Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Inventions) for Thursday, April 7, 2022 (Season 38, Game 149):
Patented in 1955, it did not go over well in the high-end fashion world but the then-new aerospace industry found it very useful
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Reagan White, a college student from Manahawkin, New Jersey
|
Mike Janela, a sportscaster from Astoria, New York
|
Mattea Roach, a tutor from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2-day total: $70,801)
|
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts: Canadian Mattea Roach is now sitting on two victories after a very strong performance yesterday—with a buzzer performance even stronger than Day 1! Assuming she can keep her timing on the signalling device, Mattea looks poised for another very long run. (Michael Davies hinted recently that some great episodes were coming, and I can’t help but think that he’s referring to Mattea.) To that point, the regular-play winnings record for Canadians on Jeopardy! is held by Andrew Haringer ($96,599)—Mattea is threatening to break that mark already. Is the current all-time winnings record for Canadians, held by 1990 Tournament of Champions winner Bob Blake with a career total of $197,501, also under threat? Only time will tell.
PSA: The best way to keep COVID-19 at bay (and keep Jeopardy! producing new episodes) is for everybody to get their vaccinations as soon as they are able to, including any boosters as recommended. When wearing a mask, please ensure that your mask covers both your nose and your mouth.
Are you going on the show and looking for information about how to bet in Final Jeopardy? Check out my new Betting Strategy 101 page!
(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is Velcro®?
More information about Final Jeopardy: (The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2022 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
Velcro® was invented in the 1940s by George de Mestral of Switzerland; in the well-known story, de Mestral was inspired by burrs that had made their way onto his dog while on a walk in the Alps. It took nearly 15 years for the patent, but it was immediately seen as a potential replacement for a zipper. While high fashion shunned it, the material’s potential was seen by the burgeoning space industry, as it was seen as the best way of preventing items from floating away in the zero-gravity space environment.
One further point: Velcro® is still a branded trademark to refer to a specific brand of hook-and-loop fastener—one effort that the company made to resist the genericization of its trademark was this amusing 2017 YouTube video.
We have many new offerings at The Jeopardy! Fan Online Store! Proceeds from the sale of the “Doctor Oz’s Fast-Acting Snake Oil Elixir” T-shirt are being donated to The Trevor Project:
Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round categories: World War II; Literature for Younger Readers; Computers & the Internet; Palindromic Words; Ballpark; Figure
Mattea had the best performance on the signalling device in the opening 15 clues, but it was sportscaster Mike, buoyed by going 4/5 in BALLPARK, who found the Daily Double shortly after the break. Unfortunately, he was knocked back to $0 after a True Daily Double ran into a clue that I bet will scratch the head of many at-home viewers as well. Mike ended Single Jeopardy! in the red while Mattea led with $6,600.
Double Jeopardy! Round categories: That Painting Has a Title; In the City; Quote-Pourri; The Awful Sound of Music; Documentaries; Who Wants Dessert?
Reagan had the strongest Double Jeopardy! round, but she stumbled on the first Daily Double in the round. This gave Mattea an opening, and she took advantage on the last one, giving her a bit of a lead going into Final. The scores going into Final were Mattea at $16,400, with Reagan at $11,600 and Mike $1,800.
In Final today, it was a Triple Stumper—and Reagan’s over-bet means that Mattea survives a scare to win her third game. She’ll be back for game #4 tomorrow!
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Thursday, April 7, 2022 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Mattea $16,400
Reagan $11,600
Mike $1,800
Tonight’s results:
Mike $1,800 – $7 = $1,793 (What is I’m going to lose but the Mets will win it all this year!?)
Reagan $11,600 – $11,600 = $0 (What is pantyhose?)
Mattea $16,400 – $6,801 = $9,599 (What is rayon Nylon?) (3-day total: $80,400)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Mattea $6,600
Reagan $2,400
Mike -$600
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) COMPUTERS & THE INTERNET $600 (clue #18)
Mike 2200 -2200 (Mattea 2800 Reagan 0)
2) THAT PAINTING HAS A TITLE $1600 (clue #23)
Reagan 12000 -2000 (Mattea 12200 Mike 1800)
3) QUOTE-POURRI $1600 (clue #26, $3600 left on board)
Mattea 13400 +3000 (Mike 1800 Reagan 10000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -94
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 58 (0.39 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Mattea $15,000 Coryat, 20 correct, 1 incorrect, 31.58% in first on buzzer (18/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Mike $4,000 Coryat, 9 correct, 4 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Reagan $13,600 Coryat, 18 correct, 3 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $32,600
Lach Trash: $14,600 (on 11 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,800
Mattea Roach, career statistics:
81 correct, 5 incorrect
7/9 on rebound attempts (on 18 rebound opportunities)
40.35% in first on buzzer (69/171)
5/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $11,000)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $20,067
Mike Janela, career statistics:
9 correct, 5 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$2,200)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $4,000
Reagan White, career statistics:
18 correct, 4 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$2,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,600
Mattea Roach, to win:
4 games: 69.186%
5: 47.867%
6: 33.118%
7: 22.913%
8: 15.853%
Avg. streak: 5.245 games.
Today’s interviews:
Reagan named her car Starla.
Mike presented Alex Trebek with his Guinness World Record.
Mattea is originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia and has also lived in Calgary, Alberta and Moncton, New Brunswick.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Once again: I think that it’s incumbent on the writers to give Mayim an extra note of “accept either” on sports team names so that she doesn’t hesitate on judging those; this will make her look better.
- Link to the box score: April 7, 2022 Box Score
Final Jeopardy! betting suggestions:
(Mattea $16,400 Mike $1,800 Reagan $11,600)
Mattea: Standard cover bet todady is $6,801. Because this game is between 2/3 and 3/4, if you’re really disliking the category, you could try a bet between $0 and $2,798, which would beat Reagan’s low bet range. (This is an incredibly rarely used strategy, though.)
Mike: Not much you can do to win today — bet whatever you like.
Reagan: Bet anywhere between $0 and $1,999 — you absolutely need to stay above $9,600.
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
When commenting, please note that all comments on The Jeopardy! Fan must be in compliance with the Site Comment Policy.
If you are going to quote any information from this page or this website, attribution is required.
I was stumped by this clue.
Yeah, me too.
I got stuck on “Mylar” which was patented around the same time.
I knew this from the association with the space industry (specifically, the Apollo program). I guess that might make it easier for boomers.
Current FJ streak: 2W
I remember this from my childhood, including the story of the burrs on the dog (my dog had the same experience). Yes, you are correct, I’m a solid (early) boomer. 🙂
I immediately thought of Velcro — being reassured instead of 2nd-guessing — by first thinking of it being positive for the space industry and then as a negative in the fashion industry.
I AM a boomer, but everyone over the age of 12 today has watched Velcro used by the space industry on the news, in documentaries, and in movies, plus knows it is not “fashionable”. I am shocked that not one contestant guessed it. I feel like pantyhose is practically the opposite of the clue description 🙂 [though their patent applications were pretty close together] But I bet Velcro just didn’t occur to them at all rather than having dismissed it as a good response.
With the way Mattea is playing, all she needs is $26,000+ more to break her fellow Canadians’ record. I can’t remember when Andrew Haringer played on Jeopardy! but Mattea is killing the board. Plus, if she keeps scoring like she does, she may break Bob Blake’s record in SIX days!!! But hey, she may have an off day. Time will tell. Another person to root for After Matt and Amy.
Answered this one correctly.
Hoping that Mattea, the “displaced” Haligonian, will keep winning.
Reagan would have won if she bet zero on FJ, the only logical wager. Note that if Mattea gets it right she wins automatically, so Reagan must wager as if Mattea will get it wrong.
Another boomer who grabbed Velcro immediately.
Some more “space age” Velcro trivia — too much Velcro was blamed as part of the reason for the Apollo 1 fire that claimed the lives of Grissom, White, and Chaffee. Velcro smolders in room air, but bursts into hot flames in a 100% oxygen environment. It’s thought that a spark ignited the Velcro in the Apollo 1 capsule during a pad test.
In Tom Hanks’s series “From the Earth to the Moon,” a character said that the Velcro was supposed to be limited to a few square inches, but the astronauts kept insisting that more be added because it was so useful in zero-g.
That helped me with this one too. That was a good series.
Shouldn’t “Steinbrenner” have been “more specific?”
Thx,
Jay!
Mattea has a great personality. Hope she goes far.
“Genericization,” sweet word. This Boomer guessed Kevlar . . .
There’s more than one Steinbrenner, but George is a lot more famous than his sons.
Easy get for me, but I thought that Velcro had more to do with spacesuits than with holding down wiring. BTW, due to my smallish foot, I mostly wear kiddy shoes with Velcro.
I believe it had more to do with instruments, tools and such than wiring. The suits, too, but zippers would probably have done fine for that — it was the ability to have tools sort of “laying” around, easily attainable, but not “floating” around that made Velcro so useful in space. [Wiring is almost by definition “wired in place” so no danger of floating around.]
it’s possible that velcro straps are used to tie down bundles of wiring/cables in spacecraft, which would secure them in place but make it easier to remove/replace/add cables in the bundle. Though I haven’t personally been in any spacecraft to see how the wiring is secured.
I’m sorry no one guessed Depends-seems to fit the clue.
Depends were not patented in 1955