Instrumental Outcomes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Discovery of Neptune

Shortly after the telescope was invented, Galileo built his own and turned it to the sky. The telescope he used for the "Sidereus Nuncius" treatise allowed about an eightfold magnification but would not be enough to see Neptune as anything more than a distant star. However, he was able to see that the moon had mountains and craters in contradiction to the Church-held Aristotelian model believing the moon was perfectly smooth. Galileo was also the first to discover four objects orbiting around Jupiter though he believed at the time they were stars. In the treatise, he also shared his discovery that there were countless stars beyond what the naked eye could see.

A few other observations that Galileo recorded in this work included observing the phases of Venus and the strange phenomenon of sunspots. The phases of Venus could be predicted by a Copernican heliocentric model but not the Aristotelian geocentric model. The sunspots suggested that either the sun was not perfectly smooth or there were celestial objects closely orbiting the sun. All in all, the outcome of these discoveries were the first hints at just how chaotic and massive the universe really is.

Answer: Properties of cathode tube radiation

In the 1860s it was discovered light would emit from a partial vacuum tube when a voltage was applied to an electron stream within the tube. More modern scientists have come to realize the light is the result of the electrons hitting atoms within the tube. As the 1890s technology for creating a greater vacuum increased, it was noticed the light did not start appearing at the emission end but rather closer to the other end or even the glass itself.

Roentgen, not fully understanding why the light appeared where it did, was trying to see if he could have the light show up outside the tube. He designed an experiment where he completely covered the tube with opaque cardboard in the hope he could detect light beyond the cardboard. What Wilhelm did not expect is for a nearby fluorescent screen (for other experiments!) to light up despite the visible light from the cathode not being able to reach it. Intrigued, he discovered some solids blocked the fluorescent screen and was amazed when the newly discovered rays would go through his flesh but not his bones! Within a year of his discovery, doctors were already using this new tool to see inside the human body.

Answer: RADAR

Christian Hulsmeyer's invention used the principle that radio waves bounce off metallic objects to create a tool to detect when a ship, or another metal object, was in front of the device. The "Telemobiloscope" is the first use of radio waves as a detection device and led to the tool called RADAR (radio detection and ranging). Hulsmeyer's device lacked the ability to detect how far or how fast an object was moving. Over the next 40 years, advances in technology resulted in RADAR that could be used to detect the location and the direction of moving metal objects.

This more advanced system used microwaves and a cavity magnetron to create amplified oscillating currents. Short pulses of intense microwaves are produced and reflected back to an antenna that is tuned in to the same frequency allowing a visual map to be created.

Answer: Electrons have a much shorter wavelength than light photons.

Electrons can be focused in a beam and behave in a similar way to photons in being both a particle and a wave. The wavelength of an electron is about the width of an atom or 10 to the -10 meters. The wavelength of visible light is about 5000 times longer making it much less precise. So the smallest object an optical microscope would be able to see would be something the size of an influenza virus which is about 5000 times larger than an atom.

The electron microscope uses an accelerated beam of electrons that passes through an electromagnetic lens towards an anode.

The scatter results of the electrons after hitting the sample are captured on a fluorescent screen which is then converted to a visual screen where color can be added to show distinct differences creating a visual picture of the smaller than visible object. So cool!

Answer: Pickups

The electric guitar came into prominence in the 1930s. As the big bands got bigger, the guitar would get lost in the sound. Engineers designed a guitar that would have a transducer, called a pickup, to convert the mechanical vibration of the strings into electrical signals.

These signals were too weak on their own so they would be fed into an amplifier which would then send the stronger signal to a speaker. Acoustic guitars rely on the hollow box to amplify sound, however this hollow body can lead to reverberation for an electric pickup resulting in most electric guitars having a solid body.

Answer: Amplification and switching on and off of electrical signals

Transistors are considered one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century as they allow an electrical current to be amplified or switched on or off. A transistor is what allows lights to be turned on and off or brightened and dimmed. We can use a water faucet to consider how a transistor works.

The base pin of a transistor is like the handle of a faucet which can allow water to flow or stop. The collector pin of a transistor is the pipe the water emerges from. The emitter pin is the size of the opening from which the water flows.

The larger the opening the more water can flow out. The transmitter's early use in radio allowed a very weak signal to be amplified by the transistor and then converted into sound. When transistors are used with digital music like MP3 files, they convert them into 0s and 1s.

Answer: Emergency solar panels in case of power failure

The Apollo missions did not have solar technology so a power failure would have been a problem. However, the Apollo Guidance Computer only used 55 watts of electricity. Contrary to popular myth, the computer was much more powerful than a calculator. The Luminary software the onboard computer used could run seven programs at the same time.

The inertial measurement unit (IMU) used three gyroscopes to measure location in space which was critical to determine which thrusters to activate to guide the craft.

The engineers designed the system so the computer could do the entire mission, however, the astronauts could manually override the system. All the pilots who landed on the moon opted to land manually. The Eagle used one radar system to locate the ground of the moon and a second radar to rendezvous with the command module.

The Luminary system was able to use telemetry to keep in contact with NASA command in Houston where all of the onboard systems were able to be monitored.

Answer: It measures energy released by protons and the time to realign with a magnetic field.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a game changer when it comes to viewing the inside of the body. The machine creates a magnetic field causing the protons in the body to align with the field. Then a radiofrequency pulse causes the protons to go out of alignment by 90 degrees. Once the pulse ends, a sensor can detect the amount of energy released by protons and the time it takes to realign with the magnetic field. Since varying chemicals and types of tissue have different results, it is possible to use a computer to create a picture of what is happening inside the body. MRIs do not use X-rays or radiation dyes.

Answer: WebCrawler

Tim Berners-Lee was frustrated by how difficult it was to research a university's archives using the internet at the time. He developed both a language (HTML) and a protocol (HTTP) to allow users to communicate with a server. The basis of the language is that it quickly searches the database for a keyword.

The first web page Berners-Lee created was a very basic introduction page to the World Wide Web. WebCrawler was one of the first successful search engines and was created by Brian Pinkerton. WebCrawler allowed the search for more than one word at a time.

The ability to transfer data at higher speeds has increased dramatically from the early days of downloading.

Answer: What the eyes see doesn't match what the body feels.

Virtual reality has to overcome several challenges to provide a realistic experience. It is difficult to trick the body. While the eyes may see another place, if the vestibular part of the ears does not feel a physical change in space to go along with the image, it can confuse the brain and lead to dizziness and nausea.

Another challenge is that VR provides a wider range of view than the 220 degrees the human eye can normally see, requiring massive amounts of data. Further pushing the boundaries of the technology, VR requires very fast frame rates and pinpoint sounds, putting extreme demands on the computers.

However this is a huge industry, so no doubt VR will only continue to get faster and better with time just like the computer has done.