# SciTech Inter IIT 2025 Tryouts

- Quiz by: Johan Sam Biju (QM Prayag)
- Published: 2025-10-16
- Slides: 42
- Event: Inter IIT 2025
- Topics: Sci-Tech, Business
- View online: https://prayag-mohanty.github.io/QM/quiz/scitech-inter-iit-2025-tryouts/
- Download PDF: https://prayag-mohanty.github.io/QM/files/scitech-inter-iit-2025-tryouts/scitech-inter-iit-2025-tryouts.pdf

SciTech Inter IIT 2025 Tryouts: a quiz set with questions and answers (42 slides) by Johan Sam Biju. View online, download or share.

## Slides

### Slide 1

Science & Technology
SciTech Tryouts

### Slide 2

Q1. This question gets me up

◼Angina Pectoris is a fancy name for chest pain-specifically.
spasms in the heart's coronary arteries.
◼The pharmaceutical company Pfizer developed a pill named
UK92480 to help constrict these arteries to relieve pain.
◼The pill failed its primary purpose, but the secondary side
effect was startling. The drug became known as ______ and I
hope no one here needs to use it :)
◼ Pfizer sold $288 million worth of the little blue pill in the first
quarter of 2013.

### Slide 3

Q1. Answer

Viagra (sildenafil)
Pfizer's UK-92,480 was trialled for angina:
it was meant to relax and widen the
coronary arteries (not constrict them).
It did little for angina, but trial volunteers
reported a notable side effect: erections. It
is a PDE5 inhibitor.
Sildenafil · PDE5 inhibitor
It was approved for erectile dysfunction in
1998; the “little blue pill”, and the title's
pun. narrowed dilated

### Slide 4

Q2. Is OLED good for my usecase?

●“3d pipes”, a bouncing _ _ _ logo and flying windows logos
are all solutions to an age old (and sometimes very visible)
problem that used to plague a certain computer peripheral in
the 90s, that was somewhat made redundant with
improvements in phosphor coatings.

● However the problem has made a resurgence in the modern
era, with a particular (modern) class of the same peripheral
having a similar issue, which is mitigated by using more
“granular” techniques. What am I talking about?

### Slide 5

Q2. Answer

Screen burn-in
CRT monitors burned static images into
their phosphor, so screensavers (3D Pipes,
the bouncing DVD logo, Flying Windows) DVD
kept the picture moving.
OLED panels have brought burn-in back,
because organic pixels age unevenly.
The fix is now at pixel level: pixel
shifting/orbiting and pixel refresh cycles. Ghost of a static image
fix: screensavers → pixel shifting

### Slide 6

Q3. A thousand minds

● While all proteins can be described by sequences of just 22 amino
acids, their 3d structure can be very unpredictable and is critical to
their function. Folding@home is a mass project that simulates the
folding of different protein structures, and has been instrumental
in the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease.

● Einstein@home is a similar project to analyse astronomical data
to find a variety of rare celestial bodies

● Both these projects feature problems that are simple at a unitary
scale, but feature an enormous number of these unitary problems

● Hence they use “resources” that are otherwise left unused for a
large time. What are these systems based off of?

### Slide 7

Q3. Answer

Volunteer distributed computing (grid
computing on idle CPU/GPU cycles)
Volunteers' PCs crunch small work units
while otherwise idle; Einstein@home runs
on BOINC. work units
Huge numbers of simple, independent
tasks are “embarrassingly parallel”, which
is ideal for this.

Idle PCs, one shared problem

### Slide 8

Q4. Who’s theorem is this?

### Slide 9

Q4. Answer

Bayes' theorem
P(A | B) = P(B | A) · P(A) / P(B)
Named after Rev. Thomas Bayes (published
posthumously, 1763). A A∩B B

P(A|B) = P(B|A)·P(A)
P(B)

### Slide 10

Q5. You stupid four-eyes, you

◼ Hejny, an audio engineer from
Nashville, Tenn., was inspired to
create the wax four years ago when
he was at a concert in Texas and saw
a musician he was working with,
constantly have to do something.
◼ Out of sympathy, he wanted to walk
on stage and hold something in
place so the drummer could focus on
the music. This led to him creating
Nerd Wax.
◼ What is NerdWax?

### Slide 11

Q5. Answer

A wax for glasses that stops them
slipping down your nose
Rubbed on the nose pads/bridge of
spectacles; it's what the drummer needed
held in place.
Hence “four-eyes”, and the nerd in
Nerdwax.

Wax on the nose pads
→ glasses stay put

### Slide 12

Q6. It’s not chips! - some brit, probably

◼ The existence of anomalous repeating
sequences of DNA in certain single
celled organisms was first noticed in
E.Coli.
◼ It was later observed in yogurt bacteria
repeatedly infected by viruses that
these sequences were actually being
taken from the virus
◼ Along with a protein named Cas9, this
setup allowed the cell to target specific
DNA in the attacker the next time
around
◼ What are these sequences called OR
what did their discovery allow humanity
to do for the first time?

### Slide 13

Q6. Answer

CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced
Short Palindromic Repeats)
It allowed precise, programmable editing
of genes (CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing)
The repeats were first seen in E. coli (Ishino,
1987); in 2007 work on yogurt bacteria (S.
thermophilus) at Danisco showed they store Cas9
viral DNA as an immune memory.
Doudna and Charpentier won the 2020 Nobel
in Chemistry. The title: crisps, not chips. Guide RNA finds it · Cas9 cuts

### Slide 14

Q7. Would be slightly weird if it were human

◼The Svalbard Global ____ vault is a secure backup facility in
order to maintain diversity of a certain item.
◼Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago that lies at the
convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean,
and hence is a perfect location for the same.
◼It has over a million samples of said item, ensuring
humanity’s future even if things go agrainst us.
◼FITB/Put funda

### Slide 15

Q7. Answer

Seed: the Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Nicknamed the “Doomsday Vault”, opened
2008, dug into a mountain on Spitsbergen.
Permafrost keeps the seeds cold even if
power fails; it holds duplicate crop seeds
from gene banks worldwide.
First withdrawal: ICARDA in 2015, to
rebuild seed stocks lost to the Syrian war.
−18 °C · 1.3 M+ seed samples
Permafrost backup if power fails

### Slide 16

Q8. Mr Wilson if he had health insurance

◼These items initially used to be made of ivory, because it had
certain physical properties, such as a particular density, and
the ability to rebound properly.
◼A shortage in ivory during the late nineteenth century meant
that celluloid was used instead.
◼However, celluloid was unstable, and exploded when 2 such
items bumped together, which was not ideal for its use-case.
◼What items, whose explosions would cause a scorching of
the “green”?

### Slide 17

Q8. Answer

Billiard / pool balls
Ivory balls were costly, which led to a prize
BANG! for a substitute; John Wesley Hyatt tried
celluloid.
Celluloid balls could crack loudly on 3
impact, like a gunshot. Legend says players
in saloons drew their guns.
The “green” is the baize table cloth.
Ivory → celluloid
The green = baize

### Slide 18

Q9. Choosiest iqs solution - unscramble this for bonus

◼In 1610, Galileo sent out an anagram
SMAISMRMILMPOETALEUMIBUNENUGTTAUIRAS in order
to announce a new discovery.
◼This was re-assembled by Kepler as “Salve, umbistineum
germinatum Martia proles.” However, what Galileo actually
wanted to communicate was “Altissimum planetam
tergeminum obseravi”.
◼Miraculously, both these interpretations were astronomical
fact - though the prior one was only established to be true in
1877.
◼What discoveries, respectively about Mars and Saturn?

### Slide 19

Q9. Answer

Mars: it has two moons (Phobos and
Deimos)
Saturn: it appeared triple (Galileo was
seeing its rings)
Kepler's reading: “Hail, twin companionship,
children of Mars.” Asaph Hall discovered the
two moons in 1877. Mars + 2 moons Galileo saw “o O o”
Galileo's meaning: “I have observed the
highest planet tri-form”; his telescope couldn't Phobos & Deimos (1877)
Saturn's rings, unresolved in 1610 resolve the rings, so they looked like two side
bodies.

### Slide 20

Q10. If you can’t chuck the logs,...

◼This particular species should be a prime candidate for CTE
(Concussions) due to their working conditions being similar
to NFL players. (even worse, considering they do it
year-round)
◼However, the 2006 IgNobel prize was awarded for showing
that the species is built to avoid any kind of head injury.
◼This is due to having their brains packed more tightly into
their skulls, smoother brain surface to maximise impact area,
and by having minimal lateral motion, which avoids shear
forces
◼What animal?

### Slide 21

Q10. Answer

Woodpecker
2006 Ig Nobel Prize in Ornithology: Ivan
tok!tok! Schwab and Philip May, for explaining why
woodpeckers don't get headaches.
Title: “How much wood would a
woodchuck chuck…”

~20 pecks/sec, no concussion
Tight skull · smooth brain · straight strikes

### Slide 22

Q11. Just google it man

◼January 15, 2001 is probably the single most notable day in
2001 (sadly).
◼_________ was launched on this date as a single language
Edition. Its integral policy of "neutral point of view" arose
within its first year.
◼Otherwise, there were initially relatively few rules, and it
operated independently of Nu_____, its precursor.
◼In 2007, it surpassed the Yongle Encyclopedia made in China
during the Ming dynasty in 1408, which had held the record
for almost 600 years, as the largest of its kind.
◼WAITA?

### Slide 23

Q11. Answer

Wikipedia
Precursor: Nupedia
Launched 15 January 2001 by Jimmy Wales 1408 2001 2007
and Larry Sanger, initially in English only.

Yongle Wikipedia overtakes In 2007 it overtook the Yongle Encyclopedia (after Nupedia) Yongle
Encyclopedia as the largest encyclopedia
ever compiled.
~600-year record broken
15 Jan 2001: Wikipedia Day

### Slide 24

Q12. Might cause arguments

◼____ ______ fever is a viral
disease of humans and
livestock that can cause loss
of sight, infections of the
brain, and liver problems.
◼It was first discovered in
livestock in the ____ ______
in Kenya, and was named
thus, after the famous
natural feature.
◼FITB

### Slide 25

Q12. Answer

Rift Valley fever
Named after the Great Rift Valley in Kenya,
where it was identified in sheep in the
1930s.
Spread by mosquitoes and contact with
infected animals. A rift “might cause
arguments”. valley floor

Great Rift Valley, Kenya
Plates pulling apart: a “rift”

### Slide 26

Q13. Rise. Rise!

● The album Reise, Reise was
dedicated to one of the worst
disasters in a particular field,
claiming 520 lives after a thirty
minute struggle to regain control

● The album cover art also references
this horrific incident, in particular
the unique and standardised color of
the item that fills the frame

● What is the item present in the the
cover?
Audio A(full track): Audio B: WARNING

### Slide 27

Q13. Answer

A flight recorder: the “black box”, which
is actually orange
Rammstein's Reise, Reise (2004) references
Japan Airlines Flight 123 (1985): 520
deaths after about 30 minutes of struggle; FLIGHT RECORDER
the deadliest single-aircraft accident. DO NOT OPEN
The cover is styled as a flight recorder,
painted the standard high-visibility orange
“Black box” = high-vis orange so it can be found in wreckage.
JAL 123 · 12 Aug 1985 · 520 lost

### Slide 28

Q14. You spin me right round

◼What is this a proposed solution to?
◼You might have seen it horizontally oriented,
then in its current state
◼There is also a very famous episode of Friends,
with the episode revolving around a related
issue

### Slide 29

Q14. Answer

The moving sofa problem
What is the largest-area shape that can be
turned around a right-angled corner in a
hallway of unit width? (Leo Moser, 1966)
Hammersley's sofa is the horizontal unit-width hallway
“telephone” shape; shown here is Gerver's
sofa (area ≈ 2.2195), proved optimal by PIVOT!PIVOT!
Jineon Baek in 2024.
Friends, “The One with the Cop”: Ross yells Max area ≈ 2.2195 (Gerver)
Proved optimal: Baek, 2024 “PIVOT!” while carrying his couch up the
stairs.

### Slide 30

15. zeroes and Ones

●This filmmaking technique uses an array of array of cameras
around a fast moving object, and takes photos of it from
multiple angles and high FPS.
●These photos are then stitched together and played in
sequence (as in any normal movie) at normal speed to create
a sense of fast camera movement in what is otherwise a
single slow motion moment. CGI is sometimes use to smooth
out the action.
●What is this technique called, named after its most common
subject? OR Where can you find this technique first used in
cinema?

### Slide 31

15. Answer

Bullet time
First used in cinema (and popularised
by): The Matrix (1999)
A ring of still cameras fires in sequence
around the subject; the frames play as a
camera move around a frozen moment.
Title: “zeroes and ones”, i.e. the Matrix's
digital world. Frozen moment, moving camera
The Matrix (1999)

### Slide 32

Q16. You as well, Johan?

◼In 1963, he was the first of the only 8 people to be made an
honorary citizen of the USA.
◼He was also named the G.O.A.T of his nation in a 2002 poll by
the national television, with 2nd in the list being a
construction engineer, 3rd a women, 4th a biologist, 5th a
poet and 6th a physicist. Who?
◼About whose invasions to his country, twice in the history in
55 BC and 54 BC, was the theme of the first of his 4-volume
book, titled 'A History of the _______ Speaking Peoples'?

### Slide 33

Q16. Answer

Winston Churchill
Invader: Julius Caesar; book: A History of the
English-Speaking Peoples
First honorary US citizen (1963). Winner of the Britannia
BBC's 100 Greatest Britons (2002), ahead of
55 & 54 BC
Brunel, Princess Diana, Darwin, Shakespeare and
Newton.
Volume 1, The Birth of Britain, opens with Caesar's Gaul
invasions of 55 and 54 BC. Title: “Et tu, Brute?”
Caesar crosses the Channel He won the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature, partly
“Et tu, Brute?” → Johan
for his historical writings.

### Slide 34

Then why should I live?

### Slide 35

17.

●Before the advent of modern organic chemistry, bright, deep
color was a time consuming process of extracting and
processing gemstones, bugs and the like.
●The rarest of the lot was _ _ _ _ _ _, which could only be
reliably extracted from the mucus of the Tyrian sea snail, or
murex.
●As a result it became a color almost entirely missing from
national and state flags over history, as these flags would
need to be mass produced.
●Which color am I talking about?

### Slide 36

17. Answer

Purple (Tyrian purple)
Thousands of murex snails were needed
Tyrian purple for a single gram of dye, so it became the
colour of emperors and royalty.
Only two national flags include purple:
Dominica (the Sisserou parrot) and
Nicaragua (the rainbow in its coat of arms).
William Perkin's synthetic mauveine (1856)
~10,000 murex ≈ 1 g of dye
finally made purple cheap. Flags with purple: Dominica, Nicaragua

### Slide 37

18.Colorful

◼ X once collaborated with Triflare, a
sportswear company for a marketing
campaign where US synchronized swim
team members performed in a
17,000-gallon tank broadcasted live on
giant LED screens.
◼ This Swimming event featured X's new
product with two years' worth of ____. The
event also helped in promotion of Triflare
special swimsuits printed with X's
dye-sublimation technology.
◼ ID X.

### Slide 38

18. Answer

Epson
“Swimming in Ink”, Times Square,
September 2015: USA Synchro swimmers
performed in a 17,000-gallon tank.
The launch was for the EcoTank printers,
sold with two years' worth of ink.
Triflare's swimsuits were printed with
Epson's SureColor dye-sublimation “Swimming in Ink” · 2015
EcoTank: two years of ink printers.

### Slide 39

19. Maybe this quiz has too many color
questions

◼This dark blue pigment produced by oxidation of ferrous
ferrocyanide salts, is named after a historic region in the central
Europe. ID this compound that you might have come across
during your JEE days. (5)
◼Thanks to it binding to Cs-137 in the gastrointestinal tract of
humans and animals, preventing it from being absorbed into the
body and promoting its excretion through feces, the pigment
was used extensively in Eastern Europe in the late 20th century.
Put the funda. (5)
◼What from the world of pop-culture is named after Cs-137
isotope? (5)

### Slide 40

19. Answer

a) Prussian blue (ferric ferrocyanide)
b) An antidote for radioactive caesium
Prussian blue
after the Chernobyl disaster (1986)
Fe₄[Fe(CN)₆]₃
It binds caesium in the gut and stops it
being reabsorbed. It was given to people
and added to livestock feed, and today is Cs-137
trapped in gut sold as Radiogardase.
→ excreted
c) Cesium 137, an American
futurepop/synthpop band Chernobyl, 1986 · Radiogardase

### Slide 41

20. Za

◼This is a condition in which there is sustained
involuntary flexion of the body and head to
one side and slight rotation of the trunk,so
the person appears to have a ‘lean’. Even
though the common name owes its
inspiration to something for its unintended
5.5° tilt,this syndrome is clinically defined as
a lateral flexion of more than 10° in the
standing position.
◼How do we better know this medical
condition?

### Slide 42

20. Answer

Pisa syndrome (pleurothotonus)
Named after the Leaning Tower of Pisa, 5.5°
which tilted about 5.5° before it was >10°
stabilised (about 4° now).
Often a side effect of antipsychotic drugs;
also seen in Parkinson's disease. Title: “Za”,
as in Piz-za.

Leaning like the tower
Lateral flexion of the trunk