IEEE Antennas & Propagation Magazine

The Annual Quizturnstile_a1-3262152 As New Zealander geophysicist Gillian Turner’s book North Pole, South Pole: The Epic Quest to Solve the Great Mystery of Earth’s Magnetism [1] shows, our planet’s magnetic properties have intrigued people since ancient times. This quiz offers a quick tour of the early history of geomagnetism. It is now time to grab a pen and test your own knowledge of this fascinating subject! Google and ChatGPT are not allowed.
1) The solar wind (energetic charged particles from the sun) and cosmic rays are safely deflected by Earth’s…a) ozone layerb) magnetospherec) ionosphered) none of the above.
2) The sun is strongly magnetic, and (in addition to Earth), so is/are the following planet(s)…a) Venus, Mars, and Mercuryb) Plutoc) Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranusd) none of the above.
3) The earliest ideas on the nature of magnetism are attributed to the Greek philosopher…a) Aristotleb) Pythagorasc) Thalesd) none of the above.
4) The earliest recorded use of the compass was in the first century AD in …a) Indiab) Chinac) Egyptd) None of the above
5) Englishman Alexander Neckam, writing in the late 12th century, reported the use of a magnetic compass for navigation by European sailors. This was _____ Marco Polo’s visit to China.a) beforeb) afterc) much later thand) none of the above.
6) The _____ Medal of the European Geosciences Union honors the 13th-century French scholar who discovered the difference between the north and south poles of a magnet and the polarity-based magnetic attraction/repulsion.a) Petrus Peregrinusb) William Gilbertc) Andre-Marie Ampered) none of the above.
7) The inclination (the “dip” of a freely suspended magnetic needle, which depends on the latitude) was described in 1581 by the English hydrographer _____.a) Georg Hartmannb) Robert Normanc) Francis Bacond) none of the above.
8) The American Geophysical Union held a special session at its Spring 2000 meeting to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of De Magnete (On the Magnet) by _____.a) Wilhelm Eduard Weberb) Carl Friedrich Gaussc) William Gilbertd) none of the above.
9) In the final chapter of Book I of the multivolume treatise De Magnete, the author presents his famous conclusion that the Earth _____.a) owes its magnetism to moving chargesb) has a lodestone corec) is a great magnetd) none of the above.
10) The author of De Magnete was aware of declination (the deviation of the compass needle from the geographical north). We know now that this declination _____.a) is time invariantb) is location independentc) varies with both time and placed) none of the above.Answers to the Annual QuizAll the answers are derived from [1] and [2].1) b) Magnetosphere (the region around Earth dominated by our planet’s magnetic field).2) c) Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus.3) c) Thales (circa 624–546 BC) was a contemporary of Pythagoras. His own writings do not survive, but his hypothesis (“magnet has a soul because it moves the iron”) was reported later by Aristotle (384–322 BC).4) b) China. (It was apparently also used in the ancient art of feng shui.)5) a) Before. (Marco Polo did not visit China until 1275, almost a century after Neckam’s descriptions of the magnetic compass for navigation.)6) a) Petrus Peregrinus.7) b) Robert Norman.8) c) William Gilbert.9) c) Is a great magnet. (The original Latin was “Magnus magnes ipse est globus terrestris.”)10) c) Varies with both time and place.References[1] G. Turner, North Pole, South Pole: The Epic Quest to Solve the Great Mystery of Earth’s Magnetism. New York, NY, USA: The Experiment, 2011.[2] R. Bansal, From ER to E.T.: How Electromagnetic Technologies are Changing our Lives. New York, NY, USA: Wiley-IEEE Press, 2017.Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MAP.2023.3262152CoverHISTELCON 2023MastheadComsolEditor's CommentsWiPL-DSunAR RF MotionPresident's MessageEMCoS Studio3D Printing Materials and Techniques for Antennas and MetamaterialsReflectarrays and Metasurface Reflectors as Diffraction GratingsEnabling Spherical Beam Coverage for Millimeter-Wave Stationary and Mobile ApplicationsUnderstanding the Shielding Efficiency of a Faraday Grid Cage5G/Millimeter-Wave Rectenna Systems for Radio-Frequency EnergyAn Accordion-Folding Series-Fed Patch Array With Finite ThicknessMeetings & SymposiaCoursesBioelectromagneticsTurnstileWomen in EngineeringYoung ProfessionalsAP-S Committees & ActivitiesIn Memoriam2023 IEEE CAMAHidden WordIEEE AP-S International WorkshopAdvertising & SalesSubscribe to ProceedingsRemcomArchives