Did you know that piezoelectric effect is the ability of certain materials to generate electric charge in response to applied mechanical stress or that gunpowder is a mix of sulphur, charcoal and potassium nitrate?

Students from classes XI to XII of Jamshedpur schools on Thursday tested their knowledge of metals and metallurgy at the Fifth Professor SN Sinha Memorial Metals and Metallurgy Quiz organised by the Indian Institute of Metals, Jamshedpur chapter, at National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML) in Burmamines.

The quiz is organised in memory of former metallurgy professor of NIT Jamshedpur, S.N. Sinha.

More than 70 teams from about 19 schools took part in the quiz in which six teams made past the preliminary round.

These six - Loyola School; DBMS English School; DBMS Kadma High School; Narbheram Hansraj English, School; Atomic Energy Central School and Vidya Bharti Chinmaya Vidyalaya - battled it out in the final to throw up winners Prasojit Singh and Nishant Kumar Singh from Vidya Bharti Chinmaya Vidyalaya and Abhimanyu Some and Souvik Ghosh from Narbheram Hansraj English School. Loyoleans Nikhil Nilesh and Abhishek Patra came a close third.

Students won trophies and certificates.

"The quiz fulfils our motto to make metallurgy a popular subject among the students of Jamshedpur. Since Indian Institute of Metals is an organisation of metallurgists across India, promoting this branch of science among children is our lookout," said Indian Institute of Metals (Jamshedpur) secretary A.N. Bhagat.

Participating students at the final had to face six rounds that comprised direct questions on metallurgy, a video round and a clue round. Students were shown video clips of specific metallurgical processes to answer what they were called.

"This was hardcore metallurgy. At times we struggled with the questions and some were really very difficult but we enjoyed the quiz a lot. The best part is that we shall be participating in the Memorial Materials Quiz 2017 next month," said Nishant Kumar Satyam.

The first two winning teams will participate in Professor Brahm Prakash Memorial Materials Quiz at Kalpakkam on September 8 and 9, 2017. The Kalpakkam unit of the Indian Institute of Metals has been holding the quiz for the students of classes XI and XII since 1990. The Brahm Prakash Memorial Materials Quiz was initiated as an effort to create awareness among students about the role of materials science and metallurgy in industry and technological developments.