Sample questions WITH ANSWERS
YOUTH DIVISION, ROUND 1, QUESTION 1:
In 1984, two doctors in Perth, Australia, published their discovery that most stomach ulcers are caused not by stress but by a common spiral-shaped bacterium now known as Helicobacter pylori. This bacterium is able to survive in the human stomach because it releases enzymes that produce what?
(a) ammonia
(b) ethyl alcohol
(c) hydrochloric acid
(d) sodium chloride
(e) valine
ANSWER: (a)
Helicobacter pylori releases urease, which metabolizes urea into ammonia and carbon dioxide. The ammonia neutralizes stomach acid directly around the bacteria, and also damages the epithelial cells of the stomach lining, causing the ulcer symptoms.
YOUTH DIVISION, ROUND 2, QUESTION 4:
What was the first element to first be discovered not on the planet Earth? It gets its name from the fact that it was first discovered through a spectral analysis of the sun's chromosphere. It was later found to exist on Earth, mainly as a component of natural gas. Give the exact name or chemical symbol of this element.
ANSWER: HELIUM / He
Helium was discovered as a bright line in the sun's spectrum by Pierre Janssen during a solar eclipse in 1868.
YOUTH DIVISION, ROUND 2, QUESTION 6:
RSA encryption, an algorithm for public-key encryption, was invented by and named for Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman of MIT in 1977. In RSA encryption, the first step is to create a modulus by taking the product of two large numbers P and Q. What must be true about P and Q?
(a) P and Q must each be greater than 2^16 or 65,536
(b) P and Q must each be between 1 and 2^16 or 65,536, inclusive
(c) P and Q must each be prime
(d) P and Q must be relative primes
(e) P and Q must have the same remainder when divided by 256
ANSWER: (c)
YOUTH DIVISION, ROUND 2, QUESTION 10
What was the name of the survey ship on which Charles Darwin famously voyaged around South America from 1831 to 1836?
(a) HMS Beagle
(b) HMS Corgi
(c) HMS Labrador
(d) HMS Saluki
(e) HMS Whippet
ANSWER: (a)
YOUTH DIVISION, CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND, QUESTION 1:
For two points each, match the following "-ologies" with their description as a sub-branch of biology.
1. The study of amphibians and reptiles
2. The study of fungi
3. The study of mosses
4. The study of particulate organic matter such as spores and pollen
5. The study of trees
(a) Bryology
(b) Dendrology
(c) Herpetology
(d) Mycology
(e) Palynology
ANSWERS: 1-(c), 2-(d), 3-(a), 4-(e), 5-(b)
YOUTH DIVISION, CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND, QUESTION 6:
The new definition of a planet contains three criteria. For 5 points each, pick which two of the following are NOT part of the IAU's final definition of a planet:
(a) has an orbit around the Sun
(b) is by far the largest object its local population
(c) has enough self-gravity to assume a nearly-round shape
(d) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit
(e) does not produce energy by a nuclear fusion mechanism
ANSWERS: (b) and (e)
OPEN DIVISION, ROUND 1, QUESTION 6:
In 2003, scientists discovered a new relative of ours in the Homo genus, a one-meter tall humanoid that has been dubbed the "hobbit". What is the scientific name for this newly discovered species?
(a) Homo afarensis
(b) Homo antecessor
(c) Homo cepranensis
(d) Homo floresiensis
(e) Homo georgicus
ANSWER: (d)
It was named for the island of Flores, where its fossils were discovered.
OPEN DIVISION, ROUND 1, QUESTION 7:
The German scientist Alfred Wegner proposed the continental drift hypothesis in 1912. At the time, he suggested that the Earth at one point contained one land mass called "Pangaea". What was the eleven-letter name he used to describe the single ocean that surrounded this mass?
ANSWER: PANTHALASSA
OPEN DIVISION, ROUND 2, QUESTION 1:
The practice of "stratigraphy" would most commonly be used in which of the following scientific fields?
(a) brain science
(b) genetics
(c) meteorology
(d) paleontology
(e) quantum physics
ANSWER: (d)
Stratigraphy studies the layering of rocks and fossils within the earth. In paleontology, it offers a tool to determine the age of different fossils relative to one another.
OPEN DIVISION, ROUND 2, QUESTION 8:
One of the biggest controversies in the history of mathematics was over who "invented" the field of calculus. Ultimately, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz were co-credited with inventing it independently of one another, while each accused the other of plagiarizing their work. However, the word "calculus" to describe the field was coined by Leibniz, and modern calculus mainly uses Leibniz' notations. What "f-word" did Newton use to describe his version of calculus?
(a) fasciations
(b) fissions
(c) flections
(d) fluxions
(e) fractions
ANSWER: (d)
This was described in Newton's book Method of Fluxions, which he wrote in 1671 but did not publish until 1736, and Leibniz published his "calculus" in the intervening time.
