Realms/05 Chemistry

Curie's Chamber

Question it, deduce it, then defend it.

Named after the couple whose work on radiation gave us radium and polonium, Curie's Chamber covers the breadth of chemistry. It demands chemical knowledge and logical deduction together. Three rounds test speed, accuracy and problem-solving while you work under pressure with precision. The point is not to fill your head with facts, but to make you think the way real chemists do: questioning, deducing, and defending what you believe.

Category Head

Muhammad Bin Naveed

Rounds

Three rounds

Delegate cap

2 to 3 delegates

The rounds

  1. 01

    Jeopardy Round

    • 3 delegates
    • Non-elimination. All teams advance to round 2

    Memory, conceptual understanding and quick calculation under pressure. Six topic columns sit on the board, each with point values increasing as you move down. Lower points mean simpler questions. Higher points mean explanation, extensive calculation, or deep understanding of the topic. Whoever buzzes first answers. Get it right and you gain the points, get it wrong and you lose them, so guessing on a high-value question without solid understanding has a real cost.

    • Zero is not a scoring floor. A team can go negative on the first question.
    • A team is selected at random to reveal the first question, but whoever buzzes first earns the right to answer and then picks the next question, right or wrong.
    • An incorrect answer passes the question to the next team who buzzed in.
    • Point values are set at the discretion of the category heads and need not match across columns.
  2. 02

    Radium Records

    • 3 delegates
    • Elimination. The top 6 teams move to round 3

    Three files, six unknowns. Teams receive three files, each holding results from different analytical techniques at varying difficulty. You have an hour to work through all of them and identify all six unknown ions.

    • 15 points for each correctly identified ion.
    • 5 points deducted for a wrong identification.
  3. 03

    The Element of Surprise

    • 2 delegates
    • The top two teams take Winner and Runner-Up

    The format of this round is revealed after the round 2 results are announced. Delegates are advised to come with an open mind.

Study guide

The full brief for this realm, as a PDF.

Enter Curie's Chamber

Chemistry. Add it to your delegation's realms when you register.

Register your delegation