I’ve always said that most contestants are science illiterate, here’s another piece of evidence. Final jeopardy was something along the lines of “two mirrors on different mountains were used to determine an accepted value of it.” Two said sea level and one said pi. Pi? That woman was winning for a large part of the day too.
[del]Is it the speed of light?[/del]
What is the speed of light, Alex?
Yes.
I know. It’s amazing how many times I respond to the FJ clue with, “How can anybody not get this no-brainer,” followed by them all missing it.
I can almost forgive “sea level,” but Pi??? 
Well, when the reflected light came back, it brought…
Never mind.
I incorrectly guessed “what is the distance from the earth to the moon” - which I remembered was measured with a laser array. I should have focused on the TWO mountains.
She was probably thinking in terms of deriving it from the curvature of the Earth. Silly when you think of it for more than a few seconds, but there’s enough of a connection there that I could understand how she’d go with it in a timed, high stress situation.
I was also pretty shocked about the Final Jeopardy answers…
Didnt seem that tough to me, and science is about the last thing I am versed in.
I was guessing speed of light or something like standard degrees of longitude/latitude, but I was pretty sure that was earlier.
My roommates and I, all either historians or art historians, were horrified by the pi lady and immediately started mocking her. I’m sure she just wanted to put SOMETHING down, but… wow.
I totally agree. There was a Jeopardy! tryout here last weekend, and the whole button / timing thing is a bit to get used to. But you don’t have many chances.
Definitely a lot of pressure to get it all just right.
Hey now! don’t be hatin’! Everything goes better with pi!
I wonder if they’d give it to you if you wrote “what is c?”
I’m not usually a fan of Final Jeopardies where the correct response is so long. It takes a few seconds to write “what is the speed of light”. Can you imagine how frustrating it would be to struggle, think of the correct question, and not have time to write it down?
I doubt it. Isn’t c specifically defined as the speed of light in a vacuum?
I thought both answers were horrible. Mirrors ON TOP OF MOUNTAINS, and you come up with sea level? Wouldn’t you want to have a mirror somewhere like, maybe, at sea? Radius of the Earth or something like that would have at least made some sense.
Getting above the radius of the earth and obtaining a long straight shot is the point of the mountains.
I understand OKRA is good with pi. 
Also, isn’t “sea level” zero by definition?
Hehe, I thought the answer was the speed of light, then read the OP and thought, “dang, why would they use mirrors on mountains to determine sea level?” Got to learn to stick with my first instinct. That was definitely a gimme, but you’ve got to account for the stress of being on TV, so I forgive everyone except for Pi contestant, unless they just had a brain fart and scribbled in whatever popped in their head.
I bet this is what happened. When she missed that Daily Double she said something like “I’m so dead”; I bet she has a dear friend or relative who makes ‘the worlds’ greatest’ okra pie, or however you would mix those two. There was no way for her to win, so perhaps her “pi” was just a nod to her friends/family.
The Final Jeopardy that really bugged me, I guess it was a few months ago, was: “These two countries are the only in the world whos’ names start with, but do not end with, the letter A.”
…all three contestants got the first one, which I admit I forgot about, “What is Azerbaijan?”. But not a one of them, and yes this one I got, could come up with the second, “What is Afghanistan?” Really? I mean I guess it sounds vaguely familiar, I think I heard about it in the news recently or something. :smack:
I was thinking along the lines of continental drift or plate techtonics :smack: