Final Jeopardy: Space Exploration
The Final Jeopardy question (3/29/2012) in the category “Space Exploration” was:
On March 17, 2011 a probe called MESSENGER became the first spacecraft to orbit this planet.
Two day champion Beau Henson returned today to take on these new players: Richie Rodriguez of Hayward, CA and Jay Ben Markson, originally from Lakeville, MA. Can they beat Beau?
Jay Ben found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double before the first commercial break in “Where On Earth.” It was a video and he was in the lead with $2,200, $1,600 more than Richie, in second place. He went for a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
The tower of the great opening hotel is in Khartoum in this country. show
Jay Ben finished the Jeopardy! round with a big lead of $9,200. Beau was next with $3,400 and Richie had $3,200.
Richie found the first Daily Double in Double Jeopardy! in “Philosophical Metaphors.” He was in third place with $8,000 at this point, $600 less than Beau and $2,400 less than Jay Ben. He took a bold approach with a $5,000 bet. Then he took a guess with Behemoth which was WRONG.
In a work of political philosophy, Hobbes compared “the great power of” man’s governor to this biblical beast. show
Jay Ben got the second Daily Double in the category “They Came from Ohio.” He had $13,600, a $1,000 lead over Beau in second place. He went with a $4,000 bet and guessed it was Rachel Carson. That was WRONG.
An elementary school in Lorain, Ohio is named for this woman from Lorain who’s both a Pulitzer & Nobel Prize winner. show
Beau finished in the lead with $13,800. Jay Ben was next with $11,600 and Richie was in third place with $5,400.
TWO of the players got Final Jeopardy! right today.
Here is an excerpt from NASA’s archive from March of 2011: “At 9:10 p.m. EDT, engineers in the MESSENGER Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., received the anticipated radiometric signals confirming nominal burn shutdown and successful insertion of the MESSENGER probe into orbit around the planet Mercury. (MESSENGER in Orbit)
Richie wrote down “Neptune.” He bet it all and ended up with nada.
Jay Ben wrote down “Neptune” too. Then he crossed it out and wrote down “Mercury.” He bet it all, too, and doubled his score to $23,200.
Beau got it right. too. He bet $9,401, just what he needed to finish with a buck more than Jay Ben. His total today: $23,201. His 3-day total is $51,203. Go, Beau!
