Playing Chemical Jeopardy II

You can play this game by yourself or with a group. If with a group, pick someone to be a moderator. They'll work the mouse and check your answers. If playing by yourself, check the 'Practice' box to forego scoring and to reset the game board automatically after each play.

Questions vary in value from 10 to 60 points for NameGame and 10 to 90 points for ClassGame. The time allowed to answer a question depends upon the point value of the question, the setting in the 'sec/point' box, and whether or not you are the leader. (The leader always gets only half the time of any other player!) This time allowed applies twice: Once before 'Stop' is clicked and then again while the answer is given.

Strategy

If you don't know an answer or the clock runs out, you lose no points, but the next randomly selected player gets to try your question.

If you yell out the answer and the moderator KNOWS you are wrong, they can click on 'Given Answer is Incorrect'. Then the next player gets a shot at it.

If you think you know the answer, or could get it in the allowed time, or DON'T want the next player to have a chance at it, yell, "Stop!" if you have a moderator or click on 'Stop' if you are playing alone. Once the game is stopped for you, you will either lose points or gain them; you cannot then pass. Announce your answer and see if it is correct.

If you get the answer right, you get the points and get first chance at another question; If you get it wrong, you lose the points and the next randomly selected player gets to choose the question.

Bugs

There is a distinct possibility that this won't run on your browser. Netscape 3 or 4 is recommended on a PC, and Netscape 4 is recommended on a Mac. Please report bugs to Bob Hanson

How It Works

This javascript application has eight frames:

fraIndex on the top left controls all javascript execution
fraScore just below fraIndex simply displays the scores
fraMain is generated by fraIndex and used to display the table
fraStatus just below fraMain displays player information
fraRound just to the left of fraStatus displays the round #
fraClock just to the right of fraStatus displays the clock
fraQ below fraStatus displays the questions
fraData below fraQ and hidden to the user contains data tables

In a nutshell, when you select a question, fraMain:dobtn(name) fires fraIndex:doquestion(name), where 'name' is the name of the button pressed, which is encoded as 'Xi_pt', where 'X' is the type, 'i' is the row, and 'pt' is the point value. For example, button E1_10 is the Elements button on the first row, worth 10 points.

fraIndex:doquestion(name) determines the complexity of the question and makes a call to fraIndex:doit() to construct the question. Note that no questions or answers actually exist predefined. Instead, the program follows the rules of naming compounds to construct a question of the desired type. For example, for an ionic compound, doit() randomly picks a cation, randomly picks an anion, checks to see that the complexity is appropriate, then puts them together to make a neutral compound and constructs the question in the form requested.