February 1939 Popular Science
[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.
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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
There 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,
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 Quiz #71:
Tech Headlines for Week of 3/13/2023
- RF Cafe Quiz #70:
Analog &
RF Filter Basics
- RF Cafe Quiz #69:
RF
Electronics Basics
- RF Cafe Quiz #68:
RF & Analog Company Mergers & Acquisitions in 2017
- RF Cafe Quiz #67:
RF & Microwave Company Name Change History
- RF Cafe Quiz #66:
Spectrum and Network Measurements
- RF Cafe Quiz #65:
Troubleshooting & Repairing Commercial Electrical Equipment
- RF Cafe Quiz #64:
Space-Time Adaptive Processing for Radar
- RF Cafe Quiz #63:
Envelope Tracking Power Amplifiers
- RF Cafe Quiz #62:
Stimson's Introduction to Airborne Radar
- RF Cafe Quiz #61:
Practical Microwave Circuits
- RF Cafe Quiz #60:
Ten Essential Skills for Electrical Engineers
- RF Cafe Quiz #59:
Microwave Circulator Design
- RF Cafe Quiz #58:
Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Electronic Packaging
- RF Cafe Quiz #57:
Frequency-Agile Antennas for Wireless Communications
- RF Cafe Quiz #56:
Tube Testers
and Electron Tube Equipment
- RF Cafe Quiz #55:
Conquer
Radio Frequency
- RF Cafe Quiz #54:
Microwave Mixer Technology and Applications
- RF Cafe Quiz #53:
Chipless RFID Reader Architecture
- RF Cafe Quiz #52:
RF and Microwave Power Amplifiers
- RF Cafe Quiz #51:
Antennas and Site Engineering for Mobile Radio Networks
- RF Cafe Quiz #50:
Microstrip Lines and Slotlines
- RF Cafe Quiz #49:
High-Frequency Integrated Circuits
- RF Cafe Quiz #48:
Introduction to Infrared and Electro-Optical Systems
- RF Cafe Quiz #47:
LCP for Microwave Packages and Modules
- RF Cafe Quiz #46:
RF, Microwave, and Millimeter-Wave Components
- RF Cafe Quiz #45:
Dielectric and Thermal Properties of Materials at Microwave Frequencies
- RF Cafe Quiz #44:
Monopulse Principles and Techniques
- RF Cafe Quiz #43:
Plasma Antennas
- RF Cafe Quiz #42: The Micro-Doppler
Effect in Radar
- RF Cafe Quiz #41: Introduction
to RF Design Using EM Simulators
- RF Cafe Quiz #40: Introduction
to Antenna Analysis Using EM Simulation
- RF Cafe Quiz #39: Emerging
Wireless Technologies and the Future Mobile Internet
- RF Cafe Quiz #38: Klystrons,
Traveling Wave Tubes, Magnetrons, Crossed-Field Amplifiers, and Gyrotrons
- RF Cafe Quiz #37: Component
Reliability for Electronic Systems
- RF Cafe Quiz #36: Advanced
RF MEMS
- RF Cafe Quiz #35: Frequency
Synthesizers: Concept to Product
- RF Cafe Quiz #34: Multi-Gigabit
Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Wireless Communications
- RF Cafe Quiz #33: Battlespace
Technologies: Network-Enabled Information Dominance
- RF Cafe Quiz #32: Modern Communications
Receiver Design and Technology
- RF Cafe Quiz #31: Quantum
Mechanics of Nanostructures
- RF Cafe Quiz #30: OFDMA System
Analysis and Design
- RF Cafe Quiz #29: Cognitive
Radar
- RF Cafe Quiz #28: Human-Centered
Information Fusion
- RF Cafe Quiz #27: Remarkable
Engineers
- RF Cafe Quiz #26: Substrate
Noise Coupling in Analog/RF Circuits
- RF Cafe Quiz #25: Component
Reliability for Electronic Systems
- RF Cafe Quiz #24: Ultra Low
Power Bioelectronics
- RF Cafe Quiz #23: Digital
Communications Basics
- RF Cafe Quiz #22: Remember
the Basics?
- RF Cafe Quiz #21: Wireless
Standards Knowledge
- RF Cafe Quiz #20: Famous First
Names
- RF Cafe Quiz #19: Basic Circuit
Theory
- RF Cafe Quiz #18: Archaic
Scientific Words & Definitions
- RF Cafe Quiz #17: Inventors &
Their Inventions
- RF Cafe Quiz #16: Antennas
- RF Cafe Quiz #15: Numerical
Constants
- RF Cafe Quiz #14: Oscillators
- RF Cafe Quiz #13: General
Knowledge
- RF Cafe Quiz #12: Electronics
Corporations Headquarters
- RF Cafe Quiz #11: Famous Inventors &
Scientists
- RF Cafe Quiz #10: A Sampling
of RF & Wireless Topics
- RF Cafe Quiz #9: A Smorgasbord
of RF Topics
- RF Cafe Quiz #8: Hallmark Decades
in Electronics
- RF Cafe Quiz #7: Radar Fundamentals
- RF Cafe Quiz #6: Wireless Communications
Fundamentals
- RF Cafe Quiz #5: Company Logo
Recognition
- RF Cafe Quiz #4: General RF
Topics
- RF Cafe Quiz #3: General RF/Microwave
Topics
- RF Cafe Quiz #2: General RF
Topics
- RF Cafe Quiz #1: General RF
Knowledge
- Vacuum Tube Quiz,
February 1961 Popular Electronics
- Kool-Keeping Kwiz, June
1970 Popular Electronics
- Find the Brightest
Bulb Quiz, April 1960 Popular Electronics
-
Where Do the Scientists Belong? - Feb 19, 1949 Saturday Evening Post
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-
What's
Your EQ? - February 1962 Radio-Electronics
-
What's
Your EQ? - March 1962 Radio-Electronics
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What's
Your EQ? - July 1961 Radio-Electronics
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What's
Your EQ? - August 1961 Radio-Electronics
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Can You
Name These Strange Electronic Effects? - August 1962 Radio-Electronics
-
What's
Your EQ? - September 1961 Radio-Electronics
-
What's
Your EQ? - September 1962 Radio-Electronics
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What's Your EQ? - October 1961 Radio-Electronics
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What's Your EQ? - November 1961 Radio-Electronics
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What's Your EQ? - March 1964 Radio-Electronics
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What's Your EQ? - April 1962 Radio-Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - May 1962 Radio-Electronics
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What's Your EQ? - June 1962 Radio-Electronics
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What's Your EQ? - April 1967 Radio-Electronics
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What's Your EQ? - March 1967 Radio-Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - December 1964 Radio-Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - January 1967 Radio-Electronics
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Wanted: 50,000 Engineers - January 1953 Popular Mechanics
-
What's Your EQ? - August 1964 Radio-Electronics
- Voltage Quiz
- December 1961 Popular Electronics
-
What is It? - June 1941 Popular Science
- What Do You Know
About Resistors? - April 1974 Popular Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - September 1963 Radio-Electronics
- Potentiometer Quiz - September
1962 Popular Electronics
-
Mathematical Bafflers - March 1965 Mechanix Illustrated
- Op Amp Quiz -
October 1968 Popular Electronics
- Electronic "A"
Quiz - April 1968 Popular Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - May 1961 Radio-Electronics
-
Popular Science Question Bee - February 1939 Popular Science
-
What is It? - A Question Bee in Photographs - June 1941 Popular Science
-
What's Your EQ? - June 1961 Radio-Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - June 1964 Radio-Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - May 1964 Radio-Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - August 1963 Radio-Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - May 1963 Radio-Electronics
- Bridge
Function Quiz - September 1969 Radio-Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - March 1963 Radio-Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - February 1967 Radio-Electronics
-
Circuit Quiz - June 1966 Radio-Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - June 1966 Radio-Electronics
- Electronics
Mathematics Quiz - June 1969 Popular Electronics
- Brightest
Light Quiz - April 1964 Popular Electronics
-
What's Your EQ? - April 1963 Radio-Electronics
- Electronics "B" Quiz
- July 1969 Popular Electronics
- Ohm's Law Quiz
- March 1969 Popular Electronics
-
Antenna Quiz - November 1962 Electronics World
- Color Code Quiz
- November 1967 Popular Electronics
- CapaciQuiz
- August 1961 Popular Electronics
- Transformer
Winding Quiz - December 1964 Popular Electronics
-
Audiophile Quiz - November 1957 Radio-electronics
- Capacitor
Function Quiz - March 1962 Popular Electronics
- Greek Alphabet
Quiz - December 1963 Popular Electronics
- Circuit
Designer's Name Quiz - July 1968 Popular Electronics
-
Sawtooth Sticklers Quiz - November 1960 Radio-Electronics
-
Elementary
Radio Quiz - December 1947 Radio-Craft
- Hi-Fi
Quiz - October 1955 Radio & Television News
- Electronics Physics
Quiz - March 1974 Popular Electronics
- A Baffling Quiz
- January 1968 Popular Electronics
- Electronics IQ
Quiz - May 1967 Popular Electronics
- Plug and Jack
Quiz - December 1967 Popular Electronics
- Electronic
Switching Quiz - October 1967 Popular Electronics
- Electronic
Angle Quiz - September 1967 Popular Electronics
- International
Electronics Quiz - July 1967 Popular Electronics
- FM Radio
Quiz - April 1950 Radio & Television News
- Bridge Circuit
Quiz -December 1966 Popular Electronics
- Diode Function
Quiz - August 1965 Popular Electronics
- Diagram Quiz,
August 1966 Popular Electronics
- Quist Quiz - November
1953 QST
- TV Trouble Quiz,
July 1966 Popular Electronics
- Electronics History Quiz,
December 1965 Popular Electronics
- Scope-Trace Quiz,
March 1965 Popular Electronics
-
Electronic
Circuit Analogy Quiz, April 1973
-
Test Your Knowledge of Semiconductors, August 1972 Popular Electronics
- Ganged Switching
Quiz, April 1972 Popular Electronics
- Lamp Brightness
Quiz, January 1969 Popular Electronics
- Lissajous
Pattern Quiz, September 1963 Popular Electronics
- Electronic
Quizoo, October 1962 Popular Electronics
- Electronic
Photo Album Quiz, March 1963 Popular Electronics
- Electronic
Alphabet Quiz, May 1963 Popular Electronics
- Quiz: Resistive?
Inductive? or Capacitive?, October 1960 Popular Electronics
- Vector-Circuit
Matching Quiz, June 1970 Popular Electronics
- Inductance
Quiz, September 1961 Popular Electronics
- RC Circuit Quiz,
June 1963 Popular Electronics
- Diode Quiz, July
1961 Popular Electronics
- Electronic
Curves Quiz, February 1963 Popular Electronics
- Electronic
Numbers Quiz, December 1962 Popular Electronics
- Energy Conversion
Quiz, April 1963 Popular Electronics
- Coil Function
Quiz, June 1962 Popular Electronics
-
Co-Inventors Quiz - January 1965 Electronics World
-
"-Tron" Teasers Quiz - October 1963 Electronics World
- Polarity Quiz
- March 1968 Popular Electronics
-
Television
I.Q. Quiz - October 1948 Radio & Television News
- Amplifier Quiz
Part I - February 1964 Popular Electronics
- Semiconductor
Quiz - February 1967 Popular Electronics
- Unknown
Frequency Quiz - September 1965 Popular Electronics
- Electronics
Metals Quiz - October 1964 Popular Electronics
- Electronics
Measurement Quiz - August 1967 Popular Electronics
- Meter-Reading
Quiz, June 1966 Popular Electronics
- Electronic
Geometry Quiz, January 1965 Popular Electronics
- Electronic
Factor Quiz, November 1966 Popular Electronics
- Electronics
Math Quiz, November 1965 Popular Electronics
- Series Circuit
Quiz, May 1966 Popular Electronics
- Electrochemistry
Quiz, March 1966 Popular Electronics
- Biz
Quiz: Test Your Sales Ability - April 1947 Radio News
- Electronic
Analogy Quiz, November 1961 Popular Electronics
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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
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