Literature
This novel’s narrator refuses to trample a crucifix for the emperor of Japan after he encounters an immortal race of struldbrugs. Yahoo.com’s name was taken from this novel’s race of savage humans who live among (*) talking horses. This book’s narrator is tied down by ropes by the miniature inhabitants of Lilliput on one of his numerous shipwrecks. For ten points, name this satirical description of an English sailor’s adventures, written by Jonathan Swift.
Gulliver’s Travels (accept Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First Surgeon, and thena Captain of Several Ships)
As typically used in the four-color theorem, the countries on a map are equivalent to these features of a graph. The formula for the Euler [oiler] characteristic adds the number of faces and these objects together. If a (*) polygon is convex, then every one of these points is an ear, because all of the diagonals of the polygon lie within the polygon as they connect these points. For ten points, name these geometric points that lie between edges at the corners of polygons.
vertex (accept vertices or vertexes; prompt on “node”; prompt on “corner” until it is read)
At a competition involving these vehicles, Hypatius was crowned Emperor by a mob of rival fans who came together, chanting “Nika!”; Justinian quickly put down the mob and killed tens of thousands of rioters. The Battle of (*) Kadesh led to the oldest-known peace treaty and is commonly cited as the largest clash of these vehicles in history. The invention of spokes roughly four thousand years ago led to the development of, for ten points, what ancient wheeled vehicles that were pulled by horses?
chariot(s)
Wilhelmy plates are allowed to sit exactly on the top of these structures. Lenses named for these things have one convex side and one concave side. These things are oriented convex down in columns of mercury, since the force of adhesion is stronger than (*) cohesion. Conventionally, liquid volumes are read out at eye level from the bottom of this structure inside a beaker or graduate cylinder. For ten points, name this curved surface of a liquid in a tube.
meniscus
In the music video for a song with this name, Selena Gomez collects frogs instead of these people. Social House and Ariana Grande collaborated on a song with this title, which is also shared by a 2022 single that implores “I don’t need to tell you (*) twice / All the ways he can’t suffice.” Being this title person comes with the upside that “all my clothes would fit” according to, for ten points, what romantically-titled song, Dove Cameron’s breakout hit?
Boyfriend
After abandoning the guise of a cormorant, this character squats like a toad until he is caught by Zephron. This character leads an army that falls through Chaos for nine days before winding up in a lake of fire. This character reflects that, “The mind is its own place” from his capital of (*) Pandemonium and complains “Better to reign in Hell/than serve in Heaven.” For ten points, name this antihero of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, a Christian demon.
Satan (accept the Devil; accept Lucifer)
In calculus, a line is known by this name if it just barely intersects a curve at one point, as contrasted with a secant line, which cuts through the curve at two nearby points. Give this mathematical term. In trigonometry, this word names a function that is equal to the sine function divided by the cosine function.
tangent
In 1980, a law named CERCLA tasked this agency with projects at the Valley of the Drums and Love Canal. Michael Regan currently leads this agency, which was created by a Richard Nixon executive order. This agency manages various (*) cap-and-trade markets as well as the Energy Star efficiency program. Superfund sites are managed by, for ten points, what US governmental agency that enforces regulations like the Clear Air Act and Clean Water Act?
EPA(accept U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
This scientist is the namesake of the ripple-like interference pattern that occurs when a convex lens is placed atop a flat piece of glass, even though it was discovered by his longtime rival, Robert Hooke. In his book (*) Opticks, this scientist first explained how the dispersion of light through a prism forms a rainbow. Calculus was explained in the Principia Mathematica by, what English physicist who developed three laws of motion?
(Sir Isaac) Newton
This activist has promoted the Middle Way Approach, which seeks cultural protection but not independence. This leader of the Gelug school lives in Dharamshala, having been forced to leave the Potala Palace in 1959 after a (*) pro-Chinese uprising took place in Lhasa. At age four, this bodhisattva was announced as the fourteenth man to hold his title. Tenzin Gyatso is the spiritual name of, for ten points, what exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader?
Dalai Lama(accept Tenzin Gyatso until it is read; accept Lhamo Thondup; accept Gyalwa Rinpoche)
Jenny Lind supposedly inspired one of this author’s villains. This author, whose “Thumbelina” was derided for having no apparent moral, wrote a story whose title character becomes an air spirit after she can’t bring herself to kill the (*) prince who refused to marry her. An honest child doesn’t pretend that a ruler isn’t naked in a story written by, for ten points, Danish author of folk and fairy tales like “The Snow Queen,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and “The Little Mermaid?”
(Hans Christian) Andersen
In calculus, a line is known by this name if it just barely intersects a curve at one point, as contrasted with a secant line, which cuts through the curve at two nearby points. Finding a tangent line provides a way to calculate this value for a curved line at a given point. For a straight line, finding this value is much simpler; it’s always the same, and it is equal to the line’s rise over run.
slope
In this state in the 2016 Presidential election, 21 percent of the vote was won by third-party candidate Evan McMullin. As an independent, McMullin has pledged to caucus with neither party if he wins this state’s 2022 Senate election against Republican incumbent Mike (*) Lee. Mitt Romney is the other current Senator from, for ten points, what traditionally-Republican voting U.S. state whose capital is Salt Lake City?
Utah
In August 2022, Russia announced it would withdraw from this project and establish a replacement for it called Ross. Since 2012, Dragon craft have been contracted to provide supplies to workers on this project. (*) Mir and Skylab were predecessors of this project, which today performs most science experiments done in microgravity. For ten points, name this project that provides long-term, low-Earth orbit housing for astronauts from around the world.
International Space Station (accept ISS)
Tref is, essentially, the opposite of this adjective, which is equivalent to halal in Islam. Name this Hebrew adjective that describes foods that observant Jews will eat.
kosher (accept kashrut; accept kashrus)
In this literary work, Elizabeth reports to her imprisoned husband about the fate of Isaiah Goodkind and Goody Ballard, and describes “more weight” being piled on Giles Corey to try to force his confession. In this play, (*) Abigail Williams joins a group of girls who accuse Elizabeth and John Proctor and the slave Tituba are of casting evil spells. For ten points, name this play by Arthur Miller about the Salem Witch Trials.
(The) Crucible
In calculus, a line is known by this name if it just barely intersects a curve at one point, as contrasted with a secant line, which cuts through the curve at two nearby points. This French mathematician’s work on finding tangent lines helped lay the foundation for calculus, but he’s better known today for inventing the rectangular coordinate system. Please give the name of the man, not the coordinate system.
Rene Descartes [day-kart]
Hundreds of exotic animals are kept in this city’s Bioparco on the Villa Borghese estate. The Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita includes scenes set at this city’s Via Veneto, Baths of Caracalla, and (*) Trevi Fountain. The Aurelian Walls, built in the 3rd century CE, surround the Campus Martius and all seven hills of this city. The ruins of the Circus Maximus and the Colosseum are found in, for ten points, what city, both the capital of an ancient empire and modern Italy?
Rome(accept Roma)
Sinkholes are common when groundwater is able to circulate and the underlying ground is made of this rock. For ten points each, Name this rock that is made up of various forms of calcium carbonate, such as calcite. Metamorphosis of this rock can create marble.
limestone (prompt on “chalk”)
This man reproduced a still image from 1953’s Niagara for his Marilyn Diptych silkscreen, which features 25 hypercolored copies and 25 smudged black and white copies of Marilyn Monroe’s face. Name this pop artist.
Andy Warhol (accept Andrew Warhola)
A poem by this man opens with the advice “Go home and write / a page tonight. And let that page come out of you- Then, it will be true.” Name this co-leader of an early 20th century cultural movement in New York, a Black American jazz poet who wrote “Theme for English B” and the collection The Weary Blues.
Langston Hughes (accept James Mercer Langston Hughes)
This mathematical property of numbers states that the order of the terms when performing addition or multiplication does not affect the end result.
The Commutative Property
This conflict was sparked when one side blamed the scalping of Joseph de Jumonville on George Washington. The Battle of Fort Necessity triggered this war, which included the Braddock Expedition and a skirmish on the (*) Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City that led to English control of Canada. For ten points, name this phase of the Seven Years’ War in which the British, with the help of the American colonists, fought against an alliance of two namesake opponents.
French and Indian War (prompt on “Seven Years’ War” before it is read)
Alexandros of Antioch used this substance to depict a half-nude goddess who may have been handspinning or holding an apple, although his work was originally attributed to Praxiteles [prackleez], who was a master of this material. This material was used to create (*) Hermes and the Infant Dionysus and a sculpture of Aphrodite whose arms have broken off, called the Venus de Milo. For ten points, name this material used to create Michelangelo’s David, a type of white stone.
marble (accept Parian marble; prompt on “stone”)
In a piece titled for this time period, the viola is told to play “always forte” to represent a dog barking. According to a sonnet written by the composer, “The birds celebrate” the return of this time period in the Allegro movement of a (*) violin concerto that opens The Contest Between Harmony and Invention. “La Primavera” is the Italian title of, for ten points, what appropriately first movement of Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons?
Spring (accept La Primavera before it is read; prompt on “(the) Four Seasons” or “(le) Quattro Stagioni” until it is read)