Final Jeopardy: Ancient Quotations (2-10-12)
The Final Jeopardy question (2/10/2012) in the category “Ancient Quotations” was:
When Byzantine Emperor Justinian completed Hagia Sophia, he declared, this king “I have surpassed thee.”
Today was the last semi-final match of the 2012 College Championship tournament and one of these three players will get a shot at the grand prize next week: Connie Shi (Univ. of Michigan), Zack Terrill (Vanderbilt) or Matt Olson (Stanford).
Matt, you may recall if you’ve been following along, was a poker-faced dominator in his quarter-final match, ending with an incredible $40,000 that he didn’t get to keep — but it was the highest score of all. Connie Shi won her quarter-final from second place when Jaime Alayon blew Final Jeopardy; and Zack Terrill had the highest score of all the wild card winners. But so far, quarter-final statistics have proved to have little bearing on the outcome of the semi-finals game, and Alex mentioned that the question on everybody’s mind is will Connie win today, making it a 3-girl final.
Connie got her chance to leap ahead when she found the Daily Double in the Jeopardy! round in the category “Shh! Librarians!” She had $4,200, $800 less than Zack who had the lead. She chose to wager only $1,200 and she was RIGHT.
As an assistant librarian at Peking University, in 1919, he red up on Communist theory. show
Connie held on to the lead she now had and finished with $7,200. Zack was second with $4,600 and Matt was in last place with $4,200.
In Double Jeopardy, Matt found the first Daily Double in “Volcanoes.” He was now in second place with $5,800, $2,200 less than Connie. He risked $2,200 and he was RIGHT.
In 1944 Allied forces in Italy had to evacuate an airfield when ash from this volcano damaged planes. show
Matt also got the last Daily Double in “Eponyms.” He was now in the lead with $18,000, $6,800 more than his nearest competition (Zack). He bet $6,000. He clearly didn’t know and guessed “Belmont” which was WRONG. He was still in the lead but only by $1,800 now.
Both a horse race and a man’s hat are named for Edward Stanley, 12th Earl of this. show
Matt went into Final Jeopardy in the lead with $13,200. He and Zack were dueling for the lead for a little bit there, but Zack ended up in second place with $11,800. Connie was in last place with $8,800.
Two out of three correct Daily Doubles today but NONE of the players got Final Jeopardy right, not that we were surprised. It was a little out of left field, wasn’t it?
The original Hagia Sophia was built in the fourth century by Constantine the Great. After it was destroyed, it was rebuilt by his son Constantius and the emperor Theodosius the Great and was burned down during the Nika riots of 532.
“Hagia Sophia was rebuilt in her present form between 532 and 537 under the personal supervision of Emperor Justinian I…. After completion, Justinian is said to have exclaimed, Νενίκηκά σε Σολομών (“Solomon, I have outdone thee!”). (Sacred Destinations.com)
Solomon’s Temple, by the way, was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BC.
Connie wrote down “Constantine,” dashing all those hopes for an all female final. But, as you can see above, it was a decent guess. She bet $8,798 and ended up with $2.
Zack wrote “Midas” and although a Midas or two, or maybe even three, are believed to have been real, not much is known about them with enough certainty to even earn them a page in wikipedia. He bet $7,000 and finished with $4,800.
Matt wrote down “Ozymandias,” title of a Percy Bysshe Shelly poem and another name for Ramses II who built The Ramesseum. He bet $10,401, a little bit too much to win the game. He ended up with $2,799, and even if we didn’t get all girls in the Final, we did get all Wild Card winners.
Most amazing, and we could certainly see that Zack was just as amazed!
Matt and Connie are the last two semi-finalists taking home $10,000 and Zack will return on Monday to face off against Monica Thieu and Sarah Bart, when one of them will win $100,000!
