Daily quiz – 18th May 2024

Accelerometers are devices that measure the vibration, or acceleration of motion of a structure. They have a transducer that converts mechanical force caused by vibration or a change in motion, into an electrical current using the piezoelectric effect.

Statement 1 is correct: Any reliable car crash detection system requires an accelerometer that can measure up to several hundred g-force accelerations. In the event of a crash, the crash sensor (an accelerometer) sends a signal to the airbag control unit. This control unit triggers the inflation device, which generates nitrogen gas by igniting a mixture of sodium azide (NaN3) and potassium nitrate (KNO3).

Statement 2 is correct: Accelerometers in laptops protect hard drives from damage. If the laptop were to suddenly drop while in use, the accelerometer would detect the sudden free fall and immediately turn off the hard drive to avoid hitting the reading heads into the hard drive platter.

Statement 3 is correct: An accelerometer detects acceleration, vibration, and tilt to determine movement and exact orientation along the three axes. Apps use this smartphone sensor to determine whether your phone is in portrait or landscape orientation. It can also tell if your phone screen is facing upward or downward.

Hydrogen (Atomic Number-1) is the lightest element, a non-metal and invisible gas. When it comes to the uses of Hydrogen as a source of energy, various industries classify it into 8 types- Green Hydrogen, Blue Hydrogen, Grey Hydrogen, Black-Brown Hydrogen, Pink Hydrogen, Turquoise Hydrogen, Yellow Hydrogen, and White Hydrogen. White Hydrogen is naturally occurring hydrogen producing no greenhouse emissions.

Statement 1 is incorrect- Green Hydrogen, and not White Hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water using renewable energy. On the other hand, White hydrogen, also referred to as “natural,” “gold,” or “geologic” hydrogen, is a naturally existing variant found within the Earth's crust. It is extracted through fracking and is present in subsurface deposits.

Statement 2 is correct- White Hydrogen causes no CO2 emissions when used as a fuel.

The Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The system's interoperability with other global navigation satellite systems, such as GPS, Glonass, Galileo, and BeiDou, highlights its integration into the global navigation framework.

Statement 1 is correct: NavIC is designed with a constellation of 7 satellites and a network of ground stations. Three satellites of the constellation are placed in geostationary orbit, and four satellites are placed in inclined geosynchronous orbit with equatorial crossing of 55°E and 111.75°E respectively, with inclination of 29° (two satellites in each plane). The ground network consists of a control center, precise timing facility, range and integrity monitoring stations, two-way ranging stations, etc.

Statement 2 is correct: It offers two services: Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users. NavIC signals are designed to provide user position accuracy better than 20m and timing accuracy better than 50ns.

Statement 3 is correct: When the NavIC satellite navigation system was first introduced, it was created to meet the needs of important national uses, such as defense and business. Therefore, its coverage area was planned to include not only Indian Territory but also an additional 1500 km around the Indian borders. Hence, the given statement is correct.

Animals that have had their DNA manipulated to possess and express an extra (foreign) gene are known as transgenic animals. Transgenic rats, rabbits, pigs, sheep, cows and fish have been produced, although over 95 per cent of all existing transgenic animals are mice.

Statement 1 is correct. Many transgenic animals are designed to increase our understanding of how genes contribute to the development of disease. These are specially made to serve as models for human diseases so that investigation of new treatments for diseases is made possible. Today transgenic models exist for many human diseases such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer‟s.

Statement 2 is correct. Transgenic animals can produce useful biological products by the introduction of the portion of DNA (or genes) which codes for a particular product. Medicines required to treat certain human diseases can contain biological products, but such products are often expensive to make.

Statement 3 is correct. Transgenic mice are being developed for use in testing the safety of vaccines before they are used on humans. Transgenic mice are also used to test the safety of the polio vaccine. If successful and found to be reliable, they could replace the use of monkeys to test the safety of batches of the vaccine.

Kessler syndrome, also called the Kessler effect, collisional cascading, or ablation cascade, was

proposed by NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978. He observed that, once past a certain critical mass, the total amount of space debris will keep on increasing: collisions give rise to more debris and lead to more collisions, in a chain reaction. . This could render some orbital ranges unusable for many generations and pose a threat to the functioning of satellites and spacecraft.

Kessler Syndrome is characterized by the presence of millions of debris pieces of various sizes. When these pieces collide, they create additional debris and additional collisions. This creates a cascading effect that increases the likelihood of further collisions.