This LL Study Guide ranges from Percy Spencer’s serendipitous World War II radar work that birthed the microwave oven, through Canada’s July 1 national holiday and its 1982 renaming from Dominion Day to Canada Day, to the meteoric rise and spectacular 2022 collapse of Bahamas‑based crypto exchange FTX. From there it dives into Horace’s Ars Poetica and the enduring Latin term in medias res, the Thomasites’ role in exporting American‑style public education to the U.S. colony of the Philippine Islands, and Ludwig Ritter von Köchel’s catalogue that permanently linked his name to Mozart’s works. Use these notes to firm up core facts, spot subtle clues, and connect each answer to wider history, literature, music, and pop culture.

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Study Notes

Question 1: Invention of the Microwave Oven

Q1. SCIENCE - Raytheon engineer Percy Spencer noticed that a chocolate bar had unexpectedly melted in his pocket in 1945 while at work, and this (perhaps slightly embellished) observation led directly to the development of what now-common apparatus?

Core fact: The story about Percy Spencer’s melted candy bar at Raytheon in 1945 is the classic origin tale of the microwave oven, commercialized first as the Raytheon Radarange industrial oven before evolving into a standard household appliance. Working with radar magnetrons, Spencer noticed food heating near the equipment, filed a patent for microwave cooking in October 1945, and Raytheon’s first Radarange units reached commercial kitchens by 1947.

Connections

  • War tech to kitchen tech: The magnetrons Spencer worked on were vacuum tubes that generated microwaves for World War II radar; adapting this military hardware for food heating is a textbook example of dual‑use technology.
  • Accidental inventions canon: Lists of famous serendipitous discoveries regularly feature the microwave oven alongside penicillin, Post‑it Notes, and Popsicles, so this story sits in the same trivia galaxy as other “happy accident” inventions.
  • Gremlins in the microwave: In Joe Dante’s film Gremlins (1984), one of the most notorious scenes shows a gremlin exploding inside a kitchen microwave, a moment so gory it became central to 1980s debates over movie violence and ratings.
  • Microwaves as a pop‑culture shorthand: The TV Tropes entry on “Microwave Misuse” catalogs recurring gags where characters weaponize or fear microwaves—from American Hustle’s 1970s characters nervously confronting a “science oven” to supernatural monsters cooked on TV procedurals.
  • Physics hiding in your kitchen: Microwave ovens heat food via dielectric heating: water and other polar molecules rotate in the alternating electromagnetic field, generating heat throughout the food rather than just at the surface—concepts that tie directly into basic electromagnetism and molecular physics.

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Question 2: Dominion Day → Canada Day

Q2. GEOGRAPHY - A holiday celebrated on 1 July, named Dominion Day beginning in 1879, has been officially known by what other name since 1982 (English or French name acceptable)?

Core fact: The July 1 holiday that marked Canadian Confederation was legally designated Dominion Day in 1879, but in 1982—after Canada patriated its constitution—the name was officially changed to Canada Day (Fête du Canada), first celebrated under that title on July 1, 1983.

Connections

  • Confederation and national identity: The holiday commemorates July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act (now the Constitution Act, 1867) united the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into the Dominion of Canada—Canada’s foundational constitutional moment.
  • Why the name change matters: The shift from Dominion Day to Canada Day in 1982 coincided with the patriation of the Constitution and the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, reflecting a move away from colonial terminology toward a more autonomous national symbolism.
  • Parallel with other “independence” days: News retrospectives often juxtapose Canada Day with the U.S. Fourth of July—both tied to late‑18th‑century constitutional changes, but Canada’s was an act of British legislation rather than a revolutionary declaration.
  • Live on stage: Ottawa’s Canada Day celebrations on and around Parliament Hill feature major Canadian acts—past headliners have included Sarah McLachlan, Tom Cochrane, and Cœur de pirate—so concert lineups themselves can be a clue to the day’s cultural importance.
  • Heritage Minutes and national myths: Historica Canada has produced Canada‑focused Heritage Minutes and even a short “salute to Canada Day,” so TV interstitials and YouTube ads can be stealthy places you’ve absorbed imagery tied to this holiday.

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Question 3: FTX and the 2022 Crypto Collapse

Q3. BUS/ECON - One of the biggest corporate failures of the 2020s (so far) occurred in 2022, with the spectacular collapse from a peak valuation earlier that year of around $32 billion of what Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange founded by Gary Wang and Sam Bankman-Fried?

Core fact: The question refers to FTX, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman‑Fried and Gary Wang, incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda but headquartered in The Bahamas. After raising $400 million in January 2022 at a valuation of about $32 billion, FTX suffered a liquidity crisis and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2022 amid revelations that customer funds had been misused.

Connections

  • “Crypto’s Lehman moment”: Financial press and commentary frequently dubbed FTX’s failure “crypto’s Lehman moment,” likening its sudden implosion and contagion effects to the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers during the global financial crisis.
  • Part of a broader crypto meltdown: FTX’s bankruptcy followed on the heels of the 2022 TerraUSD/Luna collapse, which wiped out tens of billions in market value and rattled confidence in the entire sector, setting the stage for FTX’s downfall later that year.
  • Celebrities and stadiums: At its peak, FTX bought naming rights to the Miami Heat’s arena in a 19‑year, $135 million deal (renaming it FTX Arena) and partnered with MLB and Mercedes‑AMG Petronas F1, while celebrity endorsers like Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Naomi Osaka, and Shaquille O’Neal promoted the brand—many later facing lawsuits or settlements after the collapse.
  • The Larry David Super Bowl ad: FTX’s 2022 Super Bowl commercial featured Seinfeld creator Larry David rejecting historical innovations before being told “Don’t be like Larry” and urged not to “miss out” on crypto and “the next big thing,” an ad that became darkly ironic after the bankruptcy.
  • From wunderkind to inmate: Bankman‑Fried was convicted in U.S. federal court on fraud and related charges in 2023 and, in March 2024, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with appeals ongoing—so news coverage of his trial is a rich non‑technical way to absorb FTX’s story arc.

Sources

Question 4: Horace and In Medias Res

Q4. LITERATURE - In his Ars Poetica, written around 19 BCE, Horace praises Homer for beginning his epics in the middle of the action rather than at the story’s beginning. In doing so, Horace used what precise three-word Latin phrase, now a common literary term, for this starting in the middle of things?

Core fact: Horace’s Ars Poetica praises Homer for beginning his epics in medias res—Latin for “into the middle of things”—rather than narrating the Trojan War “ab ovo,” from the very beginning. Today in medias res is the standard literary term for opening a narrative in the midst of the action, filling in earlier events through flashbacks or exposition.

Horace’s title Ars Poetica literally means “The Art of Poetry” and is a verse essay on how good poetry and drama should be crafted. The Latin phrase in medias res comes from his description of the ideal epic poet, while ab ovo (“from the egg”) alludes to starting the Trojan War story from the mythic egg from which Helen was born.

Connections

  • Classical epics: Horace points to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as models—both plunge readers straight into crisis (a plague in the Greek camp; Odysseus already wandering) rather than beginning with the heroes’ births.
  • Modern movies you know: Reference works on in medias res point out that the technique underpins many films, including Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (released first but labeled Episode IV) and animated features like Shrek and The Emperor’s New Groove, which open with action or a crisis and then backfill the backstory.
  • War films and thrillers: The same sources note that war movies such as The Thin Red Line and numerous action and crime thrillers drop viewers directly into battle or a heist gone wrong, using later scenes to explain how things got there—classic in‑medias‑res framing.
  • Story structure clues: Recognizing an in medias res opening can help with questions about plot structure or “non‑linear narrative” in literature, film, and even video games, where flashbacks and time jumps are now common devices.

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Question 5: The Thomasites and the Philippine Islands

Q5. AMER HIST - The original Thomasites were a group of about 500 American teachers who set sail from San Francisco in July 1901 aboard the U.S. Army transport ship USAT Thomas with the aim of establishing a new public school system in what at-the-time American colony?

Core fact: The Thomasites were a contingent of roughly 500–600 American teachers who departed San Francisco on the U.S. Army Transport Thomas on July 23, 1901, bound for Manila to help build a public school system in the Philippine Islands, then an American colony/insular territory. Their mission was to establish English‑medium public education and train Filipino teachers as part of the broader U.S. colonial project following the Spanish‑American and Philippine‑American Wars.

The name Thomasites comes from their ship, USAT Thomas, a former Spanish‑American War transport repurposed for regular runs between San Francisco and Manila. The Philippine Islands had been ceded by Spain to the United States under the 1898 Treaty of Paris, and from 1899 they were governed as an unincorporated U.S. territory under a military and then civil Insular Government of the Philippine Islands.

Connections

  • Language as empire: American colonial education policies made English the primary medium of instruction, which dramatically expanded English proficiency and helped make it one of the Philippines’ official languages alongside Filipino—a legacy still visible in today’s constitution and school system.
  • Educational institutions: University and archival projects, like the University of Michigan’s “A Brief History of the Thomasites,” trace how these teachers founded normal schools and other institutions that shaped Philippine higher education, such as the Philippine Normal School in Manila.
  • Remembered in diaspora: A 2025 article from Chicago’s Rizal Center explicitly connects the 1901 Thomasites to contemporary Filipino teachers now recruited to work in U.S. public schools, showing how the flow of teachers has, in some respects, reversed.
  • Imperialism and resistance: Scholarship on the Philippine‑American War and subsequent insular government highlights how schools were intended to promote American political ideals and language, but also became sites where Filipino nationalism and debates over language policy (English vs. local languages) played out.
  • Ships as trivia hooks: The Army transport fleet (Thomas, Sherman, Logan, Sheridan) appears in naval and military histories of the Spanish‑American War and China relief expeditions; recognizing the USAT Thomas name can be a path into both military and education‑history questions.

Sources

Question 6: Köchel and Mozart’s K Numbers

Q6. CLASS MUSIC - Due to the primary work by which he is known, 19th-century Austrian Ludwig Ritter von Köchel will forever be inextricably linked with what 18th-century countryman?

Core fact: Ludwig Ritter von Köchel was a 19th‑century Austrian scholar and musicologist who compiled the first comprehensive chronological catalogue of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s works (published 1862), assigning each composition a Köchel number (K. or KV). Because concert programs, recordings, and scholarship routinely identify Mozart’s pieces by these K numbers—like Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, or the Requiem in D minor, K. 626—Köchel’s name is permanently tied to Mozart’s.

Connections

  • Reading concert programs: Articles aimed at concertgoers explain that “K.” or “KV” numbers next to Mozart’s titles (e.g., Piano Sonata in C major, K. 545 or Requiem, K. 626) are Köchel catalogue numbers, a convention now so standard that many people recognize the numbers without knowing Köchel’s role.
  • Film and fame – Amadeus: The Oscar‑winning film Amadeus (1984) helped popularize several Köchel‑numbered works, especially the Requiem K. 626, whose “Lacrimosa” and other movements underscore key scenes and then sell strongly on soundtrack albums.
  • Catalogs beyond Mozart: Music‑history explainers often compare Mozart’s K numbers with other composers’ catalog systems—Bach’s BWV, Vivaldi’s RV, or Beethoven’s WoO—so clues about “opus vs. catalogue” can signal this whole family of numbering schemes.
  • Ongoing scholarship: Modern editions of the Köchel catalogue have revised the ordering as new research clarifies dates and authenticity; the 2024 ninth edition grouped works while restoring their earliest Köchel numbers, showing that even a “fixed” corpus like Mozart’s continues to be re‑examined.

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