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Answers to RF Cafe Quiz #18

RF Engineering Quizzes - RF Cafe WebsiteAll RF Cafe Quizzes make great 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. Bonne chance, Viel Glück, がんばろう, buena suerte, удачи, in bocca al lupo, 행운을 빕니다, ádh mór, בהצלחה, lykke til, 祝你好運. Well, you know what I mean: Good luck!

Click here for the complete list of RF Cafe Quizzes.

Note: Some material based on books have quoted passages.

Return to RF Cafe Quiz #18

 

Gutta percha (Wikipedia) - RF Cafe Website1. Gutta percha

c) Cable insulation

Gutta percha is a natural form of rubber that was the first successful insulation for undersea communications cables in the 19th century.

 

 

 

Condenser capacitor (Wikipedia) - RF Cafe Website2. Condenser

a) Capacitor

Condensers were so-called due to their ability to collect and "condense charges into a given volume.

 

 

 

Luminiferous aether (Wikipedia) - RF Cafe Website3. Luminiferous aether

b) Medium that supports the transmission of light particles

As early as the days of Newton, it was believed that a special medium existed that accommodated the movement of light particles (prior to their wave nature being discovered). That medium was dubbed luminiferous aether.

 

 

Thermionic valve (Wikipedia) - RF Cafe Website4. Thermionic valve

a) Vacuum tube diode

Thermionic comes from the boiling off of electrons from the cathode, and valve, of course, derives from the devices' ability to switch current on or off.

 

 

Dephlogisticated air (Wikipedia) - RF Cafe Website5. Dephlogisticated air

d) Molecular oxygen

To deflogisticate means to render burnable. Oxygen supports combustion, hence the name.

 

 

 

Corpuscle (Wikipedia) - RF Cafe Website6. Corpuscle

d) Light particle

So-named by Isaac Newton.

 

 

 

 

Audion tube (Wikipedia) - RF Cafe Website7. Audion

c) Vacuum tube triode

Lee De Forest called his newly discovered amplifying device an Audion (not sure why).

 

 

 

Caloric theory (Wikipedia) - RF Cafe Website8. Caloric

d) Fluid responsible for heat flow

It used to be thought that caloric was a fluid that transferred head from bodies of higher temperatures to bodies of lower temperatures. Canon boring experiments debunked the belief.

 

 

Leyden jar (Wikipedia) - RF Cafe Website9. Leyden jar

b) Energy storage device (capacitor)

Benjamin Franklin used a Leyden jar as part of his kite flying experiment to prove that lightning was a form of electricity (no he didn't "discover" electricity).

 

 

 

Voltaic pile 9Wikipedia) - RF Cafe Website10. Voltaic pile

a) Battery

All four answers are proper definitions of a pile, but the one that fits the spirit of this quiz is, of course, a battery. Alessandro Volta, inventor of the first practical wet-cell battery, so-named it because it looked like a pile - a 5th definition for the word "pile" that means a long rod-like beam used to support structures.

Quizzes from vintage electronics magazines such as Popular Electronics, Electronics-World, QST, Radio-Electronics, 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
Espresso Engineering Workbook

About the RF Cafe™ Website ©1996-2026

Kirt Blattenberger - RF Cafe WebmasterRF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...

Webmaster: Kirt Blattenberger  |     BSEE - KB3UON - AMA92498  |  USAF Radar Technician

All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.

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