Final Jeopardy: The Greek Alphabet (4-15-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (4/15/2015), in the category “The Greek Alphabet” was:
When spelled out as words in English, 2 of the 3 longest Greek letters.
Current champ Alex Jacob has won $72,200 over the course of 3 runaway games. Today he takes on these two players: Becky Hammer, from Alexandria, VA; and Doug Butler, from Columbia, MO.
Round 1: Becky found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “A Mixed Bag of Mixed Bags” under the $600 clue. She was in second place with $1,800, $400 less than Alex in the lead. She made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT.
The subject of the cartoon seen here is one of these named for his luggage. show
Alex finished in the lead with $9,800. Becky was second with $5,600 and Doug was last with $400.
Round 2: Alex found the first Daily Double in “Chapter Titles in Moby Dick” under the $1,600 clue. He was in the lead with $13,800, $2,200 more than Becky in second place. Not feeling too confident in the category, he only bet $100 and seemed a bit dejected when he was RIGHT.
This study of whales. show
Becky found the last Daily Double in “Astrophysics with Neil deGrasse Tyson” under the $1,200 clue. In second place with $12,000, she had $1,900 less than Alex in the lead. She bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.
I got my undergrad & graduate degrees at other Ivy League schools, but I did have the inspirational privilege of meeting this man who taught astronomy at Cornell for almost 3 decades. show
Alex finished in the lead with $20,700. Becky was right on his heels with $18,600 and Doug was in third place with $1,600.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT ARE (TWO OF) EPSILON, OMICRON and UPSILON?
“The Greek alphabet has been in continuous use since about 750 BC. It was developed from the Canaanite/Phoenician alphabet and the order and names of the letters are derived from Phoenician. The original Canaanite meanings of the letter names was lost when the alphabet was adapted for Greek. For example, alpha comes for the Canaanite aleph (ox) and beta from beth (house). ” Learn a lot more about the Greek alphabet, including pronunciation, at Omniglot.com.
Doug wrote down “lamda omicron”. He lost his $1,500 bet and finished with $100.
Becky came up with epsilon and omega. That cost her $2,101 and she finished with $16,499.
Alex got it right with epsilon and omicron. He bet $16,501 so he won his 4th match with $37,201. His 4-day total is $109,401.
During the chat, Alex told Trebek about playing poker with Tobey Maguire and Pete Sampras, describing “Spiderman” as a riskier player than “the King of Swing”.
2 years ago:: ALL of the players got this FJ in “World Leaders”:
In 1990 she became the first modern head of government to give birth while in office, to a daughter named Bakhtawar. show
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Nice of Alex Trebek to mention at the beginning of today’s show that Alex J is getting married. Brought a big smile from Alex J.
Becky was a good competitor and even had the lead a few times. But faltered in fj. All contestants knew the Greek alphabet but only Alex knew the correct ones. No one wrote senseless responses imo. They wrote what came to mind in 30 seconds.
Greek life is central to colleges. There is no way to avoid it. I used to have some students write their Greek affiliation beneath their names on tests whether it was an honor society, fraternity, sorority, or some other greek named campus organization. Had to remind them the grade went to their name not the Greek affiliation. 🙂 🙂
Still can’t figure out why they did that. But, I also had some athletes write their jersey #s beneath their names on tests. Told them the same thing.
well, no runaway but ONE correct.looking through those “glasses”again….
Yes one, but not the one that you thought would get it, right? LOL!
btw, if you follow the link in the info segment, that page spells omicron with a K instead of a C
it was not a runaway. i said yesterday,i believe, in the spoiler talk that if it’s a runaway then alex would not bother to answer. that was wrong, he tried to make 50 K.same today. can’t see any prediction by me WHO would be the player who would be right. but since it was NOT a runaway i figured it would be alex (with no runaway he had to “show his hand”). you’ll have to take my word on that.
as far as the “k” in omicron goes, i was taught it is the exception and even for a “dead” language “outdated”. but then, what did my professors know the u. of vienna was only founded in 1365, over 100 years later than the sorbonne…:):):)
I did not say you “predicted,” I said you “thought”, but actually in your first post this morning you did say that there would be 2 solves MAX, then you decided to go with ONE, then you said Alex would get a runaway and then in another post you said if he did, he would write a message instead of an answer. I don’t even consider those predictions when you change them and make conditions, then it’s speculation to me.
As for the K in omicron, you said “and of course the 0-n with a k would be accepted, since it does not change the pronunciation at all.(although the “k” spelling must be very rare. when i learned greek that letter was ALWAYS spelled/written with a “c”).” That’s the only reason I pointed out that the page I linked to spelled it with a K.
Whoa! If Alex J keeps this up, he’ll be on the show until AT retires. LOL
Congrats Alex! Nice wedding money for your upcoming wedding.
Coincidence to see a “New England Patriots” category on a day like today.
i think he has already more money than he can ever win on j,,,:) looking forward to the ToC
N.E.P. on a day like today?? what am i missing here??? today we have to pay OUR taxes not the british ones..???
Did you read Mark’s FF article on the guilty verdict of Aaron Hernandez today? He was a NE Patriot. Read Mark’s article. It’s well written.
hernandez can be glad they don’t have the dp i MA (though i am against it, it is no deterrent and too many innocent people have been executed and/or are on death row). but he is pretty young. so idk if i would prefer to get some drugs and slide into oblivion or be incarcerated 30,40 maybe even 50 years…
so i did notice the verdict and then discarded the whole thing. that he is – proven- not the only violent player in the NFL- though i’m not talking murder (o.j.???)- it’s another dark chapter for our pro sport addiction.
coincidence: yes.
important: certainly not.