TechQuiz

This quiz includes questions on Technology, particularly product and process technologies of great relevance to India, and her stature as a nation with immense talent and potential for the use of technologies for holistic development.  Your responses, very brief and to the point, are eagerly awaited.  We are sure you would be as eager to know the answers to some of the questions posed here.

Quiz - 1     Answers

Quiz - 2     Answers

Quiz - 3     Answers

New Quiz - 4

Questions: Quiz - 4

1. In 1847, Ignaz Semmelweis invented what is even today considered the most basic and important of medical inventions. It continues to save the lives of millions throughout the world. What was the invention?

2. What popular invention resulted from George deMestral’s walk in a park in Switzerland?

3. UK-92480, a pharmaceutical compound was developed and patented by Andrew Bell, David Brown and Nicholas Terret in England. What is its popular name?

4. What was Dr. Samuel White’s brilliant invention that changed the practice of dentistry?

5. Arthur Wynne created one of the world’s most popular daily pastimes in 1913. What was it?

6. Queen Elizabeth I, who is known to have taken a bath “whether she needed it or not”, was delighted with her godson, Sir John Harington’s invention. What was it?

7. The 17th century English scientist, Robert Hooke, of whom Sir Isaac Newton was a towering contemporary, invented a device that enabled tracking and study of the sun through an optical instrument. What was it?

8. In 1679, Denis Papin, a French physicist, who assisted Robert Boyle, used the latter’s scientific discoveries and invented what is today one of the most commonly found kitchen equipment. His invention earned him a membership of the Royal Society of England. What was the invention?

9. “Drill”, “gin” and “combine” are three words that pertain to three technologies that mechanized agricultural practices and have had the highest impact. What did they enable?

10. Which Indian product is better known as “Toehold” in Europe?

Quiz - 3

1.   What is the process for separation of substances according to their volatility called?

Distillation.

2.   What technology is used to separate heterogenous and liquid mixtures based on the differences in mass of their constituents?

Centrifuge.

3.   Who said, “If there were any control over me and my work every idea would stop.” ?

S. G. Brown, the American-born holder of 235 patents in telegraphy, radio and gyro compass design.

4.   Which was the first commercially important man-made fibre?

Viscose rayon.

5.   Who invented the first cylinder pin-tumbler lock?

Linus Yale Jr.

6.   Which common modern packaging material was invented in 1957 by sheer chance while engineers were trying to perfect plastic wall paper?

The bubble wrap sheets.

7.   Match the following inventors with their original professions.

1 – C;  2 – A;  3 – D;  4 – B.

8.   Who said, “There are no unsuccessful experiments.  If we stop, it is we who are unsuccessful, not the experiments.” ?

Alexander Graham Bell.

9.   How was Madison Square Theater in New York air-conditioned in 1880?

It used 4 tons of ice blocks and blew air over them.

10. What was the ‘Black Maria’?

Thomas Alva Edison’s ‘Black Maria’ was his film research laboratory.  It was built on a revolving base to follow the sun’s path to capture maximum natural light.

Quiz - 2

1.   Who developed BASIC?

John Kemeny and Tom Kurtz in 1964.

2.   What media product did David Paul Gregg invent ?

Optical/Video disk.

3.   Which company uses this slogan:  “What Mankind Can Dream, Technology Can Achieve” ?

Fujitsu.

4.   Expand “Yahoo”.

Yet Another Heirarchical Officious Oracle.

5.   What is the significance of “QWERTYUIOP” ?

The first e-mail message.  Ray Tomlinson was the inventor of Internet based e-mail in the early 1970’s.

6.   What is the significance of the message “Welcome to the Dungeon © 1986 Basit * Amjad (pvt) Ltd.” ?

The Pakistani brothers Basit and Amjad Alvis, created the first ever computer virus called “Brain”. The quoted text was the message that accompanied the virus and flashed across thousands of computers throughout the world.

7.   Which company uses the corporate slogan “The Power To Manage. Anything. Anywhere.” ?

IBM.

8.   Expand the acronym:  CHAT (used commonly over the Internet).

Conversational Hypertext Across Technology.

9.   What is the historic contribution of Linus Torvalds ?

He was the developer of the kernel for “open source” Linux GNU.

10. Identify this Indian in IT:

He is the father of fiber optics, the man that Fortune magazine named as one of the seven ‘Unsung Heroes’ in its ‘Businessmen of the Century’ issue. Born in India, educated in England and working in the US for the past many decades, he invented fiber optics – “the wonder material” – in 1954. That’s the technology that is now used for endoscopy devices to high-capacity telephone lines and has changed the medical, communication and business worlds. Who?

Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany.

Quiz - 1

1.  What is “Flosolver”?

‘Flosolver’ is a parallel processing computer

2.  In which hi-tech area(s) has India effected reverse transfer of technology to Europe and USA?

Catalysts

3.  Which is India’s largest public-private partnership initiative since Independence?

New Millenium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI).

4.  What is known as the “second battle of Haldighat”?

The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) challenging the grant of a patent in the United States for use of haldi for wound healing.

5.  Which library, the first-ever in the world, is accessible in eight international languages?

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library.

6.  What is the name of the drug developed by CSIR for curing anti-cerebral Malaria?

E-MAL.

7.  What is achieved when “Saheli” is used once a week?

‘Saheli’ is a non-steroidal family planning pill.

8.  What special technology is used for crime detection, paternity disputes and wildlife preservation?

DNA fingerprinting.

9.  What is India’s special status with reference to the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty?

India is the first Pioneer Investor under the UN Law of Sea Treaty.

10. What is special about a technology called “Swaraj”?

‘Swaraj’ is an indigenously developed tractor.

"Hope you enjoyed TechQuiz, and felt the pride for ‘home-grown’ technology welling up inside you.  Would you like to contribute questions and answers for future runs of TechQuiz?"