WEB SITE: Montreal Winner announced in Canadian Consulting Engineer Trivia Quiz

The winner in Canadian Consulting Engineer’s web site first Trivia Quiz was announced at the end of March. Marie-Judith Jean-Louis of Montreal answered 11 of the 15 questions correctly and received a $100 cash cheque prize.

The runner-up was Sharon Murphy of Toronto with seven correct answers. Gentlemen — where were you?

Ms. Jean-Louis is an engineer-in-training working for Dessau-Soprin in their Longueuil office on Montreal’s south shore. She graduated from Concordia University with a building engineering degree last year.

Asked how she did so well on the quiz, Jean-Louis replies, “I try to get information on engineering whenever I can. I had to do a little research for some of the questions, and I was able to learn a bit more at the same time.”

Below are the 15 questions posed over a 15-week period.

Answers are on page 73.

Q. 1 – What happened on February 20, 1959, a day that came to be known as Black Friday in aviation circles?

Q. 2 – The Canadian Academy of Engineering elected its first female president in 2000. Who was she?

Q. 3 – In 1976 a highly controversial Montreal landmark that had recently been completed appeared on a Canadian stamp. What was it?

Q. 4 – Which Ontario city had Canada’s first telephone exchange (1878) and first incandescent street light system (1883)?

Q. 5 – How many licensed professional engineers are there currently in Canada?

Q. 6 – In house construction, what is the name for a horizontal strip of wood that is secured to a vertical wall framing to support the joists? Clue: the word appears in every issue of Canadian Consulting Engineer.

Q. 7 – One of Canada’s provincial professional engineering associations is launching a special certification called the Structural Engineer of Record. Which association is it?

Q. 8 – What was the famous civil engineering disaster that occurred in Quebec in August 1907 and killed 75 workers?

Q. 9 – A Canadian consulting engineering firm recently won an award for converting a 1940s tunnel into a passage with reversible traffic alternately serving trains and automobiles. In what U.S. state is the tunnel?

Q. 10 – In the SI (Systeme International) metric system of measurement, what does the symbol K represent?

Q. 11 – The U.S. government has built a vast underground complex at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert to store its entire military and civilian nuclear waste (the waste is expected to be toxic for as long as 100,000 years). Canada’s government also has plans to bury its nuclear reactor waste — in what geographic region?

Q. 12 – By what nickname is the University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering known?

Q. 13 – What percentage of all licensed engineers in Canada are female?

Q. 14 – Scientists have found that household cleaners, beauty aids and medications are leaving persistent chemical compounds in our water systems. A special term has now been given to these contaminants. What is the term?

Q. 15 – The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtse River in China will be the largest dam in the world when it is completed. (a) When is construction scheduled to be finished? (b) How high will it be?

Engineering Trivia Quiz I Answers

1. The Canadian government cancelled the Avro Arrow program

2. Micheline Bouchard, P.Eng., president and CEO of Motorola Canada.

3. Olympic Stadium

4. Hamilton, Ontario

5. More than 160,000

6. ledger (also CCE editor’s former name)

7. The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia

8. The Quebec Bridge over the St. Lawrence River collapsed.

9. Alaska (the Whittier Access project by Schreyer Award winner Hatch Mott McDonald)

10. kelvin / thermodynamic temperature

11. Canadian Shield

12. Skule

13. 7%

14. PPCPs (pharmaceutical and personal care pollutants)

15. (a) 2009 (b) 181 metres

Watch for the summer Engineering Trivia Quiz II. First question will be posted week of June 28. $200 prize. Suggestions for questions are welcome.