Transistorized Q&A

1. What technology was used prior to transistors to amplify a signal? How did it change the history of communications in the US? What was the metaphor that the video used to describe how this technology worked?

Prior to transistors, a clear vacuum tube with a squiggly diode in the middle was used to amplify signal. It changed the history of communications because it allowed individuals to talk on the telephone across a bigger span of the country. You go talk from California to New York with such ease. Before you could only talk to half of the country, for example, going from New York to Denver, I believe. It made for a wider coast to coast communication. The metaphor used to describe how this technology worked was monkeys tossing a bunch of rocks at a target through a shutter that would continuously open and shut.

2. Describe the break through in the 1947 that made the transistor a reality?

The vacuum tube was in itself great, but it needed to be improved upon. Shockley set out to work with his team of engineers, physicists, and chemists to ultimately make a semi-conductor amplifier, or what we know today as the transistor. Because of Brattain's experimentation with gold on germanium, he figured that it eliminated the liquid layer that would slow down the device.

3. What do we learn from watching this video about group and team dynamics that we can apply to our own situation? What was successful about this team? What was its downfall?

Three brilliant engineers, Shockey, Bardeen, and Brattain achieved such great success but it was turned down by rivalry, intense jealousies, hurt feelings, and monumental clash of egos. They all could have been millionaires and billionaires but because of all the intense rivalry and fighting, that never came to be. From this situation, we can learn to put our egos aside and work for the better cause; that can be to make something useful for society or even just for fun. 

4. What medic and social changes occurred as a result of the transistor?

It's so crazy to think that Intel, the company founded by Moore and Bryce, makes millions of these transistors every year. We use them in every electronic device imaginable, from the tiny radios back in the day to the modern Internet of today's times. Coast-to-coast communication all around the world was now possible as a result of the invention of the transistor. The transistorized radio really changed the world, allowing people to listen to radios portably.