Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category International Borders) for Wednesday, February 6, 2019 (Season 35, Episode 108):
Germany has land borders with 9 countries & only maritime borders with 2 countries, the U.K. & this one across the Baltic
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Bif Reiser, a mathematician from Portland, Oregon![]() |
Bryan Coyle, a high school English teacher from Minneapolis, Minnesota![]() |
Will Dawson, a tour guide from Washington, D.C. (3-day total: $70,601)![]() |
With his win yesterday, Will finds his way onto page 2 of our ToC Tracker! See where others stand on the tracker here!
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is Sweden?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
Germany’s land borders are with Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The U.K. maritime border is west of the northern tip of the country, and just across the Baltic would be Sweden.
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Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Tonight’s results are below!
Scores going into Final:
Bif $20,200
Bryan $14,000
Will $13,200
Tonight’s results:
Will $13,200 – $13,200 = $0 (What is Poland)
Bryan $14,000 – $13,500 = $500 (What is Estonia?)
Bif $20,200 + $7,801 = $28,001 (1-day total: $28,001)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Bif $7,800
Will $6,000
Bryan $3,800
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Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) MEASURE FOR MEASURE $400 (10th pick)
Bif 800 +1000 (Will 3000 Bryan 600)
2) GOOD FELLOWS $800 (2nd pick)
Bryan 3800 -3000 (Bif 7800 Will 6000)
3) “SOCK” IT TO ME $800 (23rd pick)
Bryan 6400 +6000 (Bif 17800 Will 14800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 115
Unplayed clues:
J! round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total $ Left On Board: $0
Game Stats:
Bif $19,600 Coryat, 19 correct, 0 incorrect, 31.58% in first on buzzer
Bryan $11,800 Coryat, 17 correct, 1 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer, 1/1 on rebound attempts
Will $13,200 Coryat, 19 correct, 2 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer
Combined Coryat Score: $44,600
Lach Trash: $5,400 (on 4 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $4,000
Will Dawson, final stats:
92 correct, 15 incorrect
5/6 on rebound attempts
40.71% in first on buzzer (92/226)
5/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $7,200)
2/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,800
Bif Reiser, stats to date:
20 correct, 0 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts
31.58% in first on buzzer (18/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $1,000)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $19,600
Bif Reiser, to win:
2 games: 64.03%
3: 41.00%
4: 26.25%
5: 16.81%
6: 10.76%
Avg. streak: 2.780 games.
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Tournament of Champions projections:
With a projected 132 regular-play games to go prior to the Tournament of Champions cutoff, after 500,000 simulations, our model shows:
An average of 3.8331 5+-time champions (standard deviation 1.6327).
An average of 6.8843 4+-time champions (standard deviation 2.0114).
An early cutoff took place 5.618% of the time (or a 5-game winner will be left out).
Bif Reiser qualified 18.778% of the time.
Anneke Garcia qualified 81.773% of the time.
Dave Leffler qualified 63.044% of the time.
Jonathan Dinerstein qualified 36.721% of the time.
Alex Schmidt qualified 13.508% of the time.
John Presloid qualified 3.566% of the time.
Jackie Fuchs qualified 0.442% of the time.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Will should have bet no more than $800 in Final Jeopardy; Bryan’s bet was fine, as he was in Stratton’s Dilemma.
- Those who caught the “We’ll be back with Final Jeopardy right after this” got to see producer Maggie Speak having quite a bit of a moment there, with all of the gesticulating she was doing!
- This will be the 56th consecutive tape day where all 5 games taped that day have not been won by a single player. A record in this statistic is impossible to properly calculate, as some seasons have had unusual patterns (thanks to Celebrity games, usually.)
- Bryan came so close on the 2nd Daily Double, saying Snickers instead of Checkers. Sometimes the neurons don’t quite fire all the way.
- It was nice to see him not be “once bitten, twice shy” on the 3rd one, though.
- Effective in first on buzzer stats: Bif 33.33% (18/54), Bryan 27.78% (15/54), Will 38.89% (21/54).
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Today’s answer is not true from what I can see. It’s an awkward question, to begin with. But a look at my Rand McNally atlas suggests Germany has maritime borders with at least Finland, and Russia on the Baltic, and possibly Norway to the north.
Iceland and every country in the Americas with an Atlantic coast also suggest themselves.
The difficulty here is understanding what is meant by a “maritime border”.
Perhaps a geographer can clarify that. But is the term widely understood? If not, then today’s final round should be replayed, in fairness to the competitors.
Andy Shaw
Canadian journalist and freelance writer
Andy:
An interesting thought, but I think here that Jeopardy! has gone with the following treaties:
Germany has no other border treaties with countries that it does not also have a land border with.
P.S.: Are you Jerie’s dad?
I believe the correct answer should include Denmark which has both land and maritime borders with Germany
Denmark is one of the land countries mentioned. It does not count twice.
The key word is “only” as in only maritime borders and not both maritime and land borders. The latter category would include Denmark, Netherlands, and Poland.
I think that distinction is a bit subtle and awkward in the phrasing of the question. It’s good that Bif answered correctly and eliminated any question that the phrasing affected the outcome.
From comment on Jeopardy! Facebook post:
OK, Jeopardy writers, you were wrong tonight. On the question about Germany sharing maritime borders with Sweden, they do not. The border can only extend 5 miles from shore. At their closest, Sweden and Germany are approximately 35 miles away, so they are not sharing a maritime border. As your penalty for being incorrect, now you have to get me on the show!
5 miles is incorrect. It’s 12 and 200.
Moreover: Germany literally has treaties with Sweden and the UK.
Thanks, Andy. I see you made your way to Facebook 🙂
A bit amusing that Alex would make a comment to quiz bowl coach Bryan chastising quiz bowl players for their lack of history knowledge, and then Bryan a few minutes later misses a history question on the Daily Double.