The End of the World as We Know It Quiz

Answer: Battery

Luigi Galvani was an Italian physician and physicist. His work on frogs' legs led him to coin the term 'animal electricity', which he believed was intrinsic to all animals.

Alessandro Volta disagreed with this principle and set out to prove that 'animal electricity' was actually a physical fact. The first battery Volta built was essentially an attempt to prove his theory and not Galvani's was correct. Volta coined the term 'galvanism' to describe a muscle contraction when an electric current was applied.
Although the battery as we know it today is very different to the first 'Voltaic Pile', the development of the modern battery is a significant technological advance which has allows us to enjoy a huge number of modern conveniences.

Answer: Transistor

Transistors changed the world. They are present in almost every electronic device, often as part of an integrated circuit, in microchips and microprocessors; as such they are particularly significant in the evolution of computers.
They are made out of a semiconductor material and can modulate, switch and amplify current. The term transistor comes from their ability to both transmit and act as a resistor.
They can be easily mass-produced and are much cheaper to use in digital circuits than the previous technology, vacuum tubes, which were also larger and used more energy.

Answer: Fiber Optic Cable

Fibre optic cable has changed the way we communicate. Light has an information-carrying capacity 10,000 times that of the highest radio frequencies. It is valuable as it has low attenuation (loss of signal) and is not subject to electromagnetic interference, in fact, fibre optic cable is capable of withstanding lightning strikes.
Fibre optic cable can transmit massive amounts of data quickly and efficiently and there is still huge potential for more.

Answer: Barcode

In 1948 Bernard Silver & Joseph Woodland were students at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia when they first started working on the project which led to the development of the barcode. Woodland claimed that he was inspired by the dots and dashes of Morse code while on the beach one day and drew lines in the sand of various widths making the first barcode.

It took many years for barcodes to be adopted, but they are useful in sales tracking, inventory tracking in addition to applications for tracking shipments among other applications.

Answer: VHS

Sony introduced Betamax to the world in 1975. This was followed a year later by JVC's VHS. The battle between the two lasted for about ten years.

The reason for VHS's victory continues to be a subject of some debate, with a wide range of reasons being suggested, such as licensing problems with Sony and even the lack of availability of adult content on Sony Betamax (this has never been conclusively proven).

Perhaps the most definitive difference which may have won the war is that initially, Betamax offered just 60 minutes of recording and playback whereas VHS offered longer recording times. Sony did offer longer playback in later offerings but it seems to have been too little, too late. Some devotees still argue that Betamax was the better system.

Answer: Atari 2600

Atari 2600 was originally called the Atari VCS (Video Computer System) to compete with the Channel F's original name, the Fairchild VES (Video Entertainment System).
Although the Channel F was the first cartridge based game, Atari is credited with making this type of console popular. Until cartridge based games arrived, game consoles were supplied with a finite number of built-in games. Cartridges offered one console with the potential for many games and changed the face of home gaming. Atari 2600 offered nine games to the market at the time of its launch.
It was also the first time an 'Easter Egg' appeared in a video game. It featured in 'Adventure', and if you put something in a certain place, you saw the name of the programmer.

Answer: Microprocessor

A microprocessor is like command central or the engine for your computer. The Intel 4004 is considered to be the first microprocessor and was released in 1971. The Intel 8088 microprocessor was used in the first IBM personal computer, which was released 10 years later in 1981 and is considered to be the first real home computer.

Answer: False

It stands for Global Positioning System. Using a network of satellites and a receiver, position can be pinpointed. This is done when the GPS receiver calculates the distance to 4 satellites, and uses this information to calculate its position.
Interestingly, time is a very important factor in correct calculation of a GPS receiver's position. In order to be accurate, it requires an atomic clock. As this isn't practical, every satellite does contain an atomic clock and the receiver essentially borrows this information, making it feasible for people to have a GPS receiver in their pocket!
GPS has fundamentally changed the way people navigate, making printed maps a thing of the past for many people.

Answer: Walkman

The Walkman changed the way people listened to music. It allowed them to bring their music with them. Originally a cassette player, the Walkman brand remains today in the form of the Walkman MP3 player.

Answer: SMS

SMS (Short Message Service) or text messaging was first introduced commercially in the 1990s. It was slow to take off, however its use has exploded with over 3 billion people using SMS in 2008.
It is the most used data application in the world being used by more people than use the internet and it has twice the number of users than there are TV set owners. More people use SMS than have bank accounts!
SMS has changed the way we communicate with each other - the majority of text messages are person-to-person (although more businesses are starting to utilise it as a means to communicate with consumers) - and has even spawned its own 'language'.