CSC 102

Lab: Web Search

 

Try the following six basic search tasks:

  1. Search for Christ Smith (no quotes) in some random search engine, e.g., from the list linked above.
  2. Search for Christ Smith president.
  3. Use advanced search to search for Christ Smith AND NOT Jesus.
    4. In other words, focus the search by excluding the natural conjugation of "Jesus" with "Christ." The syntax might be +Christ +Smith -Jesus depending on the search engine. Find the Help for Advanced Search in whichever engine you have chosen. See if you get closer to our president this way.
  4. Find our class homepage via a search on one phrase / collection of words. This may not be widely indexed, but I was able to find it. Just searching for how the internet works naively will not work. (Why not?)
  5. Search for some professor at Smith (not me). Try to hit the person with one single search query.
  6. Search for your own, full name(!), in double quotes. Search for your parents, your siblings, your friends. Any surprises?

Search Challenges

Try the following searches, which are roughly ordered by increasing difficulty. Although you may be able to find these using keyword search, some of these may be easier if you use some of the other search tools covered in class.

  1. The % daily recommended intake of phosphorus in a single serving of ice cream.
  2. How many spaces are there between Water Works and Baltic Avenue in the board game Monopoly?
  3. Chinese restaurant that is closest to the location of phone number (417) 883-6550.
  4. Number of columns outside the exterior walls of the Parthenon. (Careful -- it's easy to get this wrong; some columns hide behind others in double rows.)
  5. What is the answer to the following riddle? (If you can figure it out, that's great, but I want you to find a web site with the answer.)
    Three mathematicians are talking. "How many kids do you have?" The first asks the second mathematician. "Three," she answers. "How old are they?" he asks. "Well if you multiply their ages, you get 72. But if you add them, you get your office number." She says. The first mathematician thinks for a few seconds and says, "I do not think there is enough information for me to solve this!" he says. The mother mathematician immediately says, "Oh, of course, I forgot to tell you that the eldest plays the violin!"
  6. [CHALLENGE] A standard cubical die (one of a pair of dice) has spots on each of its six faces so that the numbers on opposite faces sum to 7. There are two ways to arrange such a set of numbers, where 1,2,3 appear clockwise, or counterclockwise, around their common corner. Which orientation of dice is used by the majority of casinos? (Note: cheap dice may come in either arrangement, but casino dice seem to follow a consistent pattern.)
  7. [CHALLENGE] What are the names of the two researchers at the National Institutes of Health who first wrote plagarism-detection software, and used it to uncover fraud by a medical researcher in the early 1990's?