Thursday, March 24, 2011

Question - 632

Question courtesy Iam. You all know what that means. I am not responsible for its awesomeness/arbitness.

Answer: Quoting Shiva verbatim - Dude is Joseph Priestley, the gas-man credited for Oxygen and Ammonia (NH3). Experiment is 'Ammonia Fountain', a fun demonstration to teach chemistry or gas laws to kids. Country is Jordan whose capital is Amman (From Ammonites / Children of Ammon). Red thingy is the Hippocampus (Ammon's horn. Hippocampus itself means seahorse) a vital organ for memory making and retention (Think Memento). Both names are due to visual resemblance. The spirals are Ammonites a species fortunate enough to be extinct and fossilized so as to adorn the earrings of pretty girls. The character is "Anck Su Namun", no big connection other than to point out (bleeped by moderator :)). The connect is Amun or Ammon (Also Amun-Ra), the bigdaddy of Egyptian gods. He wears ram's horns, which give rise to the terms Ammon's Horns and Ammonites. Ammonia comes from sal ammoniac (NH4Cl 'Salt of Ammon' possibly due to the fact that it was manufactured from horns and hooves) used by the Egyptian civilization.

Saket, Divya and Matti got it. Well done.

5 comments:

Siddarth Pai said...

what the hell sort of question is this?
thats joseph priestley,
hcl gas solubility (same experiment is used for ammonia, but the litmus colour would differ
thats the kingdom of jordan
fractals
& Anck-su-Namun


i'll hazard fractals
or some apocryphal form of the chaos theory

Siddarth Pai said...

or salt
dead sea in jordan
hcl was called marine air (muriatic acid as well)
sea shells are found in brine
Priestley discovered it.
& Anck-su-Namun was mummified, they used salt in the process

Saket said...

Tough question but very rewarding to get those brain cells working.

1) Joseph Priestley first isolated ammonia.
2) Experiment to prove the solubility of ammonia.
3) Jordan whose capital is Amman.
4) Ammon's horn, a part of the hippocampus.
5) Ammonite jewelry.
6) Anakhsun Amun, named for the Egyptian deity, Amun.

Connection, Ammon... word origin for significant pieces in all the 6 clues.

Divya said...

some vague ammon/amun/amen connection I guess.

Priestley discovered ammonia, and the bleep in the second figure is ammonia. Ammonia was called ammonia because it was made from ammonium chloride deposits that the Romans had collected from near the Temple of Jupiter 'Amun'. Jordan/its capital Amman was known as the kingdom of ammon in the past. Hippocampus's scientific name is "cornu Ammonis" - horn of Amun. That supposed to spin image maybe has something to do with the role of the hippocampus in generating that illusion or maybe ammonia poisoning or something?
And the last image is that of Patricia Velasquez as Anck-su-namun in one of the mummies.

matti tapaninen said...

Are we looking for ancient god Ammon/Amon:

Joseph Priestley founder of Ammoniac, Sal Ammoniac. Named after egyptian god Ammon/Amon.
Test of ammonia amount in water????
Capital of Syria is Amman which was called Rabath Ammon/Amon.
Cornu ammonis/Ammon´s horn in human brain.
Ammonites are an extinct group of marine invertebrate animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda.
Anck-Su-Namun aka Ankhesenamun aka "Her Life Is of Amun". Amun,also spelled Amon, , Greek Ἄμμων Ammon.