Hallmark Decades in Electronics
Answers to RF Cafe Quiz #8
All RF Cafe quizzes would make perfect fodder for employment interviews for technicians or engineers - particularly those who are fresh out of school or are relatively new to the work world. Come to think of it, they would make equally excellent study material for the same persons who are going to be interviewed for a job.
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Note: Many answers contain passages quoted in whole or in part from the text.
This particular quiz tests your knowledge of RF history.
1. In which decade was the transistor invented?
a) 1940s
On December 23, 1947, William Shockley, Walter Brattain and John Bardeen, of Bell Labs, announced their discovery of the point-contact germanium transistor to management.
2. In which decade was the telegraph invented?
b) 1840s
On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse send his famous message, "What hath God wrought?"
3. In which decade was the Internet first implemented?
b) 1960s
The first message ever sent over what is now called the Internet took place at 10:30PM on October 29, 1969. Back then, the Department of Defense called it ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency network).
4. In which decade was the first solid state integrated circuit demonstrated?
a) 1950s
On September 12, 1958, Jack Kilby demonstrated the first working IC while working for Texas Instruments, although the U.S. patent office awarded the first patent for an integrated circuit to Robert Noyce of Fairchild.
5. In which decade were the first successful diode and triode vacuum tubes invented?
c) 1900s
In 1904, John Ambrose Fleming invented the first practical electron tube called the 'Fleming Valve', which is a diode rectifier. In 1906, Lee de Forest invented the audion later called the triode, which provided signal amplification.
6. In which decade was the telephone invented?
c) 1870s
Alexander Graham Bell's notebook entry of 10 March 1876 describes his successful experiment with the telephone. Speaking through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room, Bell utters these famous first words, "Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you."
7. In which decade was the AEEE (now the IEEE) founded?
a) 1880s
The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers) was formed in 1963 by the merger of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE, founded 1912) and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE, founded 1884).
8. In which decade with the first transatlantic radio broadcast occur?
c) 1900s
On December 12, 1901, a radio transmission received by Guglielmo Marconi resulted in the first transmission of a transatlantic wireless signal (Morse Code) from Poldhu, Cornwall, to St. John's, Newfoundland.
9. In which decade was the SPICE simulator introduced?
b) 1970s
SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) was introduced in May 1972 by the University of Berkeley, California.
10. In which decade was the ARRL founded?
a) 1910s
On April 6, 1914, Hiram Percy Maxim proposed the formation of the American Radio Relay League.