The Million Second Quiz [OVER. Congrats to Stargate18]

[biancospino]

Day 20 -- Results

sloththeholy

wins against

StrangerCoug

$110,000 vs $30,000 and keeps the Chair.

imaginality

wins against

Not_Mafia

$50,000 vs $20,000.

Ariel

wins against

Stargate18

$70,000 vs $40,000.

Cheery Dog

gains $40,000 answering to evens.

Moreover, based on their previous position on the board:

sloththeholy

gains $800,000

Not_Mafia

gains $266,000

Stargate18

gains $200,000

imaginality

gains $160,000

Ariel

gains $133,000

Cheery Dog

gains 114,000.

StrangerCoug

gains $100,000.

Leaderboard

1. sloththeholy ($4,872,000)
   
   
2. Ariel ($2,136,000)
   
3. Not_Mafia ($2,076,000)
   
4. imaginality ($4,536,000)
   
5. Stargate18 ($4,159,000)
   
6. Cheery Dog ($1,424,000)
   
7. StrangerCoug ($1,750,000)

(N.B.: Ariel did only submit 11 (non-numbered) answers and failed to doctor the submission, so I had to make an educated guess as to which was the missing answer. If I've made the wrong guess, please be honest and do tell me.)

[biancospino]

Day 21 -- The Last Qualifiers

1. █
   Almost nothing is known about Máel Brigte of Moray, other than he managed to kill Sigurd the Mighty, Earl of Orkney... while he was already dead himself. He (or rather, his corpse) did that by...
   1. Communicating an infective disease
      
   2. Suffocating him under his weight
      
   3. Falling on him while still clutching a sword
      
   4. Biting his leg
2. █
   Which of the following was
   not
   nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?
   1. Benito Mussolini
      
   2. Francisco Franco
      
   3. Adolf Hitler
      
   4. Joseph Stalin
3. █
   Emperor Nero's favorite poisoner, who was supposedly involved in the assassinations of Claudius and Britannicus (Nero's stepfather and half-brother), was...
   1. Patrobius
      
   2. Canidia
      
   3. Locusta
      
   4. Narcissus
4. █
   King Mydas was king of which kingdom?
   1. Phrygia
      
   2. Lycia
      
   3. Galatia
      
   4. Bithynia
5. █
   The first mammal to be launched into space (in 1949) was a...
   1. Monkey
      
   2. Dog
      
   3. Mouse
      
   4. Rabbit
6. █
   Let
   f
   be some
   derivable
   real function (with derivative
   f'
   ), and
   x₀
   be some real. Which of the following statements may be false?
   1. If
      f
      has a nonzero horizontal asyndote, then any antiderivative of
      f
      has an oblique asyndote
      
   2. If
      f'
      has no zeroes, then
      f
      is globally (strictly) monotone
      
   3. If
      f'
      (
      x₀
      )>0, then
      f
      is locally increasing near
      x₀
      
      
   4. If
      f'
      is continuos at
      x₀
      , then
      f
      is locally Lipschitz near
      x₀
      .
7. █
   Consider the expression √(1+√(1+√(1+...))) (repeating endlessly). It is equal to...
   1. γ (the Euler-Mascheroni constant)
      
   2. ϕ (the golden ratio)
      
   3. π/2 (half of pi)
      
   4. e (the Napier number)
8. █
   The integral of the Lagrangian, taken over time along the path of the system, is called...
   1. Entropy
      
   2. Work
      
   3. Action
      
   4. Energy
9. █
   The difference between the
   enthalpy
   of a system and the product of its
   temperature
   and
   entropy
   is called...
   1. Exergy
      
   2. Internal energy
      
   3. Helmholtz free energy
      
   4. Gibbs free energy
10. █
    Which of the following minerals is hexoctahedral (i.e, in the shape of a truncated octahedron)?
    1. Fluorspar
       
    2. Pyrite
       
    3. Corundum
       
    4. Moganite
11. █
    Which demigod is said to have once tied an egg into a knot?
    1. Väinämöinen
       
    2. Pollux
       
    3. Kintarō
       
    4. Sæmingr
12. █
    Longplayer
    is a piece of music by Jem Finer, notable for its extreme duration. The composition started to play at the Bow Creek ligthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf (in London) the first of January, 2000, and it's still playing as of now. In which year is the performance scheduled to end?
    1. 2025
       
    2. 2101
       
    3. 2499
       
    4. 2999
13. █
    Which of the following demons, listed in the
    Ars Goetia
    , is traditionally depicted either as a winged deer, or as an angel?
    1. Paimon
       
    2. Bael
       
    3. Furfur
       
    4. Agares
14. █
    The so called "Ripley scroll", named after George Ripley even thou he was likely not the author, is a XV century document on...
    1. Witchcraft
       
    2. Philosophy
       
    3. Teology
       
    4. Alchemy
15. █
    Which of the following latin novels includes an extended description of a dinner that concludes with the host, Trimalchio, kissing his lover in front of his wife, throwing a gold cup against said wife, and then performing an enactment of his own funeral complete with music?
    1. Didymi Clerici Prophetae minimi Hypercalypseos liber singularis
       
       
    2. Mundus alter et idem
       
       
    3. Satyricon liber
       
       
    4. Somnium, seu opus posthumum de astronomia lunari

Deadline is due in about (expired on 2024-11-21 17:09:44).

[biancospino]

I've still got a couple of missing submissions.
That said, I'll also need to apologise that I haven't yet prepared the next set of questions, so Day 22 will not start until later today at the sooner anyway, sorry.

[biancospino]

Day 21 -- Results

sloththeholy

will be challenged by

Stargate18

.

The other bouts will be:

Not_Mafia

vs

imaginality

Ariel

vs

StrangerCoug

(I had to roll some dice to decide the ordering of NM, imaginality and Ariel).

[biancospino]

Day 22 -- The Last Bouts

1. █
   The
   Altaic
   is an obsolete and highly controversial grouping of (mostly agglutinative) languages that was once hypotesised (but the thesis is nowadays rejected by most linguists) to descend from a common ancestry. Which of the following languages is commonly included in this group?
   1. Dravidian
      
   2. Kyrgyz
      
   3. Aymara
      
   4. Basque
2. █
   Which of the following languages uses, mostly, a SOV word order (like, say, Latin, but unlike most romance languages that are SVO)?
   1. Japanese
      
   2. Arabic
      
   3. Guaraní
      
   4. Mandarin
3. █
   Which of the following countries' official name is in the approximate form "Unites States of X"?
   1. Germany
      
   2. Venezuela
      
   3. Argentina
      
   4. Philippines
4. █
   Which of the following countries does
   not
   have any ongoing territorial disputes?
   1. Canada
      
   2. Greece
      
   3. Australia
      
   4. Argentina
5. █
   Which movie won the Palme d'Or in the 2024 Cannes Film Festival?
   1. Parthenope
      
      
   2. Megalopolis
      
      
   3. Anora
      
      
   4. L'Amour Ouf
6. █
   Which cut of beef was used to make Lady Gaga's meat dress she wore at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards?
   1. Chuck
      
   2. Round
      
   3. Flank
      
   4. Plate
7. █
   Which of the following metal groups is (as of November 2024) no longer active?
   1. Hour of Penance
      
   2. Deathspell Omega
      
   3. Anaal Nathrakh
      
   4. Angelcorpse
8. █
   What is the name of Spongebob's father?
   1. Bert
      
   2. Perch
      
   3. Larry
      
   4. Harold
9. █
   Gadsby
   (1939) is an example of a novel written without words containing a specific letter (in this case, the letter E). Such works are called...
   1. Abecedarians
      
   2. Transgrams
      
   3. Lipograms
      
   4. Chaterisms
10. █
    What is the repetition of the same word, but with different semantical meanings, as in the quote below, called?

    [...] lumina luminibus quia nobis praepediuntur.
    

    [tr. "[...] because our eyes are blinded by the light", as

    lumen

    may mean both

    light

    and

    eye

    .]

    1. Chiasmus
       
    2. Epizeuxis
       
    3. Antanaclasis
       
    4. Diacope
11. █
    Lopado­temacho­selacho­galeo­kranio­leipsano­drim­hypo­trimmato­silphio­karabo­melito­katakechy­meno­kichl­epi­kossypho­phatto­perister­alektryon­opte­kephallio­kigklo­peleio­lagoio­siraio­baphe­tragano­pterygon
    is (the translitteration of) the name of a fictional dish (and notable for being one of the longest words even recorded in literature), appearing in which Aristophane's comedy?
    1. Λυσιστράτη (
       Lysistrata
       )
       
    2. Ἐκκλησιάζουσαι (
       The Assemblywomen
       )
       
    3. Ὄρνιθες (
       The Birds
       )
       
    4. Βάτραχοι (
       The Frogs
       )
12. █
    La Princesse
    was a 15-metre tall mechanical spider, which in 2008 was made to crawl around which city?
    1. Munich
       
    2. Kyoto
       
    3. Liverpool
       
    4. New Orleans
13. █
    While a soccer team is comprised of 11 players, a team may actually field less than that if they are unable to field eleven. There is, however, a minimum number of players a team
    must
    have in order to be able to play a match; the number may vary depending on the league, but it is usually...
    1. 5
       
    2. 6
       
    3. 7
       
    4. 8
14. █
    San Marino won three medals at the 2020 Olympics (and that was the first time San Marino ever won any olympic medals); a silver and a bronze in shooting, and a bronze in...
    1. Archery
       
    2. Wrestling
       
    3. Cycling
       
    4. Weightlifting
15. █
    What is the second highest scoring card, after the Ace, in
    Briscola
    ,
    Brisca
    and
    Briškula
    ?
    1. the King
       
    2. the ten
       
    3. the seven
       
    4. the three
16. █
    A swiss-suited deck of cards has the suits of Bells, Acorns, Shields and...
    1. Leaves
       
    2. Roses
       
    3. Hearts
       
    4. Swords

sloththeholy

,

Not_Mafia

and

Ariel

have the odds.

Stargate18

,

imaginality

and

StrangerCoug

have the evens.

Cheery Dog

may choose odds or evens.

Deadline for this one is going to be a bit longer, let's say (expired on 2024-11-28 10:54:47). So that I have some time to prepare the Finals.

[biancospino]

Sorry, I promise I'll manage to get this going sometimes in the next 12 hours.
I'm still accepting late submissions until then.

[biancospino]

Day 22 -- Results

sloththeholy

wins against

Stargate18

$80,000 vs $50,000 and keeps the Chair until the very end.

Not_Mafia

wins against

imaginality

$30,000 vs $20,000.

StrangerCoug

wins against

Ariel

$30,000 vs $10,000.

Cheery Dog

gains $30,000 answering to odds.

Moreover, based on their previous position on the board:

sloththeholy

gains $800,000

Ariel

gains $266,000

Not_Mafia

gains $200,000

imaginality

gains $160,000

Stargate18

gains $133,000

Cheery Dog

gains 114,000.

StrangerCoug

gains $100,000.

Leaderboard

1. sloththeholy ($5,752,000)
   
   
2. Not_Mafia ($2,306,000)
   
3. Ariel ($2,412,000)
   
4. Stargate18 ($4,342,000)
   
5. imaginality ($4,716,000)
   
6. StrangerCoug ($1,880,000)
   
7. Cheery Dog ($1,586,000)

---

And with that, the main season's over!
The final money scoreboard is as follows:

1. sloththeholy ($5,752,000)
   
2. imaginality ($4,716,000)
   
3. Stargate18 ($4,342,000)
   
4. Ariel ($2,412,000)
   
5. Not_Mafia ($2,306,000)
   
6. StrangerCoug ($1,880,000)
   
7. Cheery Dog ($1,586,000)

The Finals will begin shortly. The four finalists will be

sloththeholy

,

imaginality

,

Stargate18

,

Ariel

. Of course everyone else is welcome to submit too, but is not eligible to win.

(N.B.: this post did originally list the wrong finalists.)

[biancospino]

Day 23 -- FINALS

Each of the four finalists will receive a bonus due to their final leaderboard position:

• sloththeholy:
  You may choose any number of closed questions, possibly with repetitions. For each question chosen in this way, you will pay $200,000 and you will be told one of the wrong answers.
  Also
  , you may choose any number of open questions. For each question chosen in this way, you will pay $200,000, and it will become a closed question with 4 options.
  
• imaginality:
  Before submitting, you may pay $300,000 any number of times. For each time you do, you will be told two of the wrong answers of one random closed question.
  
• Stargate18:
  You may choose any number of open questions. For each question chosen in this way, you will pay $400,000, and you'll be able to submit two answers.
  
• Ariel:
  You may choose any number of questions. For each question chosen in this way, you will pay $500,000 and get a hint.

1. █
   The Hoba Meteorite (pictured) is the largest known intact meteorite on Earth. Where is it?
   
   1. Namibia
      
   2. Congo
      
   3. Madagascar
      
   4. Syria
2. █
   Where are the
   Blood Falls
   , notable for having water so coloured red by iron oxide as to look like blood?
   1. Antartica
      
   2. Iceland
      
   3. Greenland
      
   4. Siberia
3. █
   A
   Bonne (or Sylvanus) projection
   of the world looks like in the picture below. It is notable for being...
   
   1. Both equal-area and conformal
      
   2. Both equal-area and equidistant
      
   3. Both conformal and equidistant
      
   4. Equal-area, conformal and equidistant
4. █
   A country is said to be
   doubly landlocked
   if it is landlocked (ie, it does not border with any sea or ocean) and all the coutries it borders with are landlocked. Other than Lietchenstein, there exists only one other doubly landlocked country; which?
   (Open question)
   
   
5. █
   There is only one country whose flag includes a modern firearm; which?
   (Open question)
   
   
   
6. █
   Who was cast as
   Pippi Longstocking
   in the eponymous 1969 TV series?
   1. Alexandra Dahlström
      
   2. Berit Frodi
      
   3. Inger Nilsson
      
   4. Babette Bardot
7. █
   Pictured is
   Cow Tools
   , one cartoon published in the San Francisco Chronicle, in October 1982. Notably, so many readers wrote to the publication to explain the joke to prompt the author to
   issue a press release
   explaning it. The joke was not very funny.
   "While I have never met a cow who could make tools, I felt sure that if I did, they (the tools) would lack something in sophistication and resemble the sorry specimens shown in this cartoon."
   Who was the author?
   
   1. Dan O'Neill
      
   2. Dan Piraro
      
   3. Hilary B. Price
      
   4. Gary Larson
8. █
   Which of the following is the name of the main character of two
   unrelated
   comic strips, both published from March 1951, one in the US and the other in the UK?
   1. Gina Gillotti
      
   2. Beryl
      
   3. Gnasher
      
   4. Dennis
9. █
   Totoro
   , character from
   My Neighbor Totoro
   (1988) and mascot of Studio Ghimli, is a spirit inspired by which animal?
   (Open question)
   
   
10. █
    Who hosted the 15^th (and last) edition of
    The Apprentice
    , the only one not hosted by Donald Trump?
    (Open question)
    
    
    
11. █
    Which war started with an alliance of France, the Papal State, the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire against the Republic of Venice, and somehow (through multiple rounds of changes of sides) ended as France and Venice against the Pope, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire?
    1. War of the League of Cognac
       
    2. War of the League of Cambrai
       
    3. War of the third Coalition
       
    4. Thirty years' war
12. █
    The
    Zhanmadao
    (lit. "horse-chopping-blade") was designed as an anticavalry weapon, specifically to cut through horses' legs. It was invented during...
    1. the Qin dinasty (221 BCE - 206 BCE)
       
    2. the Han dinasty (202 BCE - 220 CE)
       
    3. the Tang dinasty (618 CE - 907 CE)
       
    4. the Song dinasty (960 CE - 1279 CE)
13. █
    Gilles de Rais was a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc; he is better known for being an extremely prolific serial killer. His exact victim count isn't entirely clear, but it's extimated to be of about...
    1. 90
       
    2. 140
       
    3. 180
       
    4. 220
14. █
    For which pharaoh was built the first Egyptian pyramid (known as
    Step Pyramid of Horus Neterikhet
    )?
    (open question)
    
    
15. █
    Who was the Mesopotamian godess of Love, Fertility and War? (
    Open question. I will accept the Sumerian, Assyrian and Canaanite names, and misspellings thereof, but not the Greek name.
    )
    
    
16. █
    Resiniferatoxin
    , extracted from
    Euphorbia resinifera
    (a succulent plant, also called
    resin spurge
    ), is a potent functional analogue of...
    1. Caffeine
       
    2. Morphine
       
    3. Capsaicin
       
    4. Peyocactin
17. █
    The Sun has a mass of about 333,000 times the mass of the Earth. How many times the mass of the Earth is the mass of the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way?
    1. a billion (10⁹)
       
    2. a trillion (10¹²)
       
    3. a quadrillion (10¹⁵)
       
    4. a quintillion (10¹⁸)
18. █
    Which of the following computational models is Turing-complete (i.e. can compute anything that is computable with a Turing machine)?
    1. Tree stack automaton
       
    2. Context-free grammars
       
    3. Lambda calculus
       
    4. Regular expressions
19. █
    What is the last digit (in base 10) of 7⁷⁷⁷⁷⁷⁷ (that is an exponential tower of seven sevens, ie. seven tetracted seven)? (
    Open question
    )
    
20. █
    How many isomers does hexane (C₆H₁₄) have? (
    Open question
    )
    
    
21. █
    Who was the legendary founder, and first queen of, Carthago?
    1. Daluka
       
    2. Asbyte
       
    3. Camma
       
    4. Elissa
22. █
    Which of the following works was never put in the
    Index Librorum Prohibitorum
    ?
    1. Paradise Lost
       (John Milton)
       
    2. Decameron
       (Boccaccio)
       
    3. Candide
       (Voltaire)
       
    4. Lettres Persanes
       (Montesquieu)
23. █
    Entrants of which contest compete by composing the
    worst
    possible starting sentence of a novel?
    1. Faux Faulkner contest
       
    2. Hertzog Prize
       
    3. Lune Spark contenst
       
    4. Bulwer-Lytton contest
24. █
    Please identify which word(s) in the quote below are an example of hypallage.
    (Open question)

    April is the cruellest month, breeding
    Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
    Memory and desire, stirring
    Dull roots with spring rain.
    Winter kept us warm, covering
    Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
    A little life with dried tubers.
    Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
    With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
    And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
    And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.

25. █
    How many syllables are in a French Alexandrine?
    (Open question)
    
    
    
26. █
    Stovkahra, also known as Brčko, is likely the only non-defunct card game in the family of...
    1. Romestecq
       
    2. Trappola
       
    3. Coucou
       
    4. Trischaken
27. █
    Which of the following games is (most likely) an ancestor of Poker?
    1. Piquesept
       
    2. Gilet
       
    3. Primero
       
    4. Vogelspiel
28. █
    How long is the
    Camino Primitivo
    to Santiago (starting at Oviedo)?
    1. ~110km (68mi)
       
    2. ~320km (200mi)
       
    3. ~620km (390mi)
       
    4. ~817km (508mi)
29. █
    What should the internal temperature of a blue rare beef steak be?
    (Open question. You may specify an interval of at most 4°C or 8°F; I will accept the answer as long as your interval intersects with the correct one.)
    
    
30. █
    What is the house edge in Blackjack, assuming the player uses basic strategy but doesn't otherwise count cards, in a table where the dealer hits on soft 17 (H17), a Blackjack pays at 3:2, and 6 decks are used?
    (Open question. I'll accept answers whithin a 15% relative error.)

[biancospino]

Deadline is in (expired on 2024-12-06 14:25:46).
But I'll end the game as soon as everyone has made their final submission.

[Cheery Dog]

I like that I got both of the two I was confident in wrong. I really can't trust my judgement.

[imaginality]

I thought it was the four players with most money who compete in the final?

Finals -- The 23rd Day will host the Finals, to decide the ultimate winner of the whole thing. Only the four players with the most money (which are not, necessarily, the top four of the leaderboard!) will compete in the finals

[biancospino]

I thought it was the four players with most money who compete in the final?

Finals -- The 23rd Day will host the Finals, to decide the ultimate winner of the whole thing. Only the four players with the most money (which are not, necessarily, the top four of the leaderboard!) will compete in the finals

Oh. Yeah, I did remember my own rules wrong, how embarassing.


One sec, I'll amend that.
The finals are among:

1. sloththeholy
   
2. imaginality
   
3. Stargate18
   
4. Ariel

E: all relevant posts have been edited; apologies.

[Ariel]

How is the winner actually decided?

[biancospino]

Plain number of correct answers to this round. Should a tie occur, I'll use money as a tiebreak. Money is otherwise purely cosmetic, since obviously I'm not rich enough to afford to actually pay out the prize

[biancospino]

Sorry about the late reply btw, I have this topic subscribed but for whatever reason your post didn't trigger a notification

[Not_Mafia]

Wait, so I'm not getting $2.3m

[biancospino]

Winner Reveal

Using their respective advantages,

• sloththeholy
  pays $600,000, and is down to $5,152,000.
  
• imaginality
  pays $4,500,000 (!) and is down to $216,000.
  
• Stargate18
  pays $3,600,000 and is down to $742,000.
  
• Ariel
  pays $2,000,000 and is down to $412,000.

Results are in:

---

---

---

---

Spoiler: Some notes

• Cells colored in indigo correspond to questions an advantage was used for.
  
• For question (o), I would have accepted Inanna (the Sumerian name), Ishtar (the Babylonian and Assyrian name), Astarte (the Canaanite name), Pinikir (the Helamite name, thou whether she is indeed the same god is debatable).
  
• Some contestants answered (ac) with a single number instead of an interval. I've scored the answer as thou they had answered with an interval, of the width specified in the question, centered on their answer. The correct answer in Fahrenheits was 115°F - 120°F; wikipedia suggests that it can go up to 125°F, but personally I disagree, as the internal temperature of a blue steak should be below the melting point of fat, and hence not exceed 49°C=120°F.
  
• sloththeholy has answered (i) with "tanuki or raccoon". Now, I have accepted that since tanukis are also known as "raccoon dogs", but it should be noted that raccoon dogs are not, in fact, raccoons. Stargate18 had actually answered (i) twice with... tanuki and raccoon. For the sake of coherence, I've pretended that those two were the same answer and did not detract $400,000 from Stargate18.
  
• To solve question (s), you simply had to note that 7⁴=1 mod 10; but one also has 7⁷⁷⁷⁷⁷=-1=3 mod 4 (since 7=-1 mod 4 and clearly 7⁷⁷⁷⁷ is odd), and finally one notes that 7³=3 mod 10.

Congratulations to Stargate18, who goes home with $742,000!

[biancospino]

Thanks all for playing, I hope you had a good time!

Apologies for the very frequent delays (if we followed schedule, the game should have ended by October!), but life got in the way et cetera

[sloththeholy]

This was fun (:

[imaginality]

Thanks for modding, biancospino! I enjoyed the mix of questions!

Congratulations Stargate18!

Kinda amusing that I got 7/15 for the ones I didn't use my advantage on and only 8/15 for the ones where I did.

[biancospino]

Kinda amusing that I got 7/15 for the ones I didn't use my advantage on and only 8/15 for the ones where I did.

I confess that, while the questions your advantage applied on were indeed random, what wrong answers were revealed was in fact not: I tried to make it so that the binary choices would be left as tricky as possible

[Stargate18]

Thanks for hosting! Didn't expect to win, honestly, but this was really fun to take part in!

[Not_Mafia]

Congrats Stargate, thanks Bianco for hosting