TASK DEFINITION: In this task you will be given a text passage from a trivia quiz. You should choose the category this question belongs to from these categories: History, Science, Social Science, Fine Arts, Literature. You can only choose one category, so if in doubt, please choose the closest match.
PROBLEM: Laplaces rule may be used to compute a version of this quantity for its namesake tensor in order to prove the Alon-Tarsi conjecture for Latin squares of even order; that proof uses Cayleys version of this operator. The Cauchy-Binet rule generalizes it to commutative rings, while Leibnizs formula uses permutations of elements to compute it. Setting to zero the result of this operation on lambda I minus A allows us to calculate As eigenvalues. Cramers rule uses ratios of these to solve systems of linear equations. For ten points, name this quantity that is a d minus c b for a 2 by 2 matrix a b c d.

SOLUTION: Science

PROBLEM: Two female members of this occupation served under John Rackham and were named Mary Read and Anne Bonny. Members of this profession could gain government support if granted a Letter of Marque, which made them privateers. In this occupation's Golden Age, Bartholomew Roberts had the most success, and that age also saw the likes of (*) Edward Teach and William Kidd. For 10 points, name this profession that got the majority of its members from the ships it robbed, and whose captains included Blackbeard and whose ships flew the Jolly Roger.

SOLUTION: History

PROBLEM: This composer wrote a work beginning with the double basses representing mist before the orchestra enters to play six different dances; that work was a tribute to a Johann Strauss waltz. He included sections titled "Little Tom Thumb" and "Conversation of Beauty and the Beast" in a work dedicated to the Godebski kids. This composer of La Valse and Mother Goose wrote a work ending with a chorus of bacchantes playing tambourines, who join together in the "Danse Generale". In addition to writing a ballet based on a Longus poem, he wrote a work dedicated to Ida Rubinstein that features an unchanging snare drum ostinato rhythm. For 10 points, name this Spanish composer who wrote Daphnis et Chloe and Bolero.

SOLUTION:
Fine Arts