Packet 6: Bonus 20
With his wife Tatiana, this physicist developed the “dog–flea” model in which two containers exchange particles following a Markov chain to demonstrate the second law of thermodynamics. For 10 points each:
[10e] Name this Austrian pioneer of statistical mechanics who studied under Ludwig Boltzmann. This physicist’s namesake paradox concerns the rigidity of a disc rotating relativistically.
ANSWER: Paul Ehrenfest
[10m] Though it would take exceedingly long, the Ehrenfest model has this property in which a system returns to its initial state. Certain flows have this namesake property of a theorem by Poincaré.
ANSWER: recurrence [or recurrent; accept Poincaré recurrence theorem]
[10h] This mathematician proved that the Ehrenfest model, if not at equilibrium, has monotonically increasing entropy. With Feynman, this mathematician developed a namesake formula for stochastic differential equations.
ANSWER: Mark Kac (“kahts”)
<British Columbia, Physics> | F. Prelims 6 - British Columbia + Texas + North Carolina
| Heard | PPB | E % | M % | H % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 17.50 | 75% | 50% | 50% |
Conversion
| Team | Opponent | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Total | Parts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia B | Waterloo | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | E |
| Indiana | Cornell | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 | EMH |
| NYU A | UC Berkeley B | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | E |
| UC Berkeley A | Cambridge | 0 | 10 | 10 | 20 | MH |
Summary
| Tournament | Edition | Match | Heard | PPB | E % | M % | H % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main Site | 2026-04-17 | ✓ | 4 | 17.50 | 75% | 50% | 50% |