Popular Science Question Bee
February 1939 Popular Science

February 1939 Popular Science

February 1939 Popular Science Cover - RF Cafe[Table of Contents]

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Popular Science, published 1872-2021. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Here is a fun "Question Bee" to test your scientific knowledge. It appeared in a 1939 issue of Popular Science magazine, but it does not require you to be aware of contemporaneous information. Topics include electricity, music, astronomy, automobiles, paint, tools, conservation, physics, and even chewing gum. There are 20 questions. I scored 95%, having incorrectly guessed at question #11, having to do with cave dwellers. To be honest, I also guessed at question #2, but managed to get it right. Go ahead and give it your best shot. It's really a pretty good mix of questions.

Popular Science Question Bee

Popular Science Question Bee, February 1939 Popular Science - RF CafeThere is one true statement in each of the numbered paragraphs below. Can you separate it from the surrounding camouflage? Note your results and compare them with the list on page 250.

1. With a keyless instrument like the bugle, the various notes are played by sounding the (a) undertones (b) overtones (c) half tones (d) ketones.

2. Approaches to modern fortifications are defended with the aid of (a) Lyle guns (b) party walls (c) tank traps (d) placer mines.

3. Canis Major is (a) one of your front teeth (b) a felony formerly punishable by death (c) the Latin name for the great Dane (d) a constellation containing the star Sirius.

4. Wind a number of turns of insulated wire around a core of soft iron and you will have (a) a condenser (b) a lightning arrester (c) an electromagnet (d) a short circuit.

5. Automobile motors of recent years have employed increasingly high (a) gear ratios (b) aspect ratios (c) fineness ratios (d) compression ratios.

6. Seven hundred and forty-six watts is equivalent to one (a) foot pound (b) kilowatt (c) horsepower (d) dyne.

7. Trypanosomes (a) cause sleeping sickness (b) contain the genes of heredity (c) were the forerunners of present-day lizards.

8. Ironwork to be painted first receives a protective coat of (a) blue vitriol (b) red lead (c) yellow prussiate of potash (d) green salt of Magnus.

9. Airplane pilots are guided along cross-country routes by (a) beam compasses (b) radio beacons (c) pilot lights (d) magnetic chucks.

10. One of the most serious of insect pests is the (a) praying mantis (b) Luna moth (c) Japanese beetle (d) cork borer (e) jitterbug.

11. Cave dwellers who lived in the southwestern United States thousands of years ago are known as the (a) basket makers (b) pot boilers (c) fire walkers (d) lotus eaters (e) road runners.

12. Just as you pass in a speeding train, the ringing of a crossing bell (a) momentarily ceases (b) seems to be coming from all directions (c) becomes a hissing noise (d) drops in pitch.

13. Exterior rods that brace airplane wings are called (a) spanners (b) struts (c) pylons (d) flying buttresses.

14. What happens when Mercury or Venus crosses the face of the sun is not an eclipse but (a) a transit (b) an equinox (c) a culmination (d) a perigee.

15. You could make steel by the (a) Ben Day process (b) Haber process (c) Bessemer process (d) mastoid process.

16. Hunters of another generation are believed to have exterminated the (a) Canada goose (b) passenger pigeon (c) English sparrow (d) traveling crane (e) round robin.

17. Discovery of a new isotope would interest the (a) International Astronomical Union (b) National Zoological Park (c) American Chemical Society (d) U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.

18. An important raw material in the manufacture of chewing gum is (a) lignite (b) guayule (c) galena (d) chicle.

19. Light that vibrates in only one plane is said to be (a) diffracted (b) polarized (c) convected (d) ionized.

20. A first-class home workshop would be likely to possess (a) a plane table (b) a drop hammer (c) a drill press (d) a Fourdrinier machine (e) parallel bars.

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

Popular Science Question Bee Answers

In the list below, letters indicate the correct answers for the Question Bee on page 152. Check your own results against it. To find out what score you made, give yourself five points for each one that you got right. A total of 75 to 85 points is good; 90 or better is excellent.

1. b

2. c

3. d

4. c

5. d

6. c

7. a

8. b

9. b

10. c

11. a

12. d

13. b

14. a

15. c

16. b

17. c

18. d

19. b

20. c

 

 

Posted August 17, 2023