Question of the Week

We are happy to introduce to our readers a new monthly column, Question of the Week, by Dr B R Sitaram, Director, Zeal Educational Services Pvt. Ltd., a consultancy firm located in Ahmedabad. Every month, this column will carry four questions from various themes: science, maths, geography, history, fine arts, etc. Questions will be selected by Dr. Sitaram on the basis of their interest quotient and will not be of the information kind. Readers are welcome to email answers, comments and suggestions for questions to b.r.sitaram@gmail.com. The answers, along with comments about received emails will be provided in the following month. Please provide your name and affiliation in your email so that appropriate acknowledgement can be made of your contributions.

The column is a follow-up on an email based program that Dr. Sitaram conducted every week for two years while he was a consultant at The Galaxy Education System, Rajkot. Zeal Education, the company he runs with Sandhya Sitaram, provides various services to schools and school students in terms of teacher training, student workshops, student kits and teaching learning equipment. Most of these services are in the fields of science and mathematics, but at the Ahmedabad centre, extensive work is done with children with special needs. Zeal Education also provides consultancy services to corporates for executing CSR programs.

Dr. Sitaram, a physicist and mathematician, worked as a scientist at the Physical Research Laboratory and then as the Director, Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre, Ahmedabad, before starting Zeal Education. He is a fellow of the Gujarat Science Academy.

Here are the Questions of the Week for this month!

  1. When we go to buy electrical bulbs, we are given a choice: warm yellows or cool whites. What is wrong with these choices and why do we make these mistakes?
  2. Why is -2 x -4 = 8? Why not -8 or even 217?
  3. This book, written in four parts out of which the first one is far more famous than the other three, is actually a satire. However, it is often mistaken to be a children’s book. Which book am I talking about?
  4. Uttarayana is celebrated in India on the 14th of January. What is wrong with this date?

Please send in your answers, comments, etc. to zeal.qotw@gmail.com.

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