Warning: This page contains spoilers for the July 18, 2025, game of Jeopardy! — please do not scroll down if you wish to avoid being spoiled. Please note that the game airs as early as noon Eastern in some U.S. television markets.
Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Science Words) for Friday, July 18, 2025 (Season 41, Game 225):
Expanding on a word created by a Czech playwright, Asimov coined this term in 1941 for a branch of science that didn’t exist yet
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Ameen Ismail, a particle physicist originally from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Julia Broussard, a university administrator from New Orleans, Louisiana
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Scott Riccardi, an engineer from Somerville, New Jersey (11-day total: $282,101)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
The penultimate week of Season 41 ends with Scott Riccardi going for victory number 12. His opponents: Julia Broussard of New Orleans and Ameen Ismail of Ottawa. Yesterday saw Scott put up one of the most dominant performances of all time, racking up $40,000 before Final Jeopardy—unfortunately, he gave half of that back on the game’s 61st clue, but a $36,000 Coryat Score will not be forgotten.
Meanwhile, with us only being a half-dozen new episodes away from the Next-Day Streaming Era, it feels as though Jeopardy! dodged a bit of a bullet, not having Paramount+ as a streaming partner over the next few years. Paramount is very quickly becoming a toxic brand, especially after the cancellation of Stephen Colbert yesterday, and I am very glad that we don’t need to deal with that.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is robotics?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2025 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
A term coined by Isaac Asimov to describe the study of the design, construction, and operation of robots, robotics had yet to be developed when Asimov introduced his Three Laws of Robotics for his short stories (many of which appeared in I, Robot.)
Those three laws:
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
The term “robot” itself came from Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R., which stood for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”; the term came from the Czech “robota” (meaning “forced labor”).
For me, being very familiar with the term’s etymology, this was a very quick Final Jeopardy solve for me. I think the only issue will be someone accidentally putting down just “robot” and not “robotics”.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, July 18, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Warlocks; Around South America; Ambrose Bierce’S Devil’S Dictionary; Feeling Sheepish; At The Airport; The First U.S. President To…)
A number of Triple Stumpers kept the scores down early; after 15 clues, your scores were Ameen $2,000 Julia $1,400 Scott $1,000.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Ameen 3 correct 0 incorrect
Julia 3 correct 1 incorrect
Scott 2 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Ameen was in Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada when he got The Call.
Julia was very involved in 4-H and was a cooking contest winner.
Scott was once electrocuted when rehearsing in an orchestra.
Scott picked up $1,000 from the Daily Double and held a $400 lead after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Scott 8 correct 1 incorrect
Ameen 8 correct 1 incorrect
Julia 5 correct 2 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Scott $4,000
Ameen $3,600
Julia $1,800
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: War Locks; Tv Kids; International Commerce; Literature; Don’T Eat The Pictures; “Mp”)
Things were decided very early in Double Jeopardy—Scott got the first five clues, including DD2. Ameen found DD3 on clue #7, but an incorrect response dropped him out of contention as Scott cruised to a runaway.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Scott 23 correct 2 incorrect
Julia 9 correct 2 incorrect
Ameen 14 correct 5 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 40 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Scott $22,400
Julia $6,200
Ameen $2,600
Everyone got Final Jeopardy correct; Scott brought his total over the $300,000 mark, moving to 14th all time in regular play winnings. He’ll go for win #13 on Monday!
Tonight’s results:
Ameen $2,600 + $105 = $2,705 (What is Robotics? Hi Mom :))
Julia $6,200 + $0 = $6,200 (What is robotics?)
Scott $22,400 + $8,000 = $30,400 (What is Robotics?) (12-day total: $312,501)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) AMBROSE BIERCE’S DEVIL’S DICTIONARY $1000 (clue #19)
Scott 1800 +1000 (Julia 1400 Ameen 2600)
2) “MP” $1200 (clue #4)
Scott 8800 +4000 (Julia 1800 Ameen 3600)
3) WAR LOCKS $2000 (clue #7, $25200 left on board)
Ameen 5200 -5000 (Scott 14000 Julia 1800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 5
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Scott 3 3 3 4 2 5*
Julia 3 2 4 5 5 3
Ameen 4 5 4 5 4 5 4
DJ! Round:
Scott 4 5 3* 3 4
Julia 3
Ameen 5*
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Scott 3.55
Julia 3.57
Ameen 4.50
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 40 (0.18 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Scott $19,600 Coryat, 23 correct, 2 incorrect, 40.35% in first on buzzer (23/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Julia $6,200 Coryat, 9 correct, 2 incorrect, 14.04% in first on buzzer (8/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Ameen $7,600 Coryat, 14 correct, 5 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $33,400
Lach Trash: $12,200 (on 13 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,400
Lead Changes: 5
Times Tied: 2
Player Statistics:
Scott Riccardi, career statistics:
316 correct, 24 incorrect
18/18 on rebound attempts (on 50 rebound opportunities)
42.25% in first on buzzer (289/684)
15/21 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $35,000)
9/12 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $22,033
Julia Broussard, career statistics:
10 correct, 2 incorrect
3/3 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
14.04% in first on buzzer (8/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $6,200
Ameen Ismail, career statistics:
15 correct, 5 incorrect
1/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$5,000)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $7,600
Scott Riccardi, to win:
13 games: 72.428%
14: 52.458%
15: 37.994%
16: 27.519%
17: 19.931%
Avg. streak: 14.627 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Today’s runaway game means no wagering suggestions will be posted.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
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Fell into the trap. Got “robot” immediately, being familiar with the Czech play, but neglected to expand it to “robotics.” Was unaware of the Asimov connection.
The “word coined by a Czech playwright” is one of those chestnuts that comes up quite a bit at the high school quizbowl level (or at least did when I played — it may be seen as too simple for that nowadays for all I know). So that part came to me quickly, and the rest followed.
Gonna be interesting to see how well known this little bit of trivia is outside of the trivia subculture, though.
WWORDuke!
Hello! I too am not sure of the trivia subculture, but this is widely know in the science fiction fantasy subcultute.
I got in a few seconds!
Also think [but am not sure] there is an additional ‘law of robotics’.
Rick, you are sort of right about a fourth law but not exactly. There have been a number of proposals for a fourth law of robotics but Asimov himself never formulated a fourth law. Instead, Asimov added a “Zeroth Law” implying that it comes even before the first three and is, hence, even more important. The Zeroth Law: “”A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.” This law supersedes the other laws as it prioritizes the well-being of humanity as a whole. Is that what you were thinking of, Rick?
Given that Asimov is just about my favorite author (and without a doubt, my favorite science fiction writer), today’s Final came to me instantly.
Robert!
Thanks so much for this interesting info!!
When I taped my show (show #561) in the category Science, the clue was “Robotics is related to this 6 Million Dollar field of science”. I answered Cybernetics which was ruled incorrect. Judges immediately accepted my answer when I complained during the first commercial break…on-air, Alex reversed the ruling stating the Six Million Dollar Man did use cybernetic devices. So this FJ brought back memories. Glad it was a triple get today.
I assume the answer they were looking for was bionics.
Easy get for me, for a change. I’ve been struggling lately.
I am disappointed in myself for not getting this right, but “in the moment” [30 seconds] I associate Asimov with satellites and Ray Bradbury with robots, so I couldn’t come up with anything. As for some degree of “timeliness” for this question, The Wild Robot animated movie was released 10 months ago and received a Critics Choice award and a PGA award in February this year. The robot’s name is Roz and it was published/released/whatever that she was named for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”.
I didn’t know FJ tonight.
Retro congrats to Scott on win #12 and on Monday, will he get win #13 to tie a fave of mine, Ray Lalonde?
Looking forward to it, but looking forward to a nice weekend of watching the Open Championship!
Have a great weekend all!
Oh, side note…..if Scott keeps on winning until I go to the taping on August 8th, he’d be a 27 game champ coming into the 1st game I’d see taped…..that would rock!!!
Jeff!
How exciting you will be going up an upcoming taping [something I’d love to do]!!
How many games will you see?
Hello Rick! Likely it will be 3 shows. I’ve been 4 times before for the 10 a.m. tapings and 3 of the 4 times it was 3 shows. Only once was it just 2 shows. They start taping for the new season on August 6th. So if I see the usual 3, they will air September 22nd through the 24th.
Get out here one day Rick and take in some Jeopardy! It’s great fun!