Question 1

What might happen to the material in a human body if those materials exceeded their elastic limits?

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Question 2

Why is a diamond stronger than a material such as a plastic shopping bag or talcum powder?

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Question 3

What does an amplifier do?

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Question 4

Which of the following statements best describes a characteristic of most composite materials?
A) Composite materials are stronger than their components.
B) Composite materials have a great amount of tensile strength.
C) Composite materials are made from layers of semiconductors.
D) The layers of composite materials are held together by static electricity.
E) Composite materials have a great deal of compressive strength.

Accepted Answer

Most composite materials are designed to combine the individual properties of the components to create a material that is stronger than any of its individual components alone.

Question 5

Why do so few materials have magnetic fields?

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Question 6

Compare the workings of a human brain with the workings of a computer.

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Question 7

Which of the following has the least information content?
A) a printed page with 500 words
B) one second of a telephone conversation
C) one color picture on a television screen
D) digital 3-D graphic file
E) one second of a DVD audio and video recording

Accepted Answer

One second of a telephone conversation contains the least amount of information since it typically contains only a few words or short phrases. The other options involve larger amounts of data such as multiple words, a picture, a graphic file, or audio and video recording.

Question 8

What components are combined to make the composite material safety glass? Describe the important property each material would add to the composite.

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Question 9

What is the advantage of using composite materials? Give at least one example.

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Question 10

What is the difference between a superconductor and a semiconductor?

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Question 11

How has Moore's Law been applied in recent years?

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Question 12

Magnets are usually found in all of the following except for
A) refrigerator.
B) telephones.
C) a doorbell.
D) water faucets.
E) audio system.

Accepted Answer

Magnets are not typically found in water faucets. They are commonly found in refrigerators (used to keep the door closed), telephones (in speakers and receivers), doorbells (in the chime mechanism), and audio systems (in speakers).

Question 13

Semiconducting diodes are used in solar photovoltaic cells because
A) electrons in semiconductors are loosely bound to atoms, and therefore can be easily transmitted as a current.
B) these diodes contain dendrites and therefore are able to transmit electricity quickly.
C) diodes are made of naturally occurring magnets
D) semiconducting diodes are good insulators.
E) diodes biodegrade easily.

Accepted Answer

Semiconducting diodes are used in solar photovoltaic cells because they are made of materials such as silicon, which has a unique electronic property in which electrons are loosely bound to the atoms, allowing them to move easily and be transmitted as a current. This property is important for converting sunlight into electrical energy in solar cells.

Question 14

What are the future applications of high temperature superconductors?

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Question 15

Describe how the "Chinese room" paradox negates the value of a Turing test. Why do you think that a philosopher rather than a mathematician designed the Chinese Room concept?

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Question 16

Why is the transistor important to the computer industry?

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Question 17

Which of the following can be communicated by using only a series of "yes-or-no" questions?
A) a digital photograph
B) a telephone number
C) an entire set of encyclopedia
D) how to color a rainbow
E) all of these

Accepted Answer

All of the options (A, B, C, D) can be communicated using a series of "yes-or-no" questions by breaking down the information into binary (yes/no) choices, which aligns with how digital data is represented and communicated.

Question 18

Why do you think computers were invented? What influenced the stages of computer evolution for the past five decades? What do you predict for the computer industry in the year 2050?

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Question 19

Describe how a photovoltaic cell works.

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Question 20

Name at least ten physical properties of materials. What do all these physical properties have in common?

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Quiz 11: Materials and Their Properties: How Have Computers Gotten so Much Faster