MP State Exams

A fiber with half the density of fiberglass and five times stronger, weight for weight, than steel, Kevlar8 is now globally recognized and widely used. It is best known for its use in bulletproof and stabproof vests, where it has saved thousands of lives. After graduating from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1946, American chemist Stephanie Kwoleck (b. 1923) was employed by DuPont to research high-performance chemicals. Her work on polymers yielded a number of successful discoveries. Kwoleck, who holds twenty-eight U.S. patents, specialized in developing polymers at low temperatures and in the 1960s discovered a new group called liquid crystalline polymers. Kwoleck's invention of Kevlar fibers in 1965 stemmed from an interest in the chemicals produced during the process of polymer synthesis. These substances are sensitive to moisture and heat and easily undergo hydrolysis and self-polymerization. She discovered that, in cool conditions, these chemicals created an aramid polymer more...

“I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon." Ronald Reagan, U.S. President 1981-1989 Melitta Bentz (1873-1950) invented the coffee filter to solve a simple household need, and it resulted in a hugely successful company and her filter being used throughout the world. Bentz wanted to find a way to produce coffee without the grounds in it and began to experiment with passing the coffee through various types of filters, eventually trying the blotting paper that her children used when doing homework. By putting a circle of the blotting paper into a metal cup with holes in it, Bentz could pass hot water over the coffee, then let it drain into another cup, with the grounds left behind in the filter. In 1908, Bentz filed a patent for her invention and, with her husband, formed the Melitta Bentz Company to promote it. The invention more...

"Industrial wind energy is a symptom of, not a solution to, our energy problems" Eric Rosenbloom, National Wind Watch Windmills had been been in use for some 2,000 years before, in 1888, Charles F. Brush (1849-1929) linked a wind-powered turbine and a generator to provide power for the lights on his estate in Ohio, The 144- bladed rotor was based on wind-driven water pumps, and bore little resemblance to today's turbines. Perhaps more familiar would be the turbines developed by Paul LaCour who, from 1891, developed wind power as a means of supplying farms and villages in his native Denmark. His four-bladed turbines could provide up to 25 kilowatts of power and were generating in their hundreds by 1910. In the early twentieth century, propeller-like turbines with only two or three blades appeared, in 1931 the first large- scale turbine, a 100-kilowatt Russian device, was connected directly into an existing more...

“He gave me a skin-bag flayed from an ox… and therein he bound… the blustering wind”. Homer, The Odyssey The ability to extract metals from their ores is one of the most significant discoveries in antiquity. Until the invention of bellows, furnace fires were stoked by breath alone. Teams of men, using blowpipes, would blow on the charcoal to supply the oxygen required to increase its temperature. The teams could achieve temperatures high enough to smelt copper and tin and melt metals such as bronze, silver, and gold. Bellows improved this process not least because arm and leg power is considerably less exhaustible than lung power. They also enabled much larger furnaces to be used; one man with bellows could generate heat around seventy times faster than one with a blowpipe. A pan found in Talla, Mesopotamia, dated around 2500 B.C.E., is believed to be the earliest evidence of bellows, more...

"With advanced hemorrhage control ...20 to 30 percent of all combat deaths can be prevented." Kenton W. Gregory, MD Imagine a bandage that not only covers up a wound and soaks up blood but also causes the blood to form a clot once it comes into contact with it. This is exactly what the chitosan bandage does. Chitosan is a compound found in shrimp shells. Its molecules carry a positive charge and are therefore able to interact with negatively charged red blood cells to create a clot. Research on chitosan was first conducted at Oregon Medical Laser Center in the United States. Initial results in animals showed great promise for the bandages, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved their use in 2002. The development and manufacture of the bandages was undertaken at HemCon, a company that develops technology for trauma injuries. The implications for the battlefield, as well more...

This quotation from German poet and philosopher Goethe carries a valuable idea. Life is not just a reverie, a dream. It is much more than that; it is action. Without energetic action, life would stagnate. Without great deeds, life would become static and would lose much of its charm. A life of thought and reflection would be quite futile, if thought is never transformed into practical action.  It is not that contemplation has no place in life. Contemplation induces peace of mind, tranquility and contentment. Great ideals are usually a product of contemplation. Practically all the germinal ideas of the world have come from thinkers and philosophers with whom contemplation was a habit. Without mature reflection and cool deliberation nothing should be done. Meditation and silent prayer are purifying agents for soul and a sedative for nerves. But contemplation should never be regarded as the aim of human life. Great more...

Ever since science fiction first described futuristic machines that could perform unpleasant, dangerous, or boring tasks for people, inventors and designers have sought to make such dreams a reality. In Wl, following prototype trials, a robotic manipulator called Unimate heralded the dawn of this new exciting era when it began employment on a General Motors assembly line. A stationary industrial robot, Unimate spent its working day moving hot die castings from machines and welding vehicle bodies. Operating from sequential commands stored on a magnetic drum, the robot's arm, weighing around two tons, was versatile enough to perform any number of different tasks. Unimate was conceived in the late 1950s by American engineers George Devol (b. 1912) and Joseph Engelberger (b. 1925). Its development was undertaken by Engelberger's company, Unimation Inc. The fledgling industry of industrial robotics grew rapidly, and soon a variety of other mundane, tedious, or dangerous Jobs were more...

"C'est la soupe qui fait Ie soldat. [An army marches on its stomach]." Attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte Ntcolas Appect (c. 1750-1841) was a humble Parisian candymaker when he responded to a 12,000-franc- challenge issued by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1795 to anyone who could provide the means to keep his vast armies supplied with fresh food. After experimentation, Appert realized that heating foodstuffs at boiling point for long periods of time helped prevent spoilage. After cooking his food in open kettles, it was then placed inside glass jars and heated until a seal using pitch, cork, and sealing wax was made. As the jar cooled, a vacuum was often created inside the jar removing the air necessary for bacteria to grow, and the lids were then fastened with a metallic thread. In 1806 the French Navy successfully tested Appert's preserves, which included milk, fruit, and vegetables. In 1809 he was awarded more...

The microwave oven is an invention that arrived almost entirely by accident. Its inventor, Percy Spencer (1894-1970), was an electronics whizz, working on designing radar equipment. He paused next to a "magnetron," one of the power components of the machinery, and was amazed to discover that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. Understandably curious, he tried placing other objects near the magnetron. Some unpopped popcorn popped successfully (with Spencer standing further away, so as not to start cooking himself), and the next morning an egg was cooked, demonstrating for the first time that eggs in their shells explode if cooked in the microwave. Spencer realized the potential of his discovery and set about designing a more efficient food-cooking device. He filed for a patent in 1945, and by late 1946 a prototype device was being tested in a Boston, Massachusetts, restaurant, and soon commercial models became available. These more...

"All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself." J. S. Bach, composer and organist (attributed) Long before the development of the pipe organ, its essential musical element—a set of pipes of different sizes that resonate at different pitches when air is passed through them—existed in the form of the syrinx. This simple instrument was used widely throughout the eastern Mediterranean region. However, in 240 B.C.E., Ktesibios (c. 285-222 B.C.E.), a Greek engineer, developed a way of supplying a steady flow of air to the pipes. He attached them to a closed box into which air was pumped using pressurized water, creating and maintaining steady air pressure in the box. The pipes were opened or closed to the air source by a simple switch system operated from a keyboard. This device was originally called hydraulis, later organum, and produced loud more...