that
separated light
into colours.
What was it meant
to photograph?
ANSWER
UFOs
This is a popular
gadget’s first
prototype,
built in 1975.
What is it?
ANSWER
Digital camera
Introduced in China last year, what is
this cell phone’s unique feature?
ANSWER
“Shave mobile”
In 1999, Chicago-based conceptual
artist Eduardo Kac charged the cost
of a Tritech Positive-displacement
Embryonic Micro-injector to his NEA
(National Endowment for the Arts)
grant, for a work which brought him
much fame / notoriety.
What?
ANSWER
GFP bunny
“Alba”
Surveys in rural Punjab found
washing machine ownership to
be disproportionately high.
Why?
ANSWER
Lassi-making
To work in zero gravity, a special version
of an everyday gadget was developed
for NASA at considerable expense.
It subsequently found a market, mostly
as a curiosity, among the general
public.
The Russians on the other hand used a
simple substitute.
What was the gadget?
ANSWER
Space pen
This product was first marketed by the
Gem Manufacturing Company of
England.
Norwegians, who believed that this
was a Norwegian invention, wore it
on the lapel as a symbol of resistance
to the Nazis.
What was it?
ANSWER
Paper clip
What is this device?
ANSWER
Galileo
thermometer
A “soup strainer” can refer to
something that is not a gadget.
What is it?
ANSWER
Moustache
Which food item has lent its
name to a film genre, an item
of clothing, and a type of
source code?
ANSWER
Spaghetti
The town of Erode in Tamil Nadu is the
world’s largest producer of -------,
which was known as Indian saffron in
medieval Europe.
In a July 2009 news article, The Hindu
reported “------- market is to Erode
what BSE sensex is to Mumbai and
the country.”
Fill in the blank.
ANSWER
Turmeric
Which tea-time snack was created
by a London bakery in 1874 to
commemorate the marriage of the
Duke of Edinburgh to Grand
Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of
Russia?
ANSWER
Marie biscuit
Connect a French restaurant guide,
a well-known calendar, and a
helium-filled airship.
(not really a food question)
ANSWER
Tyre manufacturers
Michelin guide
Pirelli calendar
Goodyear blimp
Cultivated in India since
Harappan times, the
pod of this plant bursts
open when mature.
Identify the plant and its
contribution to popular
literature / language.
ANSWER
“Open sesame”
“The signal for the beginning of the fight is firing
of water cannons, and the chaos begins.
Those who partake in this event are strongly
encouraged to wear protective safety goggles and
gloves.
After exactly one hour, the fighting ends when the
water cannons are fired once more to signal the
end.
The cleaning process involves the use of fire trucks
to spray down the streets, with water provided
from a Roman aqueduct.” (Wikipedia)
What is being described?
ANSWER
La Tomatina, an annual tomato fight in Spain
By monetary value, peppercorns are the
most widely traded spice in the world.
In which city is the world’s only
International Pepper Exchange
located?
ANSWER
Kochi
A blue law is a type of law in the US,
intended to enforce religious standards,
particularly the observance of Sunday
as a day of worship or rest.
Which popular dessert is said to have
been invented due to one such blue law
as it modified / hid the original ‘sinful’
treat?
ANSWER
Sundae
Connect these pictures with a famous
“delicacy”
ANSWER
Birds nest soup
These are the natural and man-made
nesting areas for cave swiftlets
The waffle iron contributed to the
growth of which major American
non-food company in the 1970s?
ANSWER
Nike
Athletics coach (and co-founder of Nike)
Bill Bowerman, poured liquid rubber into
his wife’s waffle iron to create a new
lightweight sole with a better grip.
What is the key difference
between pulao and biryani?
ANSWER
In a pulao, the rice and other ingredients
are cooked together, while in a biryani,
they are first cooked separately, and
then layered and cooked for a contrast
of flavours.
Which bread is said to have been first
baked by the Viennese to celebrate
victory over the Turks?
ANSWER
Croissant
Mysore pak is made of chana dal flour,
ghee, and sugar.
It is said that the name “Mysore pak” is a
distortion of its original name, which
referred to a different main ingredient.
What was Mysore pak originally called?
ANSWER
Masoor (dal) pak
Connect
with an annual trading festival held in an
English town during the Middle Ages
ANSWER
“Are you going to Scarborough Fair
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme”
- Simon and Garfunkel
The following is a genuine Tudor era
recipe for a drink, famously described as
tasting like “less-sickly butterscotch”:
Heat ale till it just begins to boil, and
then add whisked egg yolks, sugar, and
nutmeg. Stir for two minutes on low
heat. Whisk in some butter, and serve.
What drink?
ANSWER
Connect with one word
ANSWER
Madeleine
In the 1890s, before dentures became
common, an American doctor came up
with the idea of making this food item
to provide the toothless elderly with
protein.
What is it?
ANSWER
Peanut butter
Ibn Battuta, the 14th century traveller,
described a meal at the court of
Muhammad bin Tughlaq in Delhi, in
which the sambusak – a small pie or
patty stuffed with minced meat,
almonds, pistachio, walnuts and spices –
was served before the pulao.
How do we know the sambusak today?
ANSWER
Samosa
Connect with one word
ANSWER
Pavlova
Dessert created in honour of
Anna Pavlova’s tour of Australia
and New Zealand in 1926
Founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986, it
claims to have 100,000 members in
132 countries. Its motto is “good,
clean, and fair” and its logo is a snail.
What is it?
ANSWER
Slow Food movement
The English word turkey (bird) comes
from the name of the country Turkey.
Oddly, the Turkish word for turkey is
“hindi”. The French word is dinde (from
d’inde), the Russian is indjushka.
But the words in Danish (kalkun), Dutch
(kalkoen), and Finnish (kalkkuna) are all
derived from the name of a specific town
in south India.
Which town?
ANSWER
Calicut / Kozhikode
What is depicted below?
ANSWER
Ben & Jerry’s graveyard of
discontinued icecream flavours
This was in the news recently …
Charles Spence, professor of experimental
psychology at Oxford, and 2008 IgNobel
winner, has devised the following
formula
M = 0.5 F + (0.5 E + 0.3 P + 0.15 C + 0.05 T)
In this formula, T stands for time, and the
solution to T is 11.
What is it a formula for, i.e. what is M?
ANSWER
The perfect time for a coffee break
11 AM
M = 0.5 F + (0.5 E + 0.3 P + 0.15 C + 0.05 T)
F – flavour of coffee
E – environment (music)
P – pot (container)
C – company (friends)
T – time
M – perfect coffee moment