Final Jeopardy: The Nobel Prize in Physics (10-16-23)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (10/16/2023) in the category “The Nobel Prize in Physics” was:
Barry Barish, who shared the 2017 prize for detecting gravitational waves, called his award “a win for” this predecessor
The Champions Wild Card semi-finals continue today with these three champs: Josh Saak, a traffic engineer from Boise, ID, Kendra Blanchette, a registered dietitian from Elk Grove, CA; and Dane Reighard, a writer & editor from Los Angeles, CA.
Round 1 Categories: This Gland Is Your Gland – A Prequel to Which Movie? – British Spelling Bee – I Didn’t Come Here to Make Friends – Kickin’ Aztec – & Takin’ Names
Kendra found the first Daily Double in “& Takin’ Names” under the $600 clue on the 20th pick of the round. She was in second place with $2,600, $600 less than Dane’s lead. Kendra made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT.
Matoaka, Amonute & Rebecca Rolfe (hey, things happened fast in the 17th century) show
Kendra finished in the lead with $4,600. Dane was in second with $4,400. Josh was last with $1,000. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: O Brother, Where Art Thou? – In the Baseball Team’s Lineup – The Literary Character Who Said… – You Do the Math – Want to Make Something Out of It? – Change a Letter
Kendra found the first Daily Double in “Literary Characters” under the $1,600 clue on the 10th pick of the round. She was in the lead with $8,200, $2,600 more than Dane in second place. Kendra bet $3,200 and said Sam Spade. That was WRONG.
”What did it matter where you lay once you were dead?…You were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that” show
Dane got the last Daily Double in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” under the $2,000 clue on the 18th pick of the round. He was in second place with $7,600, $200 less than Josh’s lead. Dane bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
Zoinks! Thou findest thyself at this South American country’s border with Panama show
Dane finished in the lead with $14,400. Josh was second with $12,200 and Kendra was last with $10,200. All clues were shown.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS ALBERT EINSTEIN?
From Lindau Mediatheque: “The 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics celebrated one big idea – Albert Einstein’s 1916 theory of relativity – and the work of three men in the hunt for the gravitational waves he predicted, but which would remain elusive for a further century. The three laureates – Rainer Weiss, based at MIT, who was awarded half the prize, and Barry Barish and Kip Thorne, who shared the other half, based at Caltech in California – were all instrumental in setting up the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration.”
At the Einstein Lectures 2018, Professor Barish explained Einstein’s connection to gravitational waves and the importance of proving their existence. The lectures are available on YouTube.
Kendra went with Newton. She lost $5,000 and finished with $5,200.
Josh got it right. His $2,205 bet brought him up to $14,405.
Dane also went with Newton. He lost $7,000, landing in second place with $7,400, and handing the game to Josh. We’ve got one more semi-final to determine who will compete with Sam Stapleton and Josh Saak in the 2-day finals.
A triple stumper from each round:
I DIDN’T COME HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS ($800) Wilde said this “Man and Superman” author didn’t have “an enemy in the world and none of his friends like him”
& TAKIN’ NAMES ($1000) Here’s “A Modest Proposal”; Isaac Bickerstaff was once this man’s nom de plume
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Countries of the World”
Nazi Germany annexed this nation & divided it into regions of the Alps & the Danube; the Allies later divided it into 4 sectors show
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I got the Aztec capital because, in 5th grade, my teacher insisted on an incorrect pronunciation. As such, I insisted to myself that I get it correct.
FJ I got right because I recalled the quote from the winner.
Good, close game, not a ton of stumpers. A bit surprised no one knew the authors of “Modest Proposal” or “Man and Superman.” Maybe not their master works, but very knowable.
Einstein and Hawking seemed too obvious, but I went with the latter. Darn.
I loved the math category. Even at my advanced age, I can hold my own with anyone in that area. Perrin White, probably among the smartest people on Earth, wrote in my HS yearbook, “To the fastest arithmetician there is.” He was one of 3 HS classmates who finished in the top 10 in the national Westinghouse competition. I believe his father was a Harvard professor and he is an MD.
The FJ was a cinch. With that being said, I failed in the math category.
The Kickin Aztec 1000 clue pronunciation problems definitely reminded me of the Solzhenitsyn incident from last season.
Well, the Aztec capital is of an Indian dialect, and perhaps not too easy to pronounce for some. I didn’t have any problem though.
It’s not a good idea to buzz in on any clue where you’re not sure of the pronunciation. Why risk losing $$? In this case, a bad guess cost a grand.
P.S. This was a triple stumper so I took the answer out of the comments to give people who didn’t see the show a crack at it. The clue on page 2 links to a pronunciation video