Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Question 582: Franky my dear, i don't give a damn

__X___ was a German physicist who resided in Russia. In 1741 he was elected a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Science for his pioneering work on __Y__ and also on calorimetry. __X__also worked as a tutor of the children of Count Andrei Osterman. In 1741 he translated Alexander Pope's Essay on Man into German from French.

He died in St. Petersburg "while trying to quantify the response of an insulated rod to a nearby weather phenomenon." He was attending a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, when he heard an ancient source of __Y__. The Professor ran home with his engraver to capture the event for posterity. While the experiment was underway, a supposed ____ appeared and collided with _______s head leaving him dead in a red spot. His shoes were blown open, parts of his clothes singed, the engraver knocked out; the doorframe of the room was split, and the door itself torn off its hinges.

He was apparently the first person in history to die while conducting __Y__ experiments.

However, the experiment he was conducting was already done so a few years earlier, halfway around the world, raising doubts about the veracity of those experiments conducted by the person halfway around the world.

Death of X

Death of X in colour,lol


So:
1) ID X
2) ID Y and the experiment X or the person before him conducted.
The key to this lies in the picture.
Smirk

ANSWER:


X: GEORG WILHELM RICHMANN
Y: ELECTRICITY (LIGHTNING WILL BE ACCEPTED WITH A PINCH OF SALT, SINCE ITS A FORM OF ELECTRICITY)
& BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PERFORMED SAID EXPERIMENT AS WELL, BUT DIDN'T SUFFER THE SAME FATE, PROMPTING CRITICS TO QUESTION ITS AUTHENTICITY.














13 comments:

Pi.R.Square said...

x - georg wilhelm richmann
y - electricity

ben franklin conducted the same supposed experiment, hence your allusion to the key.
But franklin's kite was never struck
or else he would've suffered the same fate.

Nanda said...

X-Richmann
Killed by Ball lightning

abhimanyu said...

georg richmann....while conducting experiments on the lightning..died of electrical shock from thunder...

abhimanyu said...

and the other person was benny franklin..

Anonymous said...

Georg WIlhelm Richmann
Poor chappy

-rahiN

The Musketeer said...

Y= electricity

R said...

Georg Wilhelm Richmann, first person to die conducting electrical experiments. The person before him must be Benjamin Franklin.

Sukanto said...

X - George Willhelm Richmann
Y - Electricity
he was reportedly the 1st person to die due to electrocution...
the person who did it before him was Benjamin Franklin (figured that from the question title!)

Nagaratna said...

X- Georg Wilhelm Richmann(googled)
Y- Electricity
Lightning rod experiment
person before X - Benjamin Franklin
Nice key reference.

Soumya said...

GEorge Richhman.and the other guy i spose is Benjamin Franklin

manish hn said...

georg richmann....tries out high voltage electrostatic epts....built a leyden jar and tried to charge it with lightning....a ball lightning went and had its way with him..

WHITE JACK AND BLACK LAGOON said...

X- Georg Wilhelm Richmann
Y-electricity
experiment- to quantify the response of an insulated rod to a nearby storm and the man is Benjamin Franklin. I suppose.

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