Final Jeopardy: The Elements (4-25-19)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (4/25/2019) in the category “The Elements” was:
Oddly, mining of this rare earth element with a geographic name, atomic no. 63, is mostly in Asia & with some in S. America & Australia
15x champ James Holzhauer, a pro sports gambler from Las Vegas, NV, has now won $1,135,175. In Game 16, he takes on: Tim Hall, a data analyst from Washington, D.C.; and Alix Basden, a student from Lafayette, LA.
Click here to leave well wishes and prayers for Alex Trebek. There’s also a link to where you can make a donation to pancreatic cancer research in his honor.
Round 1 Categories: Rogues Gallery – Lake Name-is-Memorable – Celebs on Twitter – What’s for Dinner? – Chinese – Take “Out” –
James found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Rogues Gallery” under the $600 clue on the 17th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $6,600, $5,000 more than Tim in second place. He bet it all, of course, and he was RIGHT.
Depicted here is a gang of bush rangers, the sometimes romanticized bandits of this country. show
James finished in the lead with $15,600. Tim was second with $3,000 and Alix was last with $2,400.
Round 2 Categories: Iconic Paintings – Energy – Movies in the DirecTV Guide – Novel Characters – History – Occupational Verbs
James found the first Daily Double in “Iconic Paintings” under the $800 clue on the 8th pick. He was in the lead with $22,800 now, $19,200 more than Alix in second place. He bet $11,281 and he was RIGHT.
Botticelli’s “Primavera” has this Roman goddess flanked by The 3 Graces with her son Amor overhead. show
James found the last Daily Double in “Energy” under the $1,200 clue, with 6 clues left after it. In the lead with $40,981, he had $32,181 more than Alix in second place. He bet $11,914 and he was RIGHT.
This type of gasoline has had tetraethyl substances removed from it in conformance with regulations. show
James finished in the lead with $55,695. Alix was next with $9,600 and Tim was in third place with $2,600.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
Let’s use James’ method of learning facts today and look for the solution in KidzSearch, the Encyclopedia for Kids: “Europium is a chemical element. It has the symbol Eu on the periodic table. It has an atomic number 63 which means it has 63 protons in one atom. It was named after the continent Europe. Its compounds can fluoresce, or glow under ultraviolet light.” Hmmm…
A 2004 clue: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ($400) In 1901 Eugene Demarcay discovered Eu, this rare-earth metal that’s named for a continent
Tim wrote down americium. He bet and lost it all.
Alix had the same response. She lost $4,000, leaving her with $5,600.
James got it right. He bet $35,117 and won the game with $90,812. His 16-day total is $1,225,987.
A triple stumper from each round:
LAKE NAME-IS-MEMORABLE ($1000) Those imaginative Canadians! Okanagan Lake’s Ogopogo & Lake Memphremagog’s Memphre are these
NOVEL CHARACTERS ($2000) In this novel insurance agent Walter Huff turns to murder after falling for a woman he loves like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Toys”
When it was first marketed in the late 1970s, this toy was given the Hungarian name “Buvos Kocka” show
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I also wanted to mention how Alex said “great film” after that $2,000 Novel Characters clue went south — but in the film, the name of the character (played by Fred MacMurray) was changed to Walter Neff.
The “rattlesnake” in the book is Phyllis Nirdlinger. In the film, it’s Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck)
The movie also ends different from the book….
They usually do 😉
Right. This one however extremely…🙄
Speaking of movies, isn’t it something that James missed “Pulp Fiction” today? The very same clue that Alex Jacob lost a lot on in the All Star tournament. Any gamblers out there who are planning to go on the show better go watch it.
Why did they change the runner up prize money rules on Jeopardy ? e,g previously the second and third finish contestants could keep the amount of money they won, now they only get $2000 and $1000 respectively even if they have won more than that on the actual day (you could accumulate $50,000 and still finish second), If third only gets $1000 it hardly covers the cost of being on Jeopardy as they have to travel to Los Angeles and back and pay for hotel stay at their own expense as Jeopardy only pay travel and lodging to returning contestants in championship tournaments. Even if they lived in L.A. they would probably incur a loss or is it just the prestige of appearing on the show ?
@David, yes, it’s the prestige that keeps ’em trying to get on the show. Here’s a link to Jeopardy!’s article on wikipedia that says they haven’t let them keep their $$ since 1984.
Funny, I remember watching Art Fleming Jeopardy! back in the day with my mom, but I don’t remember them keeping their money. I remember my mother yelling out “Otto Preminger” one time but I don’t remember if it was right or wrong. lol
Not true at all. I think contestants back in the early days of the daytime show may have gotten to keep their winnings, but the category values were only $10-50 and $20-100. I was on the show in 1987 and finished close 2nd. I got a trip to the Bahamas but waived it because of the taxes and restrictions on its use.
well, pretty much all people forget the periodic table except for the most “famous” elements. Also chemists, physicists and people with extraordinary photographic memory would know the whole thing. So either James is one of the aforementioned 3 categories? Maybe the WHOLE thing is rigged? They say a secret is only a secret if only ONE person knows about it. So it is unlikely, but nothing in life is impossible. Can’t imagine though that J! would risk something like that. Would make the 64K question scandal like child’s play.
I do think James has a photographic memory
So ….James has now gone 16 games and Jennings went 74 games. Has anyone else gone at least 16 games? Does anyone know?
I just answered that on the other post —
See the first column in Jeopardy!’s Hall of Fame
thx
Nice to watch James move up these charts
Wow. James got it right on track, while the other two thinking about the other, but the “atomic number” clue is a toughie because you have to memorize the periodic table of elements. Most people could only find the chemical symbol, but the atomic number part is where you’ll have a mental block. Has anyone have a mental block memorizing that?
So let’s see… There are 6 more games before the Teachers Tournament starts on May 6. If James wins every one, he’ll be a 22x champ by then, but I think he’ll still be several hundred thou shy of 2 million.
There’s an opinion article on Variety about “Why James Holzhauer is Bad for Jeopardy!” Lots of arguing for and against in the comments.
In my opinion, if he makes it till May 3rd, a lot of people are going to be dying for the Teachers Tournament to be over so they can see him play again.
LINK: 8 more clues from this game
@VJ The semifinals and two-day finals of this year’s Teachers’ Tournament will clash with the Australian federal election, the Philippine midterm election, and the two semifinals of the Eurovision Song Contest. After the two-day total point affair, the finals will be held. I don’t know if I would watch some of the brightest teachers, but one thing is for sure, I will NEVER watch the finals IF both Sweden and Romania made it to the Grand Final.
As of 15 games, James has been locked on 14 of 15,(93.33%) Ken was locked in 12 of 15 (80.00%).
Another stat, at current rate James would exceed Brad Rutter’s total that includes mostly tournaments in 62 games and 33 games to beat Ken’s winnings from 74 games, so about 1/2 and 1/4th from those goals, if it happens
Well, the two wrong guesses were at least not that far off, though I was hoping one would get the right continent. Not that it would have mattered. I’m gonna buy a box of “Congratulations!” cards for James…….To use a 3 syllable word: ASTOUNDING!
Only James knew it. I thought this was going to be a triple solve today but still tim couldn’t get much going today. Congratulations again to james. He doesn’t seem to be showing signs of slowing down yet. Did the other two misread the clue and went directly to north America John and VJ? The clue stated that this element is mostly found in South America and Australia.
@Lou
Yes, but it was discovered by a French chemist, hence the naming Europium. You had to know that and James apparently did.
@John, but don’t they have other geographically named elements, (like for France, Germany and Poland) ?
@VJ
There are elements named after countries, cities, even planets and people(Mercury,Uranium, Moscovium, Gallium,Indium,Fermium….) It was just not named after France. That happened later with “Francium” Why they chose “Europium” first? Beats me.
I’m sending the clue to my granddaughter right now. I remember talking to her about the Periodic Table when she was studying it. I asked my daughter and she said maybe she would have known it when she was in high school but she forgot most of the elements by now.
The FJ answer starts “Oddly,” than mentions that the periodic element is geographical, than mentions the places found. It’s “oddly “ because you wouldn’t expect Europium! The other two missed the “Oddly “ clue!
How come we don’t get to see how tall the contestants are anymore?
Someone has probably posted the data and I wonder –
How good have Holzhauer and Jennings been in having a run away (“cinch” or “lock”) just before the Final Jeopardy. I haven’t seen all James events and don’t remember if he had to win on the Final to keep going. I remember there were some of those for Jennings. Can anyone point me to the right link for that data?
thanks,
wade
James Holzhauer Tracker on Jeopardy.com
So…for James the runaway % is 14/15 , 93.3%
I wonder what is the runaway % for Jennings?
try asking google
@Wade
As far as I remember, only game #2 was NOT a runaway. That would make 15 out of 16, thus 93.75 % including today. Just take the number of runaways and divide by the # of total games.
On James, only his second game was not a runaway, but he ended up being the only one right in Final Jeopardy!.
Check out this post with all his FJ and Daily Double bets. It has links to the recaps in the dates, too.
Can’t help you with Ken Jennings’ games. I never saw them.
You copied the idea for that statistic table from Andy Saunders
um, no, I didn’t. Actually, he copied the idea from me.