Quiz | Easy like Sunday morning: Daily physics!

1. On September 29, 1899, Hungarian newspaper editor László Bíró was born. He invented a device because of his frustration with the mess his pens made. It went on to become one of the most abundant plastic items on earth. Since newspaper printing ink dried quickly because it was more viscous, he and his brother devised a ball-and-socket joint to control the flow of that ink onto the paper through a cylinder. What did they invent?

2. In 1989, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, while working at CERN, proposed an information management system. He went on to develop a technology that was accessible by a few people at CERN after going live on December 20, 1990. What did he invent that an estimated 5.4 billion people use on a daily basis now?

3. One of mankind’s greatest discoveries was fire, but only recently was this modern heating technology invented, which relies on the fact that when certain materials are exposed to a rapidly alternating magnetic field, they absorb energy and heat up as it creates electric currents inside the material. This is the basis of which equipment that is common in houses now?

4. A traditional thermostat has two pieces of different metals bolted together to form what’s called a bimetallic strip, which forms a ‘bridge’ carrying electricity in a circuit. When the strip gets hot, one of the metals expands more than the other so the whole strip bends. This cuts the connection and stops the flow of electricity. In which equipment found in our houses is this used to stop dangerous steam from bursting the same?

5. This technology works on the principle of electrostatics. It uses electrically charged drums to attract powder particles (that can be either black, cyan, magenta or yellow), which then form a desired image that is transferred onto paper. What is this manipulation of electric charges used to create accurate representations known as, or which company’s name is most associated with it?

6. Atomic nuclei of elements such as hydrogen absorb and emit radio frequency energy when placed in an external magnetic field. The hydrogen in the body generates a detectable radio-frequency signal that is received by antennas, which keep rotating. The resultant signals are made into images using a 2D Fourier transform. This is the science behind which life-saving technology?

7. This famous tourist spot is a hypersaline lake, which is the deepest body of water on the planet. Since it is lower than everything around it, water only flows in and then gets lost by evaporation. This means all the salt and minerals it brought in are left behind. This makes the waterbody 10 times saltier than the ocean, allowing one to even float on it without assistance. What is this tourist spot?

8. This feature on a daily use device works on the principle of centrifugation, which is the force on a body moving in a circular path and away from the centre. By repeatedly subjecting the objects in the drum of the device to this force—about 1000 rpm—it achieves the objective of removing water molecules from the objects. What feature is this?

9. Most devices you would experience this technology on have a thin coating of Indium Tin Oxide, a transparent conductive material. This creates a uniform electrostatic field across the device and when there is any disruption in the field, it is measured in terms of change in capacitance. Your device then determines the location of the disruption to carry out the function. What is this technology we are used to now?

10. Photovoltaic energy is a clean, renewable source of energy that uses solar radiation to produce electricity in solar cells. It works because electrons are emitted when light hits certain materials. This process, known as the photoelectric effect, was responsible for the only Nobel prize received by which famous scientist?

A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’. @bertyashley