Transcript File

Science Puzzle
by M. Deal
Eastern Bloc Vote
After the second world war many of the
countries in eastern Europe were under the
influence of Russia. These countries were
known as the ‘eastern bloc’ and travel to
and from this area was strictly controlled.
People in the eastern bloc countries could
get radio broadcasts from the west and
one of the things that they listened to was
‘The Eurovision Song Contest’.
It was decided that a similar
competition for the eastern countries
would be produced. It was called the
‘Intervision Song Contest.’
The public vote was needed to determine the popularity of the songs in the
contest to help decide the best songs. As there was a lack of telephones the
public were asked to vote using an unusual system.
If they liked a song
they were asked to
turn on a light bulb!
How could this
system work?
Try and think of
different ways of
making this work
and the advantages
and disadvantages
of each method.
Hint
Solution
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Hints
Here are a few hints with increasing helpfulness. You can jump
back to the previous slide at any point by using the ‘return button’.
Hint 1: More bulbs need more energy.
Hint 2: If more light bulbs are put into a
series a circuit what happens to the bulbs
and current?
Hint 3: What needs to be done to keep all
the bulbs bright?
There are no more hints. Click on one of the three buttons to continue.
Solution
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Solution
When another bulb is put into a circuit more
electrical energy must be supplied if the bulb
are to be kept at the same brightness.
In this circuit it requires putting inserting
another battery.
The electricity generating board would measure the ‘voltage spike’ as there
was a sudden demand for electricity.
The electricity generating stations would be able to compare these spikes to
decide which was the most popular song!
What are the advantages of this system?
 Quick
 Easy to use
 Cheap to implement with few people needed for data collection
 Most people being able to cast a ‘vote’.
What are the disadvantages of this method of voting?
How could someone cheat the system?
 Turning on kettles, etc at the appropriate would inflate the votes.
 Not all light bulbs would give the same ‘voting power’(!)
 Turning off an electrical appliance at the set time would be cancelling votes.
 People could cast more than one vote at a time.
 People not watching could accidentally be voting!
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End of presentation