Energy Conversion Quiz
April 1963 Popular Electronics

April 1963 Popular Electronics

April 1963 Popular Electronics Cover - RF Cafe  Table of Contents

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Popular Electronics, published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

Cone Heater Medium Base Light Socket - RF CafeItem "B" cone heater. Note that a live voltage is present on the heater coil!

This quiz from Popular Electronics magazine challenges (not too much, though) your knowledge of energy conversion in common devices. A few of them might be unfamiliar to people born after about 1990, but even so, you've probably seem them all at some point, especially if you are a regular RF Cafe visitor (meaning you're probably smart). It won't be giving anything away by telling you that item B is a heater that screws into a light bulb socket, and item F is a phonograph stylus. Robert P. Balin constructed many quizzes of this kind in the 1960s and 70s. A complete list of all the Popular Electronics Quizzes is lower on this page.

Energy Conversion Quiz

By Robert P. Balin

 

Motor - RF Cafe Heater - RF Cafe Incandescent bulb - RF Cafe
Vacuum tube - RF Cafe

Energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but only changed from one form to another. Some electrical and electronic devices do their jobs by changing energy from one form (heat, light, chemical, magnetic, etc.) to another useful form. See if you can match the devices (A-J) shown here with the input and out-put forms of energy (1-10) listed below.

Tpe recorder head coil - RF Cafe
Meter movement - RF Cafe Microphone - RF Cafe
Battery - RF Cafe Speaker - RF Cafe Phonograph cartridge - RF Cafe

 

1  Chemical to Electrical ___

2  Electrical to Light ___

3  Heat to Electrical ___

4  Electrical to Acoustical ___

5  Light to Electrical ___

6  Electrical to Mechanical ___

7  Acoustical to Electrical ___

8  Electrical to Heat ___

9  Mechanical to Electrical ___

10  Magnetic to Electrical ___

 

See answers below.


Quizzes from vintage electronics magazines such as Popular Electronics, Electronics-World, QST, and Radio News were published over the years - some really simple and others not so simple. Robert P. Balin created most of the quizzes for Popular Electronics. This is a listing of all I have posted thus far.

RF Cafe Quizzes

Vintage Electronics Magazine Quizzes

Vintage Electronics Magazine Quizzes

 

 

Energy Conversion Quiz Answers

1  H Battery

2  C Lamp

3  I Thermocouple

4  G Loudspeaker

5  J Phototube

6  A Motor

7  E Microphone

8  B Heating element

9  F Phonograph cartridge

10  D Tape recorder head

 

 

Posted November 20, 2019
(updated from original post on 3/5/2014)