Static general knowledge is the larger part of every UPSC general studies paper. The notices name the same areas again and again: the history of India and the national movement, Indian and world geography, polity and the Constitution, the economy and social development, and general science with environment and ecology. The balance shifts from exam to exam. NDA puts about half of its General Knowledge part on Physics, Chemistry and General Science. CSE favours polity, modern history, environment and the economy. CAPF adds security and human rights, and CDS spreads its questions across polity, history, geography, the economy and school science.
GK24's GK notes are written topic by topic in English and Hindi, as short, fact-first chapters that are easy to revise. They cover Indian Polity, Indian History, Geography, Indian Economy, General Science, Environment and Ecology, Art and Culture, Computer, and the fact lists of awards, sports, books and days. A new chapter is added in each subject as the series grows. Each note carries practice questions, and those that have appeared in an exam say which exam and year. Start with Polity and modern history, then Geography, the Economy and Science. Read a note, take its topic quiz, and come back to it in your monthly revision.
Lesotho is a country entirely surrounded by which single country?
Lesotho lies wholly within South Africa and is one of only three countries in the world surrounded by a single neighbour, the other two being San Marino and Vatican City, both inside Italy.
Read the full explanation →Which is the only landlocked country in South East Asia?
Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is the only state in South East Asia without a sea coast; it is bordered by China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar, and the Mekong, which forms much of its western boundary, is its chief waterway and source of hydroelectric power.
Read the full explanation →Ethiopia became a landlocked country in 1993 when which neighbouring country became independent?
Eritrea became independent of Ethiopia in 1993 after a long war and took with it the entire Red Sea coast, including the ports of Massawa and Assab, leaving Ethiopia landlocked; Ethiopia is today the most populous landlocked country in the world and routes most of its trade through Djibouti.
Read the full explanation →Bolivia and which other country are the only landlocked countries of South America?
Bolivia and Paraguay are the only two landlocked states in South America. Paraguay has no coast but reaches the Atlantic along the Paraguay and Parana rivers, which carry most of its trade; Bolivia lost its Pacific coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific of 1879 to 1883.
Read the full explanation →Which continent has the largest number of landlocked countries?
Of the forty-four landlocked countries in the world, sixteen are in Africa, among them Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi and Lesotho; the colonial boundaries drawn in the nineteenth century are the reason so many African states were left without a coast.
Read the full explanation →Which is the largest landlocked country in the world by area?
Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world and by far the largest with no sea coast. Its shore on the Caspian does not change this, because the Caspian is the world's largest lake and has no natural connection with the ocean, so Kazakhstan is counted as landlocked.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is a doubly landlocked country?
A doubly landlocked country is one that is surrounded only by landlocked countries, so at least two international borders must be crossed to reach the sea.
Read the full explanation →In India, how many States are on the coastline?
The coastal states of India, counted from the west coast round to the east, are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal; Gujarat has the longest coastline among them.
Read the full explanation →Soldiers are asked to break step while marching across a bridge in order to avoid
If the frequency of the soldiers' rhythmic steps happens to match the natural frequency of the bridge, the bridge is driven at its own frequency and its amplitude of vibration can build up to a dangerous level; breaking step destroys the rhythm and avoids the risk.
Read the full explanation →Who built the first pendulum clock, using the principle discovered by Galileo?
The Dutch scientist Huygens designed the first working pendulum clock in 1656, after Galileo had noticed that a swinging lamp took the same time for each swing whether it swung far or little, the property called isochronism.
Read the full explanation →The acceleration of a body executing simple harmonic motion is maximum at
In simple harmonic motion the acceleration equals minus omega squared times the displacement, so it grows with displacement and is greatest at the ends of the path, where its value is A omega squared and it points back towards the centre.
Read the full explanation →In simple harmonic motion, the potential energy of the oscillating body is maximum at
Potential energy is proportional to the square of the displacement, so it is greatest where the displacement is greatest, that is at the two ends of the path, where the body is momentarily at rest and its kinetic energy is zero.
Read the full explanation →If a pendulum clock is taken from the earth to the moon, where the acceleration due to gravity is about one sixth, its time period will
The time period varies inversely as the square root of g, so if g falls to one sixth, the period is multiplied by the square root of six, about 2.45 times; the pendulum swings more slowly and a pendulum clock taken to the moon would lose time badly.
Read the full explanation →If the length of a simple pendulum is made four times its original value, its time period will become
The time period varies as the square root of the length, so multiplying the length by four multiplies the period by the square root of four, that is by two; to double the period of a pendulum its length must be made four times.
Read the full explanation →The length of a second's pendulum, at a place where the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s squared, is nearly
A second's pendulum is one whose time period is exactly two seconds, so that each swing from one side to the other takes one second.
Read the full explanation →The time period of a simple pendulum does not depend on which of the following?
The time period of a simple pendulum is two pi times the square root of the length divided by g, in which the mass of the bob does not appear at all; a heavy bob and a light bob of the same length keep the same time, which is the…
Read the full explanation →A child is sitting on a swing. Its minimum and maximum heights from the ground are 0.75 m and 2 m respectively. Its maximum speed will be
A swing is a pendulum, and its speed is greatest at the lowest point, where all the potential energy gained at the top has turned into kinetic energy.
Read the full explanation →If a particle is moving with simple harmonic motion, the velocity is _________ at the mean position.
In simple harmonic motion the velocity is given by omega times the square root of A squared minus x squared.
Read the full explanation →Where did the French East India Company first establish its factory in India?
The French set up their first factory in India at Surat in 1668, under François Caron. The French East India Company was founded in 1664 under the patronage of King Louis XIV and his minister Colbert, making it the last of the major European companies to reach India.
Read the full explanation →The treaty of Schonbrunn (1809) was signed after which one of the following battles ?
Napoleon defeated Austria at Wagram near Vienna in July 1809, and Austria signed the Treaty of Schönbrunn in October 1809.
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