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: In 1999, McIlroy created an adversary for this algorithm that guarantees that it will run in worst-case time. Its worst-case runtime can be avoided by switching to heapsort after a certain recursion depth, a construction known as introsort. Like mergesort, it is easily parallelizable, and its runtime can be decreased by first selecting the median of the unsorted input list. It was invented by C.A.R. Hoare, and its second phase is the partition function, which splits the original list into lists of elements that are greater or less than the chosen pivot value. For 10 points, identify this divide-and-conquer sorting algorithm which runs in big O of n log n time, named for its speed.

SOLUTION: Science

PROBLEM: This author's short stories include one about doctor who offers water from the Fountain of Youth and another based off John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. This author of ""Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"" and ""The Celestial Railroad"" also wrote many stories set in Puritan New England, including ""Young Goodman Brown. "" He also wrote a novel featuring such characters as the minister Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, and Hester Prynne. For 10 points, name this American author of The Scarlet Letter.

SOLUTION: Literature

PROBLEM: Two-dimensional applications of this technique include J-resolved, which accounts for J-coupling; and COSY, which relies on the application of two 90-degree pulses to a spin system. Its occurrence relies on the strength of the magnetic field, the frequency of absorption, and the gyromagnetic ratio of the proton in question. First observed in 1946 by Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell, this phenomenon is based on the precession of a proton as it is exposed to two magnetic fields, thereby indicating the presence of particular compounds in its namesake spectroscopy. FTP, identify this chemistry phenomenon that forms the basis for MRI.

SOLUTION:
Science