Final Jeopardy: The Periodic Table (2-5-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (2/5/2014), in the category “The Periodic Table” was:
Of the element symbols that don’t match the element’s English name, this element’s symbol is alphabetically 1st.
The Battle of the Decades continues with these returning champs: Leslie Shannon (5x winner 1992) from Espoo, Finland; Tom Nosek, (1993 TOC champ) from Torrance, CA; and Richard Cordray, (5x champ 1987) from Grove City, OH.
Leslie found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Like Henry James?” under the $400 clue. She was in second place with $3,200, $2,000 less than Richard in second place. She bet $2,000 and she was RIGHT.
I like the symbolism in this title such as the shattering of the title object. show
Leslie and Richard finished in a tie for the lead with $5,400 each. Tom was second with $400.
Leslie found the first Daily Double in “I’m Heading To” under the $1,600 clue. She was in the lead with $7,400, $2,600 more than Tom in second place. She bet $2,000 and thought it was the Limpopo. That was WRONG.
the banks of this African river that flows between Zimbabwe & Zambia on its way to the Indian Ocean. show
Tom found the last Daily Double in “Cinema of My Youth” under the $2,000 clue. In the lead with $6,400, he had $800 more than Leslie in second place. He bet $400 and said he didn’t know so he was WRONG.
Leopoldine Konstantin tells Claude Rains, “We are protected by the enormity of your stupidity” in this Hitchcock film. show
Tom finished in the lead with $6,000. Leslie was next with $3,600 and Richard was in third place with $2,600.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag (Greek: άργυρος árguros, Latin: argentum, both from the Indo-European root *arg- for “grey” or “shining”) and atomic number 47. ” (wikipedia)
From 2013: DON’T SAY UM ($1000) It reflects 95% of the light that strikes it, making it the most lustrous (shiny) of the metals
Richard wrote down “silver.” He bet it all and finished with $5,200.
Leslie thought it was iron. She bet it all and finished with $0.
Tom wrote down “AG.” He bet $1,201 so he won the match with $7,201.
Tom Nosek will join Chuck Forrest and Leszek Pawlowicz in the quarter-finals.
How did you like Tom’s suggestion of “Run and find out” for a Jeopardy! motto?
“The motto of all the mongoose family is “Run and find out,” and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.” from Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (The Jungle Book)
Another idea: To buzz in or not to buzz in, what is the question?
Jeopardy Calendar Clue of the Day: Bodies of Water ($400)
The Loire flows into this bay that’s also called the Gulf of Gascony. show
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Not that it matters much now, but since Richard Cordray is a federal political appointee, he couldn’t win money (or have it donated to charity) anyway, so:
1. His playing style seemed to be to go all-out since there was nothing really at stake for him, and
2. That’s probably why the Ag thing wasn’t that big of an issue.
I just want to point out that in Jeopardy, the clues are in ALL CAPS, they like to use the ampersand as a shortcut and even in this FJ clue, they used 1st as a shortcut for first. So I just don’t agree with the position that AG should not be acceptable because the g is really lower case.
Maybe a teacher would mark AG wrong on a test or red pencil it on a paper (and a teacher would probably not accept the ampersand and numerical shortcuts either), but Jeopardy would and does, unless they give the contestants some specific instruction beforehand.
Appalled by the ruling. The question said give the NAME of the element (not the symbol). I teach chemistry and silver is Ag, not AG. So even if they were to accept the symbol, the second letter should not be capitalized. They’ve discounted Final Jeopardy answers before when the person mis-read the clue and didn’t give the actual answer. The guy at the first podium should put up a stink.
I am so glad to see someone else saw this final jeopardy answer as wrong. I worked with precious metals for 10 yrs and knew that the answer should have been silver, NOT AG–the question was what was the ELEMENT, not the SYMBOL. (and yes,the symbol was even written wrong-should have been Ag) Alex hesitated when he read the answer before he declared Robert the winner–They are so technical with other answers, this time they were WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. How do they know that Robert even knew that Ag stood for silver? Answer should have been SILVER.
Addendum to my comment–I mistakenly said Robert instead of Tom who had the wrong answer.
On a brighter note … I like you guys here. You’re intelligent and logical. The world needs more of that.
Alex Trebek has shown, time and time again, that he isn’t intelligent and logical, for instance, accepting answers which later have to be disqualified (or vice versa.)
The ending of this episode was a total miscarriage of justice — except that all three of them were so bad, none of them deserved to win.
What’s with that Cordray and his wild guesses, almost all of which were wrong? And this guy works for the government. No wonder things never get accomplished!
Yes, I’m in a bad mood. I can’t help it. I don’t feel well.
Seemed like Cordray just buzzed in on some answers based on the first thought in his mind and then second-guessed that, resulting in that blank stare for a few seconds.
I completely agree with everyone re: Richard getting screwed. The correct answer was SILVER. NOT AG! That’s not even the correct way to write the chemical symbol. I agree, how Alex can tell a kid he “badly misspelled” emancipation” by 2 letters and then give Robert the W when he flat out misreads the question is beyond me. Based on the lookon Robert’s face, he thought he’d gotten it wrong. And Richard was not happy….he made ahand gesture as Alex accepted Robert’s wrong response. Boo Alex. Sorry Richard.
yes, they asked for the ELEMENT, the symbol was just some “help” again an unfortunate phrasing, TWICE “symbol” came right after “element”, so i guess that’s why they accepted AG, which should have been Ag,as eric pointed out correctly. considering that the clue writers don’t do anything else (i don’t think they have a second job at walmart) they should do better. sometimes you read clues that COULD not be phrased more complicated and confusing, even if you tried. do they just want to sound fancy or was nobody able to come up with a better and clearer phrasing?? with the AG they let tom slip through. consistency is unfortunately NOT and NEVER WAS the strength of j when it comes to ruling. Which again would not be necessary, were the clues more precise.
richard got screwed twice here. first, when you dissect the clue: they asked for the ELEMENT , not the symbol, and AG is wrong,it’s Ag, Au for gold, Pb for lead etc but since they asked for the element, the only answer they should have accepted is SILVER. sorry, richard, tom got really lucky. maybe the judges were confused by the clue as well????
I missed the clue where alex said “it means kind” what was it?
I found a schedule on LocateTV that says the College Tournament will be on for the next 2 weeks.
Richard cordray should have won… Toms answer in
Final jeopardy was not accurate they asked for the name of the element not its symbol
Agreed. The correct question is “what is silver?” They blew that one.
Agreed. How can the judges be so anal about some questions, and then, in a TOURNAMENT, allow someone to win when he gives clearly the wrong answer? Frustrating to me, but even more so for Richard.
Maybe Alex already had Silver AND Ag on his card. Didn’t seem like he hesitated to accept Tom’s answer but I’m not watching it over to find out. That was a nutty game.
Roberts answer of silver was an accurate answer in tonight’s jeopardy 2/5/14..the answer with the AG symbol for silver should have been incorrect Robert should have one… He was jipped
Well, it was accepted, that’s all I know. Well not all — I got Baby M. Sometimes being from NJ comes in handy.
i just read marilyn’s post from yesterday. that makes sense. but then it’s actually a FIVE week tournament, no???????
i still have no idea how they will get to 3 semi finalists….