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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. At what age does Nikola Tesla take passage on the ship Saturnia?
2. What trait is suspected by some about Nikola Tesla during the Gilded Age?
3. What happens to horses when Nikola Tesla is running his Colorado Springs experiments?
4. How tall is Nikola Tesla in the year 1893?
5. In what year does Ernest Orlando Lawrence win a Nobel prize for the cyclotron, a precursor of which Nikola Tesla exhibited?
Short Essay Questions
1. Nikola produces the first x-ray picture in America. Why does he not commercialize this discovery?
2. In Chapter 6, "Order of the Flaming Sword," Nikola Tesla develops what he calls a carbon button lamp. For what later device does the lamp serve as a prototype?
3. From the book's Introduction, why does Nikola Tesla maintain an intensely private life?
4. What are the six fundamental principles of modern radio, and where does Nikola Tesla demonstrate them in 1893?
5. Describe three elements of the friendship between Nikola Tesla and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wood Johnson.
6. In Chapter 5, "The War of the Currents Begins," describe several events that demonstrate that Nikola Tesla's notoriety is growing.
7. In Chapter 12, "Robots," why does Nikola Tesla have challenges moving his inventions from his laboratory into working prototypes?
8. What potential modern applications does author Margaret Cheney describe for Nikola Tesla's invention of a peculiar and sensitive vacuum tube?
9. In Chapter 11, "To Mars," what patents does Nikola file in November, 1897, and what application do they potentially support?
10. How does Nikola out in Colorado keep Scherff motivated while working at the laboratory back in New York?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Nikola's expresses two goals for his move to Colorado Springs -- to beat Marconi with a wireless system, and to transmit energy plentifully and cheaply around the Earth. There is no documented information to support research for either of these goals. Although Nikola is satisfied himself that he can make lightning dance and has received messages from outside the earth's atmosphere, he has failed in his attempt to reach both of his stated goals. Explain the reasons for the failure and his eventual departure from Colorado Springs. What, if anything has he learned that may help him do things differently back in New York?
Essay Topic 2
It seems that no matter how Nikola approaches the "selling" of his ideas, he never achieves his stated or promised goals. Provide five reasons for this. Which is his biggest obstacle, and why?
Essay Topic 3
At dinner in the Palm Room of the Waldorf Astoria, Nikola Tesla requires eighteen napkins, polishes the crystal and silver setting, has his meal served by the maitre d'hotel, calculates the cubic contents of his meal, and then departs precisely at 10:00 p.m., all while the other diners maintain their distance and pretend not to stare at him.
Part 1) Discuss how Nikola's compulsive behaviors and expectations affect his ability to produce and bring to closure his experiments, his success over the years raising funds, and his social life.
Part 2) Which of these compulsive behaviors might have helped him, and which would hinder him?
Part 3) If Nikola were alive today, do you think he would he be more likely to better manage some of his compulsions? Why or why not?
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This section contains 1,014 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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