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

Question 1

One important characteristic of some semiconducting diodes is that they

A) are a perfect insulator.
B) conduct electricity better than a conductor.
C) are highly magnetized.
D) occur only at very low temperatures.
E) allow electricity to flow in only one direction.

Answer 1

E

Question 2

What does the CPU do?

A) stores magnetically oriented particles on a disk.
B) processes the photographic image of a 35-mm camera
C) provides robots for NASA's artificial intelligence department
D) creates virtual memory from brain scans
E) monitors satellite downloads

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which material would have the strongest compressive strength?

A) egg shell
B) ream of copier paper
C) pile of dry sand
D) rope
E) shopping bag

Answer 3

B

Question 4

In order for a computer to become more like a human brain, it would need

A) to have more interconnections.
B) to perform operations only in sequential steps.
C) to operate without using electrical signals.
D) to have a smaller central processing unit (CPU).
E) to have a more reliable source of energy.

Question 5

Transistors have contributed a lot to the information age through their use as

A) integrated circuits.
B) microchips.
C) switches.
D) catalysts.
E) semiconductors.

Question 6

Which of the following does not determine the physical properties of materials?

A) constituent atoms
B) type of chemical bond
C) pH
D) arrangement of atoms
E) constituent molecules

Question 7

Which kind of strength describes a material's ability to withstand twisting?

A) compressive
B) shear
C) brute
D) tensile
E) flexible

Question 8

Moore's Law

A) was first applied during the industrial age.
B) states that electrons flow from negative to positive poles.
C) applies to the ever-increasing information capacity of computers.
D) applies to the service charges on cell phones.
E) explains the ferromagnetic characteristics of iron.

Question 9

If you start a current flowing in a superconducting wire that is kept cold, and then remove the power source, the

A) current would stop flowing immediately.
B) current would continue to flow.
C) current would flow through the superconducting wire for about twice as long as it would have through copper wire.
D) electrons would move through the wire, losing a great deal of energy.
E) superconducting wire would not be able to generate a magnetic field.

Question 10

The information in a computer is stored and manipulated by

A) transistors.
B) bytes.
C) service providers.
D) doping.
E) DVDs.

Question 11

A superconductor can be described as having electrons that

A) are bound to individual atoms.
B) are free to move randomly around the material, colliding with atoms from time to time.
C) combine with matter in a way that changes the material.
D) can move freely without losing energy.
E) bind together so tightly they do not move.

Question 12

What is the Turing test?

A) a paradox
B) a magnetic potential test
C) a test for artificial intelligence
D) a calculation of information content
E) a test for electrical conductivity

Question 13

How is a microchip an improvement over a transistor?

A) A microchip is much faster than a transistor.
B) A microchip can be made from less expensive materials than the silicon diodes in transistors.
C) Transistor manufacturing introduces foreign elements such as aluminum and phosphorus into the crystal lattice.
D) Transistors require a tremendous amount of heat energy in the manufacturing process.
E) A microchip incorporates thousands of transistors in one integrated circuit designed for a specific function.

Question 14

A nerve cell is to a brain as what is to a computer?

A) cable
B) transistor
C) monitor
D) central processing unit
E) modem

Question 15

Which of the following is a good conductor?

A) rubber
B) wood
C) plastic
D) ocean water
E) glass

Question 16

Doping is a process that adds

A) phosphorus ions to the crystalline structure of silicon.
B) aluminum ions to the crystalline structure of silicon.
C) any minor impurity to an element or compound.
D) a positive or negative charge to the lattice of a crystal.
E) all of these

Question 17

Which phrase describes electrical resistance?

A) material through which electrons flow freely
B) arrangement of a material's electrons
C) potential of a battery with flowing current
D) inverse of electrical conduction
E) channels for the flow of electrons

Question 18

Integrated circuits contributed most directly to

A) photovoltaic cells.
B) invention of superconductors.
C) the miniaturization of computers.
D) the formation of strong composite materials.
E) the insulating properties of modern ceramics.

Question 19

Which of the following exists at very low temperatures?

A) semiconductor
B) superconductor
C) insulator
D) conductor
E) composite materials

Question 20

A silicon semiconductor will transmit electrical current

A) by electrons and holes.
B) only by electrons.
C) only by holes between electrons.
D) only if the silicon is doped with phosphorous
E) when the material is frozen.

Question 21

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

Question 22

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

Question 23

What does an amplifier do?

Question 24

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.

Question 25

Why do so few materials have magnetic fields?

Question 26

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

Question 27

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

Question 28

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

Question 29

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

Question 30

What is the difference between a superconductor and a semiconductor?

Question 31

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

Question 32

Magnets are usually found in all of the following except for

A) refrigerator.
B) telephones.
C) a doorbell.
D) water faucets.
E) audio system.

Question 33

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.

Question 34

What are the future applications of high temperature superconductors?

Question 35

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?

Question 36

Why is the transistor important to the computer industry?

Question 37

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

Question 38

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?

Question 39

Describe how a photovoltaic cell works.

Question 40

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

Question 41

What is electrical resistance?

Question 42

If you were to design a new material for a fire hose to be used by modern firefighters, what three properties do you think would be most important to include?

Question 43

In what way is the human body both a conductor and an insulator?

Question 44

How are natural magnets (such as lodestone) formed in nature?

Question 45

How is p-type semiconductor material made?

Question 46

From what source does the total magnetic field of an atom arise?

Question 47

Explain how a computer's memory and the brain's memory are similar to and different from each other.

Question 48

If a six letter word requires 48 bits of information, how many bits are required for 1000 such words?

Question 49

How has the process of doping been critical to the information revolution?

Question 50

How can a superconducting material allow electrons to pass through without losing energy?