Slightly different kind of a question.

Say you construct an elliptical carrom board and keep the striker on a focus point (see the diagram below) and strike it. Which point on the board is the striker surely going to pass through after rebound irrespective of the angle at which it was struck?

Also, tell us which property of the ellipse lets you arrive at this.

p.s: Although it looks like a math question, it is very much quiz style.

Cracked by: Shrey Goyal , udupendra , Dibyo , Raghuvansh , u2001137 , Jean Valjean , Anand Shankar , Ps , sidsen , Rohan , madhur , Nakul , Krishna , yaksha , duriel , Neeraj , Poornima , Ananth , shrik , sand , p vs np , MGS and Ajay Parasuram.

Shrey Goyal, udupendra, Dibyo, Raghuvansh, u2001137, Jean Valjean, Anand Shankar, Ps, sidsen, Rohan, madhur, Nakul, Krishna, yaksha, duriel, Neeraj, Poornima, Ananth, shrik, sand, p vs np, MGS and Ajay Parasuram

What controversy?

Cracked by: shrik , Jean Valjean , Dibyo , Raghuvansh , jayanth , akhi , Rohan , Ps and shenoyvarun86.

shrik, Jean Valjean, Dibyo, Raghuvansh, jayanth, akhi, Rohan, Ps and shenoyvarun86

Identify, and connect.

Apologies for the delay, folks. This will stay up a wee bit longer…

Cracked by Raghuvansh and p vs np.

Raghuvansh and p vs np

Connect:

1. 
2. And this clip.

to a specific device.

Cracked by Martin , Dibyo , Anon, AmK , Raghuvansh , Rohan , svgreatest , Johny Walker , p vs np and udupendra.

Martin, Dibyo, Anonymous, AmK, Raghuvansh, Rohan, svgreatest, Johny Walker, p vs np and udupendra

Connect and explain

Cracked by Martin , Raghuvansh , duriel and Rahulk. Nice work!

Martin, Raghuvansh, duriel and Rahulk

To Srikanth..

..our dear rocket scientist.
Edit: [Srikanth] Thanks a bunch, folks :)

Connect to recent news…

Cracked by Raghuvansh , sand , darthshak , Dibyo , sidsen , AmK , Jean Valjean and shrik.

Raghuvansh, sand, darthshak, Dibyo, sidsen, AmK, Jean Valjean and shrik

Identify object (1) that can give you a whole new perspective on life (2)

Cracked by Debasish , Srikanth.M.G , Kal , Atul Mathew , Rithwik K , Dibyo , shenoyvarun86 , Ps , AmK , p vs np , ajay , jayanth , sidsen , shrik , Jean Valjean and darthshak.

Debasish, Srikanth.M.G, Kal, Atul Mathew, Rithwik K, Dibyo, shenoyvarun86, Ps, AmK, p vs np, ajay, jayanth, sidsen, shrik, Jean Valjean and darthshak

A few months ago, I conducted a Kannada quiz for the Sacramento Kannada Sangha. Since people were fond of buzzer rounds, they requested me to have one. I hate buzzer rounds because it is very hard to arbitrate who hit the buzzer first. To solve this problem, I rigged up a micro-controller based Quiz Buzzer which talks directly to a computer via RS232 and clearly displays which team hit the buzzer first! Since we had a huge screen and a projector set up at the location, the entire audience could see the team number as soon as someone hit the buzzer.

I got some overwhelmingly good response for the buzzer and I decided to make it available for download. You can read more about it here:

KapaLa Moksha – Quiz Buzzer v0.1

This is how the hardware setup looks(ed)

and it comes with software which can display the team number which hit the buzzer first on a Windows based computer. Here is a screenshot

More info and downloads here. It is released under the GNU GPL v2.
All feedback welcome!

Guest question from p vs np. Thanks again dude!

Some places have contributed one each to it. Just one university of repute has been capable of contributing one from its side. Furthermore, some distinguished scientists of the 20th century were also only capable of contributing just one each to it.

But a little mine in the village of ‘x’, which lies in the district marked in red, has the unique distinction of contributing nearly half a dozen to it, all by itself !

Solve for x.

Guest questions can be beamed to boiledbeans@gmail.com

PS: Apologies for posting late. This question will be up for a few more hours than usual.

Raghuvansh, p vs np, Dibyo, sidsen, Johny Walker, sumo_ftb, Rohan, quaziluffy, Ajay Parasuram, Kal, u2001137, BiGFooT, Rithwik K and Sridhar C