Tag: science & technology

Hydrophobia is the fear of water, derived from 'hydro' (water) and 'phobia' (fear). It is also an old medical term for rabies, as rabies causes fear of water and difficulty swallowing. The other options are different phobias: Ideophobia (ideas), Hippophobia (horses), and Insectophobia (insects).

Ideophobia is derived from 'ideo' (idea) and 'phobia' (fear), making it the correct term for fear of ideas. Hydrophobia is fear of water, kleptophobia is fear of stealing, and hippophobia is fear of horses. The suffix '-phobia' always indicates an irrational fear in medical terminology.

Guglielmo Marconi is credited as the inventor of wireless telegraphy, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909. He developed the first practical system of wireless telegraphy based on radio waves. Option B correctly identifies Marconi as the inventor.

Charles Babbage is widely regarded as the 'father of the computer' for designing the first mechanical computer, the Analytical Engine, in the 1830s. Though never completed in his lifetime, his designs laid the foundation for modern computing. Option A correctly identifies Babbage as the inventor of the first computer concept.

James Gosling is known as the Father of the Java programming language. He created Java while working at Sun Microsystems in the mid-1990s, and it was released in 1995. Option C correctly identifies James Gosling as the creator of Java.

Isaac Newton (along with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz) is credited as the inventor of calculus. Newton developed his version of calculus in the mid-1660s, calling it 'the method of fluxions.' Option B correctly identifies Newton as one of the inventors of calculus.

The Nobel Prize is named after Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor who invented dynamite. Nobel established the prize in his will, using his fortune from the dynamite patent and other inventions. The other options are inventions of different scientists: nuclear energy involved many researchers, the microscope was developed by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, and radio waves were discovered by Heinrich Hertz.

Water exists in liquid state at room temperature (typically 20-25°C or 68-77°F). This is because water's freezing point is 0°C and boiling point is 100°C at standard pressure. At room temperature, water is between these two phase transition points, so it remains liquid. The other options are incorrect because solids have fixed shapes, gases have no fixed volume, and plasma is an ionized high-energy state not found at room temperature.

Hygroscopic salts absorb moisture from the atmosphere without dissolving in it. Anhydrous salts are simply without water of crystallization, while hydrophilic refers to water-attracting substances more generally. Hydrophobic substances actually repel water.