Entertainment: Fact and Fiction Quiz

Answer: True

CDs store music and other files in digital form, which is represented by a series of 1s and 0s. These 1s and 0s are represented by millions of tiny bumps and flat areas on the disc's reflective surface. To read the information, the CD player passes a laser beam over the track. When the laser passes over a flat area in the track, the beam is reflected directly to an optical sensor on the laser assembly. The CD player interprets this as a "1". When the beam passes over a bump, the light is bounced away from the optical sensor, and the CD player recognizes this as a "0".

Answer: True

Whatever the effects of the virus are, it must be executed in order to infect the computer. You could literally have thousands of viruses sitting in a folder on your computer, and as long as none of them are run, your system will remain unaffected. This is why MP3 files or image files cannot contain viruses, as they are not being executed, but are instead just being read by other software.

Answer: False

MPEG is the acronym for Moving Picture Experts Group. This group has developed compression systems used for video data. For example, DVD movies, HDTV broadcasts and DSS satellite systems use MPEG compression to fit video and movie data into smaller spaces.

The MPEG compression system includes a subsystem to compress sound, called MPEG audio Layer-3... and when compressed? It's known as an MP3.

Answer: False

The GameCube is not actually a cube -- at 6 inches long, 6 inches wide and 4.3 inches tall (15 x 15 x 11 cm), it is a very compact rectangular block.

Answer: False

THX is actually named after his first film, 1971's "THX 1138".

Answer: Yes

The reason the stickers can last for decades upon decades is because of the micro-encapsulation technology used to create them. The basic idea behind scratch-and-sniff is to take the aroma-generating chemical and encapsulate it in gelatine or plastic spheres that are incredibly small -- a few microns in diameter.

When you scratch the sticker, you are rupturing some of these spheres and releasing the smell. The smell is essentially held in millions (if not more) of tiny pockets, and you break just a few of the pockets every time you scratch the sticker.

The tiny pockets preserve the fragrance for years, and since there are millions and millions of pockets, the smell will remain. Even if the smell seems weak or inexistent, there are still pockets being ruptured many years down the line!

Answer: True

In its original form, an Etch-a-Sketch does not have the most complicated interior. Other than the shifting horizontal and vertical bars (controlled by the knobs), there is a mixture of extremely fine aluminum powder and beads. The beads help the powder to flow evenly.

When you turn the Etch-a-Sketch upside down and shake, it coats the inside face of the glass with aluminum powder. If you are wondering why, the simple answer is: aluminum powder sticks to everything.

Answer: True

In an IMAX projector, the film is so heavy and large that a projector cannot use a claw to move it, and it is hard to hold such a big film frame perfectly flat with respect to the lens. All of its advanced technology means that an IMAX projector weighs over 2 tons (1,800 kilograms), as that's what it takes to get such a bright, clear image onto such a tremendous screen.

Answer: True

Originally, paintball guns were not intended for sport. The first guns were developed in the 70s for use in forestry and agriculture, as foresters used the guns to mark certain trees for research or planning trails. The guns were also used by farmers to mark cattle.
At some point, it occurred to a few foresters or farmers to shoot the guns at each other, and the game of paintball was born.

Answer: False

All conversion between different byte sizes is done in the increment of 1024, not 1000. 1024 bytes equals a kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes equals a megabyte, and so on. Many do not understand this, and can be annoyed when purchasing a hard drive, as the size on the box, for example 30 gigabytes (GB), is measured on the scale of 1 to 1000, which is incorrect.

The company most likely does this to make people think they have bought more than they have, but when one installs the hard drive, they are fooled. 30 GB is equal to exactly 32,212,254,720 bytes, which is basically 1024 x 1024 x 1024 x 30, but the company creates this specific hard drive to 30,000,000,000 bytes, which is only 27.94 GB.

The simple value of 1024 is represented by the binary values 1 and 0 ....two distinct values.

When one represents a kilobyte, the mathematical equation would be 2 to the power of 10, which equals 1024. To figure out the next amount, it would be 2 to the power of 20 (mega), 30 (giga), 40 (tera), 50 (peta), 60 (exa), and so on.

Answer: False

Actually, we've been using CRT televisions for almost a century now. The vast majority of televisions have been built around the CRT technology, where as the cathode ray tube (CRT) has a gun that fires a beam of electrons inside a large glass tube. The electrons excite phosphor atoms along the wide end of the tube, the screen, which causes the phosphor atoms to light up.

The television image is produced by lighting up different areas of the phosphor coating with different colors at different intensities. Plasma televisions are relatively new, and are trying to slowly eliminate the entire CRT design.

Answer: True

Newer systems have controllers with one or more analog joysticks. These joysticks work in a completely different way than standard buttons. Two potentiometers, variable resistors, are positioned at right angles to each other below the joystick. Current flows constantly through each one, but the amount of current is determined by the amount of resistance. Resistance is increased or decreased based on the position of the joystick. By monitoring the output of each potentiometer, the system can determine the exact angle at which the joystick is being held, and trigger the appropriate response.

In games that support them, analog features such as these allow for amazing control over gameplay.

Answer: True

The inside of a hard-disk drive consists of two parts, speaking very generally. There are the platters, which typically spin at 5,400 or 7,200 rpm (revolutions per minute) when the drive is operating. These platters are manufactured to amazing tolerances and are mirror-smooth.

The other main component is the arm, which holds the read/write heads, and is able to move the heads from the hub to the edge of the drive. The arm and its movement mechanism are extremely light and fast. The arm on a typical hard-disk drive can move from hub to edge and back up to 50 times per second.

Answer: False

A Sony MiniDisc can hold about 100 times more data than a floppy disk's 1.44 MB, which is only about 140 megabytes of data, or 160 megabytes in audio mode. A CD can hold either 650 or 700 megabytes of data, which is clearly more than a MiniDisc.

Answer: False

A pixel is a combination of RGB: Red, Green, and Blue. They are the three colours of light which can be mixed to produce any other colour. Coloured images are often stored as a sequence of RGB triplets or as separate red, green and blue overlays, though this is not the only possible representation.

These colours correspond to the three "guns" in a colour cathode ray tube and to the colour receptors in the human eye. Well, that's it! [Quiz Note: Some information is acquired from HowStuffWorks.com and may be amended for better understanding by novice readers.] Thanks for playing! Hope you enjoyed it!