Review Quizzes Flashcards
1
Q
One of Postman’s five ideas about technological change is that it always has an ecological price because it always affects the environment.
A
False
2
Q
In the history of computing, calculators, tabulators, and programmable machines may be ranked in this order from the point of view of increasing automation?
A
True
3
Q
Before the modern era, lengthy and intricate calculations were often required to solve problems in the field of
A
astronomy
4
Q
By the end of the 19th century, cash registers were just one variety of mechanical calculating machines found in businesses and offices in Western countries?
A
True
5
Q
To process its results, the 1890 U.S. census relied on the use of
A
mechanical tabulators built by Hollerith
6
Q
Charles Babbage is credited with designing (if not building) the first universal computing machine?
A
True
7
Q
Babbage’s first difference engine was intended to
A
mechanize the production and printing of numerical tables
8
Q
Ada Byron (or Lovelace) wrote the first published complex computer algorithm for Babbage’s Analytical Engine.
A
True
9
Q
The Differential Analyzer created by Vannevar Bush and his collaborators was used, among other things…
A
to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S. military during World War II
10
Q
Since 1945, computing power has (to a good approximation) risen…
A
exponentially
11
Q
The first electronic computer used
A
Vacuum tubes, punched cards, electric circuitry
12
Q
Among the first commercial electronic computers were…
A
the UNIVAC and the Ferranti Mark I
13
Q
Canada’s first electronic computer was built where?
A
at the University of Toronto
14
Q
Many of the first buyers of commercial electronic computers were government agencies and military organizations?
A
True
15
Q
The second generation of electronic computers used…
A
solid-state transistors
16
Q
The U.S. Air Force built the first version of the internet as a communications network designed to keep working even after a nuclear missile strike?
A
False
17
Q
All of the electronic and computing components of the ARPANET were designed and built by ARPA?
A
False
18
Q
Down to the creation of the modern internet in the mid-1970s, ARPANET was the world’s only computer network.
A
False
19
Q
In the course of the 19th century, chemistry made it possible to produce clothing that was whiter and also clothes that were more colourful?
A
True
20
Q
Alfred Nobel was able to fund the Nobel Prizes with the proceeds from his invention of…
A
dynamite
21
Q
Over the course of a few decades, the energy required to synthesize ammonia declined more than the energy required for several important chemical processes in industry?
A
True
22
Q
Generally speaking, since the 1960s, the second greatest source of nitrogen in German agriculture has been animal manure.
A
True
23
Q
Worldwide, biofixation by bacteria remains the second largest source of nitrogen for crops.
A
True
24
Q
The second battle of Ypres is remembered for the use of phosgene by the German forces to try and reduce the salient controlled by the Allies?
A
False
25
During World War I, mustard gas was only introduced in 1917 as a last resort since it could not penetrate clothing?
False
26
Poison gases were responsible for the majority of combat deaths during World War I?
False
27
After World War I, the DuPont de Nemours chemical company was accusing of wartime profiteering as a result of...
of its munitions manufacturing
28
By the end of World War I, U.S. painter John Singer Sargent produced a famous painting showing...
U.S. soldiers, blinded by mustard gas, leading each other towards safety
29
During World War I, Russia was the country that lost the greatest number of troops to deaths, injuries, disappearances, and capture?
True
30
During World War I, the troops on both sides used for transportation, at one point or another, bicycles, motorcycles, armoured vehicles, and horses?
True
31
The wreck of the zeppelin Hindenburg was a blow to the prestige of...
Nazi Germany
32
The two airships developed by the U.S. Navy as flying aircraft carriers were wrecked at sea in storms during the 1930s?
True
33
During World War II, Jews sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination complex were burned alive in the "Crematoria" where they were told they would be taking showers?
False
34
The use of poison gas against Allied forces at Ypres in 1915 was organized and supervised by German chemist Karl Bosch?
False
35
Fertilizers fight pests that prey on crops and weeds that compete with them?
False
36
The uninterrupted increase in the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers in the U.S. since World War I has driven a similar uninterrupted increase in wheat yields?
False
37
Global warming is the main reason for the increase in U.S. corn yields since the 1930s?
False
38
By 2018, soybeans were the most extensively cultivated transgenic crop?
True
39
The U.S. share of worldwide transgenic crops under cultivation has been steadily declining?
True
40
By 2018, most of the world's transgenic crops included added defenses against viruses?
False
41
Africa, Australia, and South America are the continents with the lowest apparent use of nitrogen-based synthetic fertilizers (excluding Antarctica)?
True
42
Algal blooms and red tides may be caused by water pollution in the form...
of excessive amounts of nitrogen or phosphorus
43
The typhus microbe can be killed by DDT?
False
44
The 1943-1944 typhus epidemic in Naples was fought and defeated by DDT alone since the stocks of another insecticide, MYTL, were assigned for army use only?
False
45
After World War II, malaria was nearly eliminated in parts of Africa by spraying DDT indoors (where it remained active against adult mosquitoes in trace amounts) and by spraying it outdoors to kill mosquito larvae?
True
46
By the mid-1960s, public concern over the state of the environment grew in North America as a result of,
Smog in LA and elsewhere, radioactive fallout from above-ground nuclear bomb tests, and Rachel Catson's warnings about synthetic pesticides
47
In 1972, DDT was banned in Africa because it caused cancer in farmers and thinned the eggshells of vultures?
False
48
In the United States, broiler chicken were genetically improved with turkey genes in order to grow and gain weight more rapidly.
False
49
Much of the environmental damage that was once visible in and around Sudbury (Ontario) resulted from the mining of...The oral contraceptive pill (the Pill) was approved in 1960 based on a 1959 investigation that cited only one (1) study of its effects on women?
False
50
In Japan, the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident was caused by...
A Tsunami
51
In 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident caused 100,000 deaths in Pennsylvania?
False
52
By the end of the 1960s, it was determined the older women were at a higher risk (though still small in absolute terms) of serious health consequences when taking the oral contraceptive pill?
True
53
In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear accident caused...
at least 56 immediate deaths, a few thousand deaths over the long run from exposure to radioactive fallout, an explosion that blew open the nuclear power plant
54
By 1960, hundreds of millions of women worldwide had used the oral contraceptive pill.
False
55
In the 1960s, the Thalidomide scandal resulted from the numerous miscarriages and births of babies with deformities as a result of women taking an abortive pill contaminated with methylmercury?
False
56
Accidents can be considered externalities when they affect everybody, even the people who did not benefit originally from the technology that failed?
True
57
The European Union's "Seveso Directives" aim to...
aim to avoid major hazards involving chemical substances or limit their consequences
58
In 1895, the train accident in the Gare Montparnasse of Paris was a result of...
Human error and brake failure
59
The share of U.S. doctorates earned by women was lower in the 1960s than in the 1920s?
True
60
The oral contraceptive pill (the Pill) was approved for use in the United States in 1960 by
the Food and Drug Administration
61
In the 1970s, the Asilomar Conference attempted to set limits on the emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that depleted the ozone layer?
False
62
When Thomas Newcomen was born in 1663, most natural philosophers (scientists) believed that all matter was composed of earth, water, air, and fire?
True
63
Worldwide, the use of coal increased more rapidly in the 19th century than in the 20th century?
True
64
The composition of carbon dioxide (carbon + oxygen) was first discovered by...
Antoine Guyton de Morveau and Antoine Lavoisier
65
Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius first discovered that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere helps trap the Sun's heat?
No
66
In the 1950s, that the oceans absorb less carbon dioxide than expected was proven by?
Hans Suess and Roger Revelle
67
With respect to atmospheric carbon dioxide, the overlap of measurements taken from Antarctic ice cores and from atmospheric samples near the peak of Mauna Loa is nearly perfect?
True
68
With reference to the period from 1951 to 1980, global air temperatures have increased by about one degree Celsius?
True
69
The IPCC was founded in 1988 to carry out new research on global climate change in order to understand its causes?
False
70
The three (3) most important greenhouse gases are...
carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone
71
Global warming is expected to spread tropical diseases to areas closer to the poles.
True
72
The eruptions of the Krakatoa and Pinatubo volcanoes briefly cooled the global climate?
The eruptions of the Krakatoa and Pinatubo volcanoes briefly cooled the global climate
73
Most carbon emissions originate in the Southern hemisphere as a result of the burning of tropical forests in the Amazon, Africa, and Indonesia?
False
74
Down to 2014, Canada's per capita carbon dioxide emissions (from energy and cement manufacture) were below the global average?
False
75
The trend of Canada's emission since 1990 is compatible with reaching Canada's official targets for 2030?
False
76
Since 1990, Québec has been the province with the lowest CO2-equivalent emissions per capita?
True
77
According to data from 2003-2005, wind, solar, and nuclear energy are very nearly equivalent in terms of CO2-equivalent emissions per unit energy production over their entire life-cycle?
False
78
Reginald Fessenden discovered that he could increase the range of radio voice messages by using an antenna while grounding both the transmitter and the receiver?
False
79
Edwin H. Armstrong built the first high-current, high-frequency generator of continuous radio waves in order to develop amplitude modulation?
False
80
In 1906-1907, the first radio broadcasts transmitted...
speech and music
81
The first radio "fans" mostly used...
crystal radios
82
During World War I, planes communicated with ground forces using radios and Morse code?
True
83
By the 1920s, the growing North American radio audience was increasingly tuning in with
Vacuum tube radios
84
When the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was created by the government in 1927, it began by equipping trains with radios so that travellers would become familiar with the new technology?
False
85
In the 1940s, North American musicians went on strike to oppose the increasing popularity of recorded music broadcast by radio stations and help save their jobs?
True
86
By the 1850s and 1860s, telegraph-based technologies were capable of transmitting low-resolution pictures by wire?
True
87
Edison invented cinema as a technological system comprising high-speed film, projectors, and screens?
False
88
The cathode ray tube was the key technological element of the all-electronic television sets launched and manufactured in the 1940s?
True
89
Vladimir Zworykin was too attached to his independence to collaborate effectively with others: though he was a great television innovator, he remained an isolated one?
False
90
The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) exhibited its first production models of all-electronic televisions at which event?
the 1939-1940 New York World Fair
91
In 1939, North Americans could buy all-electronic televisions featuring...
reduced size, achieved by using a separate radio's speakers to eliminate the need for incorporated speakers
92
In Canada, the 1949-1951 Massey Commission concluded that private radio broadcasters should be responsible for the introduction of Canadian-made television?
False
93
Before the age of satellites, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's television stations were linked from sea to sea by a communications network using?
microwaves
94
By 1955, the Soviet Union had more television sets (receivers) than Canada.
False
95
By the mid-1990s, Canada had roughly three (3) times as many television sets (receivers) per capita than Mexico?
True
96
n 1960, U.S. presidential candidate Kennedy won the television debates with Nixon because he was younger and more comfortable with the virtual setting of debates split between television studios in New York and Los Angeles?
False
97
The first televised debate between political leaders in Canada happened...
in 1962, when candidates Jean Lesage and Daniel Johnson, Sr. clashed during a Québec provincial election
98
For much of the 1960s and 1970s, the operating budget of the CBC was approximately equal to the combined budgets of all private radio and television stations in Canada?
True
99
In his 1980 paper on the politics of technological objects, Langdon Winner criticized the low bridges built by Robert Caro over parkways on Long Island, near New York?
False
100
The principal reason that drove Herodotus of Halicarnassus to write a history of the wars of the Greeks and Barbarians was to correct the mistakes found in previous histories?
False
101
Which of the following research tools or methods it is strictly forbidden to use in this course?
none
102
The initial purpose of Hoover Dam as it was conceived was to supply Las Vegas and Los Angeles with a dependable supply of electricity?
False
103
The anatomical work of Belgian doctor Vesalius capped decades of scientific research and stands as a fitting close of the Scientific Revolution in the 18th century?
False
104
Around 1800, most of the world's countries did not enjoy an average life expectancy of much more than 40 years of age.
True
105
According to Einstein, what is a person's greatest gain from a study of methodology and philosophy?
a habit of independent thinking
106
The U.S. space programme of the 1960s and 1970s provided the environmental movement with added impetus?
True
107
A technological system is...
a set of technological elements coordinated to achieve a definite result
108
The development of the patent system reinforced the tendency by early historians of technology, down to the 19th century, to focus on when and where which inventor invented what invention?
True
109
The 1934 historical work Technics and Civilization was authored by...
Lewis Mumford
110
Which of animal species are able to manipulate their environment or use natural objects as tools?
Humans, beavers, certain birds
111
Windmills were among the defining technologies of the (first) Industrial Revolution?
False
112
Under what U.S. president was Hoover Dam completed?
FDR
113
The human impact on the terrestrial environment is greatest in the Amazon and Canada?
False
114
What city was created to house the workers who built Hoover Dam?
Boulder City
115
The traditional "arts and crafts" covered much of what we now call "technology".
True
116
Which was not defined as a student responsibility in an Arts calendar cited by the first lecture?
knowledge and understanding of engineering ethics
117
Only a minor share of U.S. economic growth before 1950 is accounted for by productivity increases.
False
118
In a 2008 of U.S. scientific literacy, women did as well or better than men on questions testing their knowledge of the biological sciences?
True
119
High school enrollment rates dipped in the U.S. during the Second World War due to the mobilization of young men in the army.
False
120
In the 1940s, the newest and most advanced U.S. industries generally required the greatest number of educated workers (such as high school graduates).
True
121
In the U.S., the holders of four-year college degrees (or better) were the only ones to be more numerous in manufacturing work in 2012 than in 1960?
False
122
The motto "Faster, higher, stronger" was used by the ancient Greeks to describe the striving of their athletes during the original Olympic games?
False
123
The Futurists were a group of...
Italian artists who believed modern art should incorporate the new technologies creating the world of the future
124
Ever since the 19th century, one important goal of urban planners and reformers has been to...
build parks, satellite cities, free up space with taller buildings
125
Levittown was...
The name of several post-World War II U.S. suburbs developed to house the baby-boom generation and their parents (while often excluding racial minorities)
126
Early in the 20th century, North American office buildings retained visual elements present in ancient edifices such as the Parthenon in Athens?
True
127
The "modern" design of buildings and furniture was often pioneered by artists such as Italian architect Antonio Sant'Elia before World War I and the designers of the Bauhaus school in the Germany of the interwar period?
True
128
The streamlining applied to everyday objects like telephones and refrigerators by the time of World War II was first developed to design better zeppelins, seaplanes, and other aircraft, as well as passenger automobiles and locomotives?
True
129
The streamlining of steam locomotives in the 1950s allowed them to replace diesel locomotives in North America?
False
130
During World War I, the National Research Council of Canada helped the United States build the first nuclear bomb by providing it with uranium from Canadian mines in the Northwest Territories?
False
131
The role played originally by the National Research Council of Canada in terms of funding research is now assumed in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council as it provides money for university research?
True
132
The conviction that science and technology had made Germany a fearsome opponent in World War II greatly pushed U.S. urban planners, designers, architects, and utopians to bet on scientific and technological progress after the war?
False
133
Less than ten years after producing the first sustained chain reaction, U.S. physicists and engineers built the first nuclear reactor?
True
134
To build the first nuclear bombs, the Manhattan project relied on facilities in both the United States and Canada, raw materials from both and the Belgian Congo, as well as people from multiple countries?
True
135
In 1945, when the first atomic bombs were detonated in New Mexico and Japan, killing thousands, Canada and the United Kingdom were recognized as full collaborators of the United States in the Manhattan Project?
True
136
In his 1945 memorandum, Science—The Endless Frontier, Vannevar Bush argued that the U.S. government...
should fund basic scientific research, as well as military and medical R&D
137
After World War II, the United States extended the wartime funding of research until 1948, when the beginning of the Cold War and the 1949 Soviet atomic bomb convinced the government to double it.
False
138
By 1952, there were three nuclear powers?
True
139
By the mid-1950s, radioactive fallout from nuclear bomb tests was increasingly feared and criticized by scientists and the general public?
True
140
In the 1950s, the pursuit of peaceful applications of nuclear power led to the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, by the Soviet Union?
False
141
In the United States, Operation Plowshare...
designated the use of peaceful nuclear explosions to dig mines, bring up oil, and create canals, among other possible applications
142
By 1960, Canada had built its first nuclear reactor and pioneered cancer therapy using radioactive materials?
False
143
The Soviet Union became the first space-faring nation with the help of Nazi rocket scientists who had all sought refuge in the USSR out of fear that the United States would prosecute them for war crimes?
False
144
In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, orbiting Earth in his space capsule called Sputnik.
False
145
In the 1950s, the United States responded to the Soviet challenge to its technological primacy by...
establishing National Science Foundation, ARPA, NASA
146
The number of U.S. patents granted to independent inventors fell below the number of patents granted to non-U.S. firms in or about...
the 1970s
147
Since 1979, the U.S. federal government has provided most of the funding for research and development?
False
148
The amount (in constant dollars) spent on defense R&D by the U.S. government dipped after 1989 due to...
due to the end of the Cold War
149
After 1980, U.S. corporations were increasingly able to outsource their R&D to university laboratories and startups, leading to a decline of the in-house research lab.
True
150
By 1960, Canada had built its first nuclear reactor and pioneered cancer therapy using radioactive materials.
True
