Rajasthan 2016 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is B, 90 degrees. When the ray makes 90 degrees with the surface it is travelling along the normal, so the angle of incidence measured from the normal is zero and the ray goes straight on without bending. Refraction is the bending of light as its speed changes on entering a new medium, and by Snell's law the sine of the angle of incidence divided by the sine of the angle of refraction equals the refractive index; with an angle of incidence of zero both sines are zero and no bending is possible, though the speed and the wavelength still change. A is wrong because 120 degrees to the surface means the ray strikes at a slant and bends. C is wrong because at 45 degrees to the surface the angle of incidence is also 45 degrees, so the ray refracts. D is wrong because 0 degrees means the ray grazes along the surface and does not enter medium Y. Exam tip: along the normal means no bending; bending grows as the ray slants more.

The correct answer is B, The rate of the forward and reverse reactions. Chemical equilibrium is a dynamic state: both reactions go on, but at the same speed, so no net change is seen. Because the two rates are equal, the amounts of reactants and products stay fixed, pressure and colour stop changing, and the reaction looks finished although molecules keep reacting on both sides. The equilibrium constant is the ratio of the two rate constants, K equals k forward divided by k reverse, and a catalyst speeds up both sides alike, so it brings equilibrium sooner without shifting it. A is wrong because the concentrations become constant, not equal; they are usually quite different and depend on the value of K. C is wrong because the two rate constants are equal only in the special case where K equals one. D is wrong because statement C does not hold in general. Exam tip: at equilibrium rates are equal and concentrations are constant, and K equals k forward over k reverse.

The correct answer is B, Quasi - Judicial Procedure. Parliament frames a charge, takes evidence and gives the President a hearing, so the two Houses act like a court even though they are law-making bodies. Article 61 lays down the process, and the only ground is violation of the Constitution. The charge may start in either House, needs a notice signed by one-fourth of that House's members given 14 days in advance, and must then be passed by a majority of two-thirds of the total membership of that House. The other House investigates the charge, and the President has the right to appear and be represented. The President stands removed only when the second House also passes the resolution by the same two-thirds majority. A is wrong because no court tries the President. C is wrong because the Houses go beyond law-making here and weigh evidence. D is wrong because the executive has no role in it. Exam tip: Article 61, violation of the Constitution, two-thirds of total membership of each House.

The correct answer is B, AgBr. Silver bromide is the standard example of an ionic crystal that carries both kinds of point defect at the same time. A Schottky defect is a missing pair, one cation vacancy with one anion vacancy, so the crystal stays electrically neutral but loses mass and its density falls; it appears where the two ions are close in size and the coordination number is high. A Frenkel defect is the smaller ion, usually the cation, slipping out of its lattice site into an interstitial space, so the mass and the density are unchanged; it appears where the two ions differ widely in size. In silver bromide the small silver ion can move into an interstitial hole while vacancy pairs also form, so both defects are seen. A is wrong because AgF, whose ions are comparable in size, shows only the Schottky defect. C is wrong because AgCl shows the Frenkel defect. D is wrong because NaCl is the classic Schottky example. Exam tip: a Schottky defect lowers density, a Frenkel defect does not, and AgBr shows both.

The correct answer is A, Vijayalaya. Around 850 AD Vijayalaya, until then a feudatory of the Pallavas, seized Thanjavur from the Muttaraiyar chiefs and made it his capital, and that conquest marks the beginning of the imperial Chola line. He built a temple of the goddess Nishumbhasudini there. His successors Aditya I and Parantaka I pushed the kingdom outward, and under Rajaraja I and Rajendra I it grew into the strongest power in south India, with a navy that reached Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. B is wrong because Krishna I was a Rashtrakuta ruler, remembered for the rock-cut Kailasa temple at Ellora. C is wrong because Parantaka I was a later Chola king, a successor and not the founder. D is wrong because Rajaraja I, who ruled from 985 to 1014 and built the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur, came much later. Exam tip: Vijayalaya founded the line, Rajaraja I built Brihadeshwara and Rajendra I led the campaign to the Ganga.

The correct answer is A, 250 cm. In an astronomical telescope set for normal adjustment, the magnifying power equals the focal length of the objective divided by the focal length of the eyepiece. Here the magnification is 100 and the eyepiece is 2.5 cm, so the objective must be 100 multiplied by 2.5, that is 250 cm. This is why astronomical telescopes are long instruments: a large objective focal length with a short eyepiece focal length gives high magnification, and in normal adjustment the tube length is roughly the sum of the two focal lengths. B is wrong because an objective of 40 cm would give a magnification of only 16. C is wrong because a focal length smaller than the eyepiece would shrink the image instead of enlarging it. D is wrong because 100 cm gives a magnification of 40. Exam tip: for a telescope magnification is objective divided by eyepiece, so the objective is the longer lens.

The correct answer is B, Surface tension and viscosity both decrease. Heating a liquid makes its molecules move faster and sit a little further apart, so the attraction between them weakens, and both properties depend on that attraction. Surface tension arises because molecules at the surface are pulled inward by their neighbours, and that inward pull fades as temperature rises until it reaches zero at the critical temperature. Viscosity in a liquid comes from molecules gripping each other as layers slide past, so the same weakening makes the liquid thinner and easier to pour, which is why warm oil flows far more freely than cold oil. A is wrong because surface tension falls rather than rises on heating. C is wrong because neither of the two rises. D is wrong because viscosity of a liquid falls, not rises. Exam tip: liquids thin out on heating, but a gas becomes more viscous when heated.

The correct answer is C, Planimeter. A planimeter measures the area of any flat shape, however irregular its outline. The user simply traces the boundary of the shape on the map with the instrument's pointer, and a wheel and dial record the area swept, which is then multiplied by the square of the map scale. On a contour map this is how the area enclosed by a contour line, a catchment or a reservoir spread is worked out, so it is a standard tool in survey and irrigation work. A is wrong because areameter is not the accepted name of any such instrument. B is wrong because a clinometer measures the slope of ground or the angle of elevation of a point, not an area. D is wrong because a graphometer is an old surveying instrument used to measure horizontal and vertical angles. Exam tip: planimeter for area, clinometer for slope, planimeter plus contour map for catchment area.

The correct answer is B, 1881. The Negotiable Instruments Act was enacted in 1881 and came into force on 1 March 1882. It codified the law on promissory notes, bills of exchange and cheques, and it remains the governing statute for cheques in India, amended several times, most notably in 2002 to bring in the electronic and truncated cheque and in 2018 to add Sections 143A and 148.

Option A, 1972, is not connected with this Act. Option C, 1957, is remembered for other laws such as the Copyright Act of that year. Option D, 1950, is the year the Constitution came into force. Candidates often confuse the 1881 Act with the Banking Regulation Act of 1949 and the Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934, so keep the three years separate: 1881 for negotiable instruments, 1934 for the Reserve Bank and 1949 for banking regulation.

The correct answer is A, NSSO household consumption expenditure survey. Estimates of poverty and unemployment in India rest on the large sample surveys of the National Sample Survey Office, which since 2019 works as part of the National Statistical Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Poverty is measured from the household consumer expenditure survey: the share of people whose monthly per capita spending falls below a poverty line drawn from a calorie and cost basket, the method of the Lakdawala, Tendulkar and Rangarajan committees. The same office also runs the employment and unemployment enquiry, now the annual Periodic Labour Force Survey. Option B is wrong because the Central Statistical Office compiled the national accounts and GDP, not these household surveys. Option C is wrong because the Planning Commission only fixed the poverty line and applied it to survey data. Option D is wrong because the survey measures consumption expenditure, not family income; India has no official income survey. Exam tip: the NSSO collects the data, the committees fix the poverty line.

The correct answer is D, Afghanistan. The Amir Amanullah Khan Award is Afghanistan's highest civilian honour, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi received it in June 2016 at Herat, on the day he and President Ashraf Ghani opened the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier called the Salma Dam, which India built on the Hari Rud. The honour is named after Amir Amanullah Khan, the ruler who won Afghanistan full control of its foreign affairs from the British in 1919. Option A is wrong, although Saudi Arabia did honour the Prime Minister in April 2016; its top award is the Order of King Abdulaziz Al Saud, a different decoration with a different name. Options B and C are wrong because neither Uzbekistan nor Iran gives an award of this name, and neither conferred its highest civilian honour on him in that year. Exam tip: Amir Amanullah Khan Award means Afghanistan, 2016, Herat and the Afghan-India Friendship Dam.