Q 01/05

Which Italian wine did Eugene Wigner open to toast the first chain reaction at Chicago Pile-1?

A) Chianti

B) Barolo

C) Prosecco

D) Lambrusco

Answer · why

A) Chianti

Chianti: Wigner produced the bottle once the pile had gone critical on 2 December 1942, and the scientists drank it from paper cups and then signed th...

Q 02/05

Fermi's family left Italy for good in December 1938 by travelling first to which city?

A) Lisbon

B) Stockholm

C) Geneva

D) Marseille

Answer · why

B) Stockholm

Stockholm, where he collected the Nobel Prize in Physics: the trip was the family's way out, and instead of returning from the ceremony they emigrated...

Q 03/05

Which workers in Chicago are counted in the classic estimation puzzle credited to Fermi?

A) Taxi drivers

B) Barbers

C) Piano tuners

D) Plumbers

Answer · why

C) Piano tuners

Piano tuners: the solver reasons from the city's population to its pianos and how many one tuner can service in a year, landing within a small factor ...

Q 04/05

Before the Trinity test, Fermi offered bets on whether the blast would destroy the whole planet or merely which state?

A) Nevada

B) Colorado

C) New Mexico

D) Arizona

Answer · why

C) New Mexico

New Mexico: his gallows-humour wager began with whether the explosion would ignite the atmosphere, a danger the project's theorists had already calcul...

Q 05/05

Which close relative of Fermi died suddenly in 1915 during a minor throat operation?

A) His father

B) His brother

C) His mother

D) His sister

Answer · why

B) His brother

His brother, a year older and his partner in building electric motors, died during the operation; the grieving boy turned to physics books and to a ne...