Final Jeopardy: Countries & Populations (10-17-12)

The Final Jeopardy question (10/17/2012) in the category “Countries & Populations” was:

If it were a nation, a state with a 2-word name in this country would be the world’s 6th most-populous at 200 million.

7-day champ, Stephanie Jass, makes her 8th appearance with winnings so far of $147,570. Today she’s up against these two players: Meredith Lowmaster, from Quincy, MA and Jan Walkenhorst, from Lincoln, NE.

Alex mentioned that Stephanie made it into the Top 10 of all contestants who have won 7 or more games. She is also, of course, in their Hall of Fame with winnings over $50K, and she is No. 2 on the candidates for the Tournament of Champions. (We do believe she would be No. 1 if she wasn’t such a conservative better on the DDs). Will she leave them in the dust again or will this be her swan song?

Jan found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Quotable Notables.” She was in the lead with $2,200, $400 more than Meredith in second place. She bet $1,200, thought it was Pythagoras and that was WRONG.

To Ptolemy I, he said, “There is no royal road to geometry”, & he should know. show

Stephanie finished in the lead with $6,400. Meredith was second with $2,600 and Jan was last with $2,400.

Jan found the first Double Jeopardy Daily Double in “Novel Deaths.” She was still in third place but now had $3,600, only $2,800 behind Stephanie. She bet $1,600 and she was RIGHT.

This title guy dies “withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. show

Meredith found the last Daily Double in “Astronomy.” She had $5,000, half of Stephanie’s lead. She bet $4,000, and she was RIGHT.

In March 1930 its discovery was announced at Lowell Observatory in Arizona. show

Stephanie finished in the lead with $16,400. Meredith was next with $9,600 and Jan was in third place with $7,200.

Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHAT IS INDIA?

According to the Official Website of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, the population (as per census 2011 Provisional data) is 199,581,477, living in an area that is 240,928 Square km (93,023 sq mi). The largest city is Kanpur. Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, is the 4th largest.

Jan wrote down an incomplete phrase that looked like “New J.” She lost her bet of $4,200 and finished with $3,000.

Meredith got it right and bet $7,000, finishing with $16,000.

Stephanie wrote down Outer Mongolia. It did seem as though both Stephanie and Jan misunderstood the clue and thought there had to be two words in the answer. Stephanie bet $2,400 and so ended her astonishing run. She finished today with $14,000, only $2,000 of which she can take home along with that hefty $147,570.

Congrats to our new champ Meredith on a great game! Many tried to win against Steamroller Stephanie but you succeeded.

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6 Responses

  1. Devon says:

    I have to agree with Mawee. Everybody knows, or should if they want to be a contestant, that the information sought in a clue like this is preceded by the word “THIS” and it’s not like the word “THIS” showed up in the clue more than once, is it?

  2. Jaime M. Ramirez says:

    What is the question being asked?

    “If it were a nation?” or

    “this country?”

    I believe that the “correct” answer to the question would be a three word answer Uttar Pradesh India.

    Which is a two word state in the right country. I don’t think any contestant gave the proper responce…so the “winner” should have been Ms. Jass one more time…..but thats just me.

  3. Mawee says:

    It made perfect sense to me. If they wanted the 2-word answer, it would have said: this state in India, with a 2-word name…

  4. Mick says:

    This has to be the most convoluted question I have ever seen on “Jeopardy.” It takes a degree in English grammar even to begin understanding the sentence structure. I was not surprised at all that two of the contestants wrote down 2 word answers.

  5. VJ says:

    Hi Helen, read the clue with the emphasis on the capitalized phrase — a state with a 2-word name IN THIS COUNTRY — the state has a 2-word name but it does not ask for the name of the state. :-)

  6. Helen says:

    Please explain the clue – have read and re-read it and do not understand it. Thought the question/answer should be a 2 word name(as Jan obviously did) – is this clue misleading or am I dense?
    “If it were a nation” without the reference to a state with a 2 word name, it would have made sense to me. I’ve tried to read it using different punctuation but just don’t get it. Thanks for your time and attention.