Quiz Bowl NAQT

Petrobras Scandal

Corruption involved in a state-run oil company. There were bribes and embezzlement of funds. This scandal implicated top business leaders and politicians, including former presidents like Dilma Rousseff. (Brazil 2014)

The Panama Papers

11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney-client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities that hid wealth. Leaks from Mossack Fonseca law firm. (2016)

Lewinsky Scandal

Scandal where Clinton lied under oath about having an affair with intern Monica L.; he was impeached for perjury, but not convicted. (1998)

Lockheed Bribery Scandals

Bribing government officials in countries like Japan, Italy, Netherlands for military contracts. Brought down PM Kakuei Tanaka in Japan. (1976)

The Enron Scandal

A major American energy company, found guilty of massive accounting fraud, misleading investors and the public about its earnings. The company collapsed and erased billions of dollars. (USA 2001)

Iran-Contra Affair

scandal including arms sales to the Iran which was under an arms embargo. In order to send money to help the Contras in Nicaragua even though Congress had objected. Under RR 1980 USA

Profumo Affair

British Sec of State for War engaging in a sexual affair with Christine Keeler a 19 year old that was involved with a Soviet naval attaché. (1961 UK)

Dreyfus Affair

Jewish army officer falsely charged for supplying French secrets to the Germans. Found guilty and sent to Devil's Island. After 10 years there he was given a full pardon by President Loubet. (1894)

Teapot Dome Scandal

Under President Harding, Sec of the Interior, Albert Fall secretly leased oil-rich public lands to private companies in exchange for bribes. A oil field in Wyoming was at the heart of the controversy. (1921)

Watergate Scandal

A break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in a complex in Washington. Disclosure of the White House involvement in the break-in and subsequent cover-up forced President Nixon to resign in 1974 to avoid impeachment.

Adam Smith

Author of An Inquiry into the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations. Created the metaphor of the "invisible hand," which founded the Classical school of economics.

Milton Friedman

Conservative thinker that advocated for monetarism (a revision of the quantity theory of money) in works like A Monetary History of the United States. Associated with the ideals of laissez-faire government policy.

Karl Marx

His contribution to economics was extending the labor theory of value to its logical conclusion, his theory of surplus value. Defended historical materialism appeared in Das Kapital.

John Maynard Keynes

Famous for The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. It judged most of classical economic analysis and argued that the best way to deal with prolonged recessions was deficit spending.

David Ricardo

Best known for Principles of Political Economy and Taxation which introduced modern nations of comparative advantage and its theoretical justification for unfettered international trade. Put forth the 'iron law of wages.'

John Kenneth Galbraith

Popular for writings like The Affluent Society and The New Industrial State (with their emphasis on public service and the limitations of the marketplace.

Francois Quensay

Was the undisputed leader of Physiocrats, the first systematic school of thought. Among its tenets were ethe economic and moral righteousness of laissez-faire policies and the notion that land is the ultimate source of all wealth.

Alfred Marshall

His magnum opus, 1890's Principles of Economics, introduced the notions of consumer surplus, quasi-rent, demand curves, and elasticity, fundamental concepts in macro and microecon.

Thorstein Veblen

Remembered for his The Theory of the Leisure Class, which introduced phrases like "conspicuous consumption." Remembered for likening the ostentation of the rich due to the Darwinian proofs of virility found in the animal kingdom.

John Stuart Mill

A social philosopher. Known for extending the ideas of Ricardo in Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy. (relationship between profits and wages), and for examining the necessity of private property in his Principles of Political Economy.

Supply & Demand

The graph of this is represented by a downward and upward-sloping curve. There is an equilibrium at the intersection. It represents the quantity produce and consumed in a free market.

Elasticity

The measure of how much a economic variable changes in response to a change in a different variable. For example the degree to which the quantity demanded changes when price is altered.

Monpoloy

It occurs when there is one firm producing goods in a market. Then this firm can set the price higher and lower the quantity sold.

Oligopoly

A market structure where the production is dominated by a few firms.

Monopsony

Market with only one buyer

Tariff

These raise consumer prices relative to the equilibrium. Similar to quotas in which a government limits the amount of goods that may be imported.

Factors of Production

Land, labor and capital are these. Modern economists sometimes add entrepreneurship.

Unemployment

This can be cynical (common in seasonal industries), frictional (time between jobs in most labor markets), or structural (worker's skills do not match those required).

GDP

Computed by summing consumption, investment, government expenditures and exports and then subtracting imports. Types include nominal, ppp and per capita.

Inflation

This rate is pace at which prices are rising. Equivalent to the rate at which a currency is losing its value.

Interest Rate

The amount earned by a saver or lender. Real versions of these are corrected for the inflation rate.

Comparative Advantage

A famous example of this was insulting Britain's cloth industry and Portugal's wine industry. The idea that every pair of potential trading partners can benefit by trade if they are producing at least two goods. Each party should specialize in what it does best and trade for everything else. David Ricardo formulated it.

Invisible Hand

Notion that producers and consumers acting for their interest will create overall benefit to society. Could happen by rewarding tech that make production more efficient. Introduced by Adam Smith in 1776, in Wealth of Nations..

Resistor

An element that impedes the flow of current which creates a voltage drop. These components are governed by Ohm’s law and the equation R=I/V where I is current and V is voltage. According to Joule’s first law, the power dissipated by these components is P=I²R.

Resistance

Symbolized by a capital omega. The total amount of a circuit depends on parallel or series arrangement. A rheostat or variable of these can be made by taking a material of uniform of this and changing the amount of material in the circuit.

Potentiometer

A rheostat with two terminals and a connection in the middle, so the middle terminal can set a precise, variable dividing point between the ends; therefore, these things can be used as a voltage divider. These things are operated by knobs or sliders.

Resistor

This component impedes the flow of electric current, causing a voltage drop. Its opposition to current is measured in a capital omega. It follows the law V=IR. It also dissipated power as heat described by P=IV or P=I²R.

Wheatstone Bridge

This circuit arrangement consists of four resistive elements in a diamond shape. These are used to determine a unknown resistance. It operates by balancing the circuit so that no current flows through the central measuring device, applying Kirchhoff’s law.

Potentiometer

This three-terminal device functions as a variable voltage divider. By adjusting its middle connection, it allows precise control over output voltage and is commonly used in volume knobs and tuning circuits.

Ampere

It is defined as one coulomb of charge passing a point per second. It is fundamental to electromagnetism and is used in calculations involving power dissipation and Ohm’s law. This SI unit measures electric current.

Capacitor

It is a charge-storing disconnection in a circuit, usually made of parallel plates, separated by an inner medium which blocks the passage of charge, and is called a dielectric. The governing equation of these is Q=C delta V. Q is the stored charge, measured in coulombs. C is measured in farads and V is the voltage across.

Inductor

This serves to oppose changes in the current in the circuit. These circuits have solenoids, a coil of wire. When electric current through the wire changes, a magnetic field is generated in the core of the solenoid. The strength of these is symbolized L and measured in Henries. The voltage across these only depends on the change in current, so these are particularly used with alternating current. For standard (sinusoidal) alternating current, an these only change the phase of the current through it.

Joseph Henry

Discovered the principles of self-inductance and mutual inductance, through Michael Faraday’s published findings on electromagnetic induction first.

Transformer

A pair of solenoids connected to a central core, which permits the circulation of magnetic flux. These things are used to “step-up” or “step-down” voltage. For example in power lines and in adapters for electronics.

Source

A device that provides voltage or current. Direct current sources like batteries provide constant current while alternating current sources like household electric outlets provide current that changes at a regular frequency, with a constant average current.

Ground

These are used to prevent accidental discharge of electricity from unexpected connections. These points in the circuit has zero voltage. Also called earth.

Fuses & Circuit Breakers

When there is excess current flow in these, it deforms or disconnects so no current can flow in the circuit. These things protect equipment in the circuit from being damaged by power surges. These things melt and must be replaced.

Circuit Breakers

A form of fuse that can be reset and restored after the circuit has been vitrified to be safe.

Switch

A device that toggles between an open connection and a closed connection. They can be used to toggle between 2+ different closed connections.

Diode

Permits the flow of current in only one direction and has very high resistance to current in the opposite direction. There is a minimum voltage that must be provided before the current will flow, called the bias voltage. Leads to reduced resistance in these and current flows backward, called the breakdown voltage.

Zener Diode

The breakdown voltage is well defined with as sharp a transition as possible, so engineers can design a circuit around the breakdown voltage charcteristic.

Rectifier

A device that converts AC or other variable signal into a positive-voltage signal. It has half-wave version that zeros out negative voltage, and a full-wave version that converts negative voltage to positive voltage. It is combined with a capacitor to approximately convert AC into DC.

Op-Amp

A 5-port device that changes a voltage difference across 2-ports, multiplied by a factor (gain), into a voltage on an output port, using power supplied to 2 power ports. They have infinite gain, impedance across their inputs, resistance on their output, and a finite bandwidth or spread of operating frequencies when used with alternating current.

Hadean Eon

Starts from the formation of the earth to the formation of the oldest known rocks. Named for its harsh conditions like intense leftover heat from the planetary accretion. In this time period, there was no stable atmosphere. The Moon and Ocean formed in this Eon.

Archean Eon

Saw the emergence of life, the first definitive evidence of which comes from stromatolites - fossilized microbial mats that formed in shallow coastal areas.

Proterozoic Eon

Contained the Great Oxidation Event where oxygen levels rose significantly due to oxygenic photosynthesis performed by cyanobacteria. In this period, the Earth underwent multiple glaciation events resulting in a fully frozen “Snowball Earth” The first multicellular organisms evolved in this period.

Cambrian Period

A key event in this period was the namesake Explosion in which almost all modern animal phyla appeared. The explosion is an example of adaptive radiation, an event where organisms rapidly evolve and diversify to take advantage of new resources. It contained the namesake Substrate Revolution, in which the evolution of burrowing animals allowed oxygen and water to penetrate deep into ocean sediments and alter their chemistry.