Episode 37 University Challenge

APPLAUSE

University Challenge.

Asking the questions - Jeremy Paxman.

Hello, the long and winding road ends tonight.

There were 130 teams of students who wanted to be here

and 28 of them qualified to appear on the series.

After 2,835 questions, only the best two remain.

In a little under half an hour, one of them will lift the trophy

and it'll be like V-E Day all over again in either Cambridge or Oxford.

Now, the team from Peterhouse - Cambridge have defeated

Glasgow University, St George's London

and the University of York twice.

They also beat St John's College - Oxford,

their opponents tonight, when they met in the quarterfinals

but this is the match that counts, of course.

With an average age of 20,

let's meet the Peterhouse team for the last time.

Hello, I'm Thomas Langley. I'm from Newcastle upon Tyne

and I'm studying history.

Hello, I'm Oscar Powell. I'm from York

and I'm reading geological sciences.

And this is their captain.

Hello, I'm Hannah Woods. I'm originally from Manchester

and I'm studying for a PhD in history.

Hello, my name's Julian Sutcliffe. I'm from Reading, in Berkshire,

-and I'm also reading history.

-APPLAUSE

The team from St John's College - Oxford

have beaten Bristol University, Queen's University Belfast,

St Catharine's College - Cambridge

and the universities of Newcastle and Liverpool.

The only fly in their ointment was their last encounter with Peterhouse

but who knows how it'll play out tonight.

With an average age of 19,

let's meet the St John's team for the final time.

Hi, my name is Alex Harries, I come from South Wales

and I'm reading history.

Hello, my name is Charlie Clegg, I'm from Glasgow

and I'm reading theology.

And this is their captain.

Hi, my name's Angus Russell, I'm from Mill Hill, in North London,

and I study history and Russian.

Hi, I'm Dan Sowood. I'm from Uxbridge, in Middlesex,

and I'm reading chemistry.

APPLAUSE

Right, fingers on the buzzers, here's your first starter for ten.

The author John le Carre, the conductor Daniel Barenboim

and the director Billy Wilder have all been recipients of a medal

for outstanding service for the German language

and international cultural relations...

The Brothers Grimm.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

It's named after which writer and statesman born 1749?

Bismarck.

No, it's Goethe. Ten points for this.

Meanings of what four-letter word include a tidal wave

of unusual height...

-Neap.

-No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..the diameter of a tube or cylinder,

a deep vertical hole dug, for example, to obtain water

and in the words of Ambrose Bierce,

"A person who talks when you wish him to listen."

Well.

No, it's a bore. LAUGHTER

Ten points for this.

What did the Canadian science writer David Levy

describe as being like cats -

"They have tails and they do precisely what they want."

Along with Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker,

he discovered such an object in 1993.

The following year...

Comets.

Comet is correct, yes.

APPLAUSE

Right, you get a set of bonuses on Asia, Peterhouse.

Straddling the border with Pakistan and about 7,500m high,

Mount Noshaq, in the Hindu Kush, is the highest mountain

in which country?

So, it's not Nepal.

It could be India. Hindu Kush sounds...

-It's not Nepal.

-Is it Bangladesh?

-India or China.

-Not Tibet? No, Tibet's not a country.

-India.

-Shall I try India?

-Yeah.

-India.

-No, it's Afghanistan.

Almost 7,000m high,

Khan Tengri, in the Tian Shan, is the highest mountain in Kazakhstan.

It lies at the juncture of the borders of that country

and which two others?

Russia... Kyrgyzstan and China or Russia and China.

I don't know.

China and Kyrgyzstan.

China and Kyrgyzstan.

Correct. More than 5,800m high,

Mount Hkakabo is the highest mountain in which country?

It lies close to the borders with China

and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

-Is it Bangladesh?

-Bangladesh is very flat.

-Is it flat? Erm...

Bhutan?

No, out towards Everest.

It could be Bhutan.

I'll try it. Bhutan.

No, it's Burma or Myanmar. Ten points for this.

Since independence from Britain in 1960,

which countries' presidents and military rulers have included

Yakubu Gowon, Sani Abacha and Goodluck Jonathan.

-Nigeria.

-Nigeria is right. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on royal medical cases,

according to Clifford Brewer's 2000 book The Death Of Kings.

In each case, identify the king from his medical history.

HE SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY Firstly, Cushing's syndrome,

uraemia, chronic nephritis, amyloid disease

and a gravitational ulcer of the leg.

-Henry VIII, I think.

-Yeah.

-Henry VIII.

-Correct.

Pulmonary embolism, deep venous thrombosis,

bronchopneumonia and a fractured clavicle.

Fractured clavicle.

-So, they probably fell.

-Could that be jousting?

-Yeah.

Who died from jousting?

-Well, Henry VIII...

-It's not...

A medieval king - Henry the something?

Do any of us have any other ideas?

-Lung complaints and falling.

-Edward IV.

Edward IV.

No, it's William III.

And finally, bronchopneumonia, terminal dementia and porphyria.

-George III.

-Yeah.

-George III.

-Correct. Ten points for this.

Pleasure, punishment, thrill, liability and atonement

are among nouns that commonly follow what Latin-derived adjective?

Meaning "accomplished by the substitution of some other person,"

its first five...

Vicarious.

Vicarious is correct. APPLAUSE

You get bonuses on Queen Victoria and English literature.

Peterhouse, first off,

of which poet, who died in 1892, did Victoria say,

"Such a man we may not see again for a century or,

"in all his originality, ever again"?

-Tennyson.

-Correct.

"Next to the Bible, it is my comfort."

Of which work by Tennyson did the Queen say that?

Usually known by a two-word Latin title,

it's a Requiem for his friend Arthur Henry Hallam.

Oh, what's it called? I can't think.

-The one with all the quotable things.

-It's not...

It's not, no. It's Latin.

I'm going to have to pass on this one.

Pass.

It's In Memoriam.

"It is beautiful, it is mournful, it is monotonous."

Referring to In Memoriam,

which literary figure wrote that in a letter to Elizabeth Gaskell

in 1850?

Might it be Charlotte Bronte because Gaskell did a biography of her?

-Do we have any better ideas?

-Let's try that.

Charlotte Bronte.

Correct.

Right, another starter question now. It's a picture starter.

You're going to see the titles of selected publications

of a scientist in their original language of publication.

Ten points if you can identify the scientist.

Erm, Kepler.

Yes, it is Johannes Kepler. Let's see the English translation.

There it is.

Now, for each of your picture bonuses,

you are again going to see the titles of selected publications

of a scientist in the original language of publication.

In each case, all you have to do is to identify the scientist

from their works. Firstly for five.

So, they're French.

Let me try and translate it though.

-Lavoisier, possibly.

-No, no, no...

So, that's Calculation Of The Mass Of The Air.

The Arithmetic Triangle.

New Experiences Touching Emptiness.

-Descartes.

-Maybe, or...

-Didn't Lavoisier write stuff about...

-Yeah.

-Let's do that.

-OK, Lavoisier.

-Lavoisier.

No, it's Pascal. Let's see the titles in English. There we are.

And secondly.

OK, erm...

HE READS GERMAN TITLE ALOUD

I'm not good at German. Over the...

-Do we know any German scientists, Oscar?

-Yeah, we do.

No, no, no, just let me think. Erm, erm...

OK, this is...just make one up.

It's not Einstein. Who isn't Einstein?

Planck.

-Max Planck.

-It is Max Planck. Let's see it. There it is.

And finally...

OK, so that's in Latin.

No, or is it Italian?

Is that Galileo?

The Starry Messenger.

-Yeah.

-Go for it.

-Galileo.

-It is Galileo. APPLAUSE

"Do you know any German scientists, Oscar?" Honestly.

LAUGHTER Ten points for this.

Hydrogen and helium are the two most abundant elements in the universe.

What molecule would result from combining an atom

of the third most abundant element with one of the fourth?

The compound in question is a colourless, odourless, toxic gas.

Carbon dioxide.

Anyone like to buzz from St John's?

Is it nitrous oxide?

No, it's carbon MONOXIDE.

Ten points for this.

Often used to indicate a letter S

that existed in earlier forms of the language but has now been lost,

which diacritical mark appears on the second letter

of the French words for head, beast and...

-Oh, a...

-I'm sorry...

..a Chinese hat.

I'm sorry, if you buzz, you must answer straightaway.

A circumflex.

Circumflex is correct and I'm afraid you're going to lose five points,

St John's, for that.

Right, your bonuses, Peterhouse, are on Greek letters.

Which Greek letter is used both for the Mobius function in number theory

and for the coefficient of friction in mechanics?

-Mu.

-Correct.

Which Greek letter is used in measure theory to denote an algebra

on which the Borel measure is defined?

It also represents the Pauli matrices

in quantum mechanics.

Erm, I don't know.

Pauli exclusion principle. What...

Kappa. Who knows?

Kappa.

No, it's sigma.

Which Greek letter is used in lower case for a function of two variables

named after Leopold Kronecker and in upper case

for the difference between successive terms in a sequence?

-It's delta, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Delta.

-Delta is correct.

Ten points for this.

What optical phenomenon can result from movement

out of a gravitational field or from the cosmic expansion of space,

or from...

Redshift.

Correct. APPLAUSE

You get a set of bonuses, Peterhouse, on prime numbers.

2011 was the most recent year to be a prime number,

what'll be the next one?

So, erm... OK, find something that isn't a multiple of three,

-that's a good bet.

-2035?

That's...

-No, that's a number from five. Just wait...

-Oh, yeah, of course.

So...

17...isn't.

-19?

-2017.

2019 is...

because 19... No, no.

Yeah, yeah, 2019 is. Go for...go for 2017. I don't think we know.

2017.

2017 is correct, yes. LAUGHTER

What was the final year of the 20th century to be a prime number?

So, it's not 1999.

It could be 1997.

-What would that be?

-Oh, I don't know.

-Shall I try it? Or '93?

-Not '95, that's a five.

-What about '93?

-I don't know.

-I don't know.

-Go for... Seven is just weird, go for 1997.

1997.

No, it WAS 1999.

-Oh.

-What was the first year of the 21st century to be a prime number?

-2001?

-2001?

If 1999 is prime, that one is a multiple of three.

Go for it.

2001.

No, it was 2003.

Right, ten points for this.

What common name is shared by the large rodents

castor canadensis and castor...

-Beaver.

-Beaver is right. APPLAUSE

These bonuses are linked by Mesopotamian architecture.

Thought to derive from an Assyrian word meaning pinnacle,

what term denotes a stepped pyramid with terraces

characteristic of Mesopotamian cities from around 2200 BC?

-Ziggurat.

-Correct.

With a ziggurat-like tower said to be perhaps the most extraordinary

in the county, if not the country,

St Mary's church in Burgh St Peter

stands close to the River Waveney and a protected wetland area

in which county?

Oh, sorry, I completely zoned out.

-I don't know actually.

-Wetlands.

Norfolk?

-Norfolk.

-Correct.

A descendant of the rector who built the ziggurat tower

is buried in the churchyard of St Mary's. What was his surname?

It entered the English language after he was ostracised

when working as a land agent in County Mayo in the 19th century.

It's not hooligan. It's someone who's rejected a lot.

Pariah?

-No, that's...

-That's not the word.

-I don't know.

-Shall we try hooligan?

Yeah, maybe.

We're going to try hooligan.

No, it was Boycott. Charles Boycott.

We're going to take a music round now.

For your music starter, you'll hear a piece of classical music.

Ten points if you can identify the composer, please.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

Ravel.

No. You can hear a little more, Peterhouse.

Elgar.

No, it's Rachmaninoff.

It's one of his variations on the Rhapsody On A Theme by Paganini.

So, music bonuses in a moment or two.

Ten points for this starter question.

Ignoring the proportions of bands, stripes and crosses,

the flags of France, Finland, Thailand, Poland and Indonesia

all appear if smaller rectangles are drawn in specific positions

on the flag of which...

-Norway.

-Norway is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

Right, here we go, back to the music round now.

That was one of Rachmaninoff's variations

on Paganini's 24th caprice.

For your music bonuses, you're going to hear three more works

that are variations on themes by other composers.

This time, however, you'll hear the original work as well.

For the points, you'll need to give me both composers.

In each case you'll hear the original work first

followed by the variation.

I'll need your two answers in that order, please.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

THEY CONFER

NEW SONG

Beethoven and Haydn.

No, it's Beethoven and Robert Schumann.

Secondly.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

NEW SONG

THEY CONFER

-Liszt and Mozart.

-No, Mozart and Liszt.

-Mozart and Liszt, sorry.

No, it's Bellini and Liszt.

And finally.

CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

THEY CONFER

NEW SONG

THEY CONFER

Mozart and Chopin.

Correct. APPLAUSE

Right, we're going to take another starter question now.

The addition of which two initial letters transforms words

meaning a high mountain into one meaning

the outer covering of the skull,

a generic word for beer into a graduated series

and a spirit distilled...

-SC.

-Correct.

You get a set of bonuses on Scotland in the 1690s, Peterhouse.

In 1696, the Parliament of Scotland passed an act

that provided for a school in every parish.

In what year did Forster's Education Act

make similar provision for England and Wales?

You can have ten years either way.

Was that 1870, Forster's?

-Yeah.

-Shall I try it?

1870.

Correct.

In 1697, the Edinburgh student Thomas Aikenhead

became the last person to be executed in Britain

for what offence?

Its name comes from the Greek for speak profanely

and until the Reformation, it was generally subsumed into heresy.

-Blasphemy.

-Correct.

The late 1690s saw the failure of a scheme

to establish a Scottish colony on the Isthmus of Darien

close to the border of two present-day

Latin American countries, please name either one.

-Panama.

-And...?

-Either one.

-Oh, either one?

Panama.

The other one's Colombia, of course. Right, ten points for this.

This Changes Everything, Capitalism Versus The Climate

is a 2014 work by which Canadian author and social activist?

Her previous books include The Shock Doctrine and No Logo.

-Naomi Klein.

-Correct.

Your bonuses are on terms that contain the name

of the Old Testament figure Onan.

For example, bonanza and mellisonant.

Don't go there! LAUGHTER

In each case, give the term from the definition.

Firstly, for five points, a literary term indicating the repetition

of similar vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of nearby words.

It is distinct from full rhyme and alliteration

in that the consonants differ.

-Assonance.

-Correct.

In physics, a large amplitude oscillation of a system

in response to a small driving force.

In medicine, the same term denotes the intensified sound

heard during auscultation or percussion of the lungs.

Resonant.

-Resonance.

-Resonance.

-Resonance.

-Correct.

Proposed by the US psychologist Leon Festinger in 1957,

a two-word term denoting the discomfort or aversion

created by holding inconsistent or conflicting ideas or beliefs.

Cognitive dissonance.

Correct. Ten points for this starter question.

Give your answer as soon as your name is called.

In which European city is the Mother Teresa cathedral

located on the...

Tirana.

No, I'm afraid you lose five points.

..located on the Boulevard Bill Clinton.

It's the capital of a country recognised by more than 100

of the UN's 193 member states.

I'll tell you, it's Pristina, in Kosovo. Ten points for this.

In plane geometry, what six-letter term describes a polygon

in which every line segment between two vertices

remains inside or on the boundary of the polygon

and in which no interior angle is greater than 180 degrees?

Simplex.

Anyone like to buzz from St John's?

Complex.

-It's convex.

-Ah.

Right, ten points for this.

The name of what religious concept may be spelt by concatenating words

meaning a strap attached to the bridle of a horse

and a commercial flower also know as the clove pink?

It's reincarnation. Ten points for this.

The pia mater, the arachnoid mater and...

The meninges.

Correct. APPLAUSE

Right, you get bonuses on complex analysis.

Firstly, for five points, from Greek words meaning whole and form,

what term denotes a complex function that is differentiable

at every point of a given open set?

Homogeneous.

No, it's a holomorphic function or holomorphism.

Secondly, what name is commonly given to the holomorphic function

defined as the infinite sum over all non-negative integers N

of terms of the form Z to the power of N,

divided by N factorial where Z is a complex number?

I've absolutely no idea.

HE CHUCKLES

Pass.

Exponential, that is.

And finally, what is the radius of convergence

of the exponential function defined on the complex plane?

-I don't know what that means.

-I don't know what that means.

-Pi, pi.

-LAUGHTER

Pi.

-No, it's infinity.

-Oh, OK.

Right, we're going to take another picture round now.

For your picture starter, you're going to see a self-portrait

by a prominent artistic figure

and author of three artistic manifestos.

For ten points, I want the name of the figure

and the artistic movement that those manifestos define.

Man Ray and Dadaism.

No. Anyone want to buzz from Peterhouse?

No? It's...

-Man Ray and photo...

-No, no.

It's Andre Breton and surrealism.

So, picture bonuses in a moment or two.

Ten points at stake for this starter question.

"A gentle knight was pricking on the plaine."

Of which poetical work is this the first line

of the first stanza of the first canto?

It was first published in 1590.

The Faerie Queene.

Yes. APPLAUSE

Now, you'll recall that we were referring to Andre Breton

and surrealism earlier.

He wrote three surrealist manifestos.

Your bonuses are three works of art

whose creators also wrote manifestos

that defined early 20th-century artistic movements.

Five points in each case if you can give me the name of the artist

and the movement.

Firstly, this British artist and the movement.

This is futurism. Erm...

A British futurist artist, possibly Henry Moore

might have dabbled with it.

I'll try that.

Henry Moore and futurism.

No, that's Wyndham Lewis and it's vorticism,

which while close to futurism, is different.

Secondly, this Italian artist

and the movement for which he wrote two technical manifestos.

This is futurism and...

-Oh, what's his name?

-Is it Mazzini?

It begins with a Z, doesn't it?

-Shall we go for Mazzini?

-Yeah.

Mazzini and futurism.

No, it's Boccioni and futurism.

And finally this French painter and the movement.

-Georges Braque and cubism.

-Nominate Clegg.

Georges Braque and cubism.

No, it's Metzinger and cubism.

Right, ten points for this.

Give the name of the member of the British Cabinet who,

in July 1914, was the counterpart of the Russian, Sazonov,

the German, von Jagow, and the Austrian, Berchtold?

-Winston Churchill.

-Anyone like to buzz from from Peterhouse?

Sir Edward Grey.

Sir Edward Grey is correct. APPLAUSE

Foreign Secretaries.

OK, your bonuses now are on 1697,

a good year for British art, apparently.

Born in London in 1697,

which artist lobbied parliament for legislation

to safeguard artists' copyright

following the many piracies of his series entitled A Harlot's Progress?

The Engraver's Copyright Act of 1735 is often named after him.

-Hogarth.

-Correct.

Born in 1697, the 1st Earl of Leicester, Thomas Coke,

was a noted art collector who built which Palladian mansion in Norfolk?

His collection is still housed there and it's largely intact.

-I think it's Holkham Hall.

-Yeah.

-Holkham Hall.

-Correct.

Also born in 1697, which artist lived in England from 1746 to 1755

and painted many views of the Thames

although he's primarily associated with Venetian scenes?

-Canaletto.

-Yeah.

-Canaletto.

-Canaletto is correct.

Ten points for this starter question.

What physical quantity can be measured by units including

the svedberg, shake, lustrum, gigaannus and aeon?

-Time.

-Time is correct, yes. APPLAUSE

Your bonuses are on number theory in the 18th century, Peterhouse.

In 1749, which Swiss mathematician published the first proof

of Fermat's little theorem or primality test?

-Gauss - I think it might be.

-Yes.

Gauss.

No, it was Euler.

First proposed in a letter to Euler in 1742,

the unproved conjecture of which German mathematician

is now usually stated as,

"every even number greater than two is the sum of two primes"?

Which one?

-It's Poincare?

-Is he German?

-He sounds French though.

-Well, it's not Riemann, I don't think.

-OK.

-I don't...

Poincare.

No, it's Goldbach's conjecture.

In 1770, which Italian-French mathematician

published the first proof of the four-square theorem

examined by Fermat and others?

-What nationality was this?

-Italian-French.

-French-Italian?

-Poincare?

-OK.

-Let's try again.

Poincare.

No, it's Lagrange.

Ten points for this starter question.

Which composer dedicated his 7th Symphony,

"To our struggle against fascism, to our coming victory..."

-Shostakovich.

-Correct.

You get a set of bonuses this time on snakes, St John's.

An arboreal snake of sub-Saharan Africa,

the dendroaspis polylepis species has what common name?

It's noted for its large size, speed and potent venom.

Black mamba, I think.

-Black mamba.

-Correct.

GONG What word... And at the gong,

St John's College - Oxford have 30, but Peterhouse - Cambridge have 215.

APPLAUSE

You can do much better than that, St John's,

as we've seen in many a previous match

but someone's got to win and, Peterhouse,

that was a storming performance, another storming performance

from you. Now, to present the trophy, he plays football,

he plays the trumpet and he knows all there is to be known

about group theory and number theory.

He's a bestselling author and professor

for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford,

he's Marcus du Sautoy.

-Hello.

-Lovely to see you, thanks for coming.

Well, then, what do you think?

I thought it was a phenomenal performance.

But I'm really impressed by how many maths questions there were.

-There were an awful lot of maths!

-They're probably cursing the fact

that there's a mathematician giving away the trophy, there were so many.

-I suppose maths is part of knowledge, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

I was hopping up and down in the back there

when you were asking all those questions about prime numbers.

-What, you didn't know the answer?

-No, I was bursting to come on

and go, "2003!"

Well, look, can I ask you to present the trophy please to our winners

-Peterhouse - Cambridge?

-Well deserved.

APPLAUSE

-Well done.

-Thanks very much.

-Thank you.

-And we've got the trophy.

-There you go.

-Thanks.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

THEY CHAT INDISTINCTLY

Well, that's it.

Thanks to all the teams who've entertained us

over the last several months and thank you for watching.

I hope you can join us for the next series,

but until then, it's goodbye from us

and from tonight's winners, Peterhouse - Cambridge. Goodbye.