Foucault’s Pendulum - 2025 ACF Regionals

Question

The majority of this novel consists of the recollections of the narrator while waiting inside a periscope in the Musée des Arts et Métiers (“moo-ZAY day ZAR ay mate-YAY”), which also contains this novel’s title object. For 10 points each:

[10m] Name this novel in which three men use the computer Abulafia to invent an intricate conspiracy theory called The Plan.

ANSWER: Foucault’s Pendulum [or Il pendolo di Foucault]

[10e] The protagonists of Umberto Eco’s novel Foucault’s Pendulum discover a plot for world domination by this medieval order of Catholic knights, who are the guardians of the Holy Grail in The Da Vinci Code.

ANSWER: Knights Templar [or the Templars]

[10h] The Templar plot revolves around controlling these currents of energy, which flow to an “Omphalos” at the center of the earth. Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon describes these forces as a secret communication system through a Hollow Earth.

ANSWER: telluric currents [prompt on Earth currents or currents]

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Summary


California	2025-02-01	Y	3	16.67	100%	67%	0%
Florida	2025-02-01	Y	3	13.33	100%	33%	0%
Great Lakes	2025-02-01	Y	6	13.33	67%	50%	17%
North	2025-02-01	Y	3	16.67	67%	67%	33%
Overflow	2025-02-01	Y	5	16.00	80%	80%	0%
Pacific Northwest	2025-02-01	Y	2	20.00	100%	50%	50%
South Central	2025-02-01	Y	2	20.00	100%	100%	0%
Southeast	2025-02-01	Y	4	20.00	100%	75%	25%
UK	2025-02-01	Y	10	17.00	100%	60%	10%
Upper Mid-Atlantic	2025-02-01	Y	8	18.75	88%	75%	25%
Upstate NY	2025-02-01	Y	3	10.00	100%	0%	0%

Data


UCLA	UC Berkeley B	10	10	0	20
Georgetown A	Purdue	10	10	0	20
UW B	Alberta	0	10	0	10
UBC	UW A	10	10	10	30
Georgia Tech A	Georgia Tech B	10	10	0	20
Louisville A	Tennessee A	10	10	0	20
Cornell D	Binghamton A	0	10	0	10
Cornell C	RIT B	0	10	0	10
RIT A	ESF A	0	10	0	10
Florida A	Florida B	10	10	0	20
Michigan B	Michigan A	10	10	0	20
Michigan State	Case Western B	0	10	0	10
Ohio State A	Carnegie Mellon B	10	10	10	30
Ohio State B	Carnegie Mellon A	0	10	0	10
Northwestern B	Georgetown B	10	10	0	20
Iowa	Notre Dame C	10	0	0	10
Stanford B	Northwestern A	10	10	0	20
Notre Dame A	Notre Dame B	0	10	0	10
Texas A	TAMU	10	10	0	20
ASU	Texas B	10	10	0	20
Georgia Tech D	Alabama A	0	10	0	10
Georgia Tech C	Bruin A	10	10	10	30
Cornell B	Johns Hopkins A	10	10	0	20
Haverford A	George Washington A	10	10	10	30
John Jay College	Penn B	10	0	0	10
Maryland B	Haverford B	10	10	10	30
Maryland A	NYU A	0	10	0	10
Columbia C	NYU B	0	10	0	10
Columbia B	Penn A	10	10	0	20
Rutgers A	Vassar A	10	10	0	20
UC Berkeley A	Claremont A	10	10	0	20
Claremont B	UCSD	0	10	0	10
UCF C	Florida State A	0	10	0	10
UCF B	Valencia A	0	10	0	10
Michigan C	Kenyon	10	0	0	10
Case Western A	Michigan D	0	0	0	0
Iowa State	Wisconsin A	10	10	0	20
Carleton	Minnesota B	0	0	0	0
Winona State	Wisconsin B	10	10	10	30
Bristol	Warwick B	0	10	0	10
Cambridge A	Warwick A	0	10	0	10
Cambridge B	LSE	10	10	0	20
Sheffield	Cambridge D	10	10	0	20
Cambridge E	Oxford B	0	10	0	10
Southampton B	Durham	0	10	0	10
Imperial A	Cambridge C	10	10	0	20
Southampton A	Imperial B	10	10	0	20
NYU C	Manchester	10	10	0	20
Oxford A	Oxford C	10	10	10	30