EIGroupUSA Question Archive

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	"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were." - John F. Kennedy Our question of the week is designed to focus on visionary ideas, innovation, and inventors. The following table displays the chronology of our contest questions and the associated winners.

Date	Question	Answer	Winner
2003-08-14	Whose 1931 proposal regarding stellar collapse was viciously attacked by Sir Arthur Eddington of the Royal Astronomical Society?	Subramanian Chandrasekhar's name is immortalized in connection with the Chandrasekhar limit, which is the largest mass a white dwarf can attain. The theory underlying this result was viciously attacked by Eddington, who used nonsensical and contradictory arguments to try to show it invalid. Chandrasekhar wrote in a letter home "The differences are of a 'political' nature. Prejudices! Prejudices! Eddington is simply stuck up!	Stephen Raslan
2002-12-05	The Battle of Cannae serves as a classic example of which battlefield tactic?	The Battle of Cannae on 2 August, 216 BC serves as a classic example of a double-envelopment maneuver, a way for an inferior force to defeat a superior force on open terrain. Hannibal is still studied in military academies.	John Martin
2002-12-04	Under which type of tree, were the first trades executed for the New York Stock Exchange?	The New York Stock Exchange began in 1792 when 24 men signed the Buttonwood Agreement under a buttonwood tree on what is now Wall Street in New York City.	Ruth S. Alexander
2002-11-27	What was installed on the corner of Woodward and Michigan Avenues in Detroit in the year 1920?	The first traffic light in the age of automobiles. Police Officer William Potts of Detroit, MI adapted red, amber, and green railroad lights for his design. Also, around the same time, African-American inventor Garrett Morgan created one in Cleveland, OH.	Jeff Kuh
2002-11-05	Which inventor is credited with the creation of the assembly line and who later added conveyor belts to improve the rate of production on such a line?	Ransom E. Olds quadrupled his factory's output from 425 cars in 1901 to 2,500 cars in 1902 with his invention of an assembly line. Ford improved upon this idea by adding conveyor belts to cut the manufacturing lead time of a Model T from 1.5 days to 90 minutes.	Greg Guthrie, Jr.
2002-10-10	Who was the first person to create a sustained vacuum and to which predictive device did this technology lead?	In 1643 Evangelista Torricelli proposed an experiment to demonstrate that atmospheric pressure determines the height to which a fluid will rise in a tube inverted over the same liquid. This concept led to the development of the barometer.	Robert G. Pasko
2002-08-07	What scientist created the Bombe which won the Battle of the Atlantic for the allies during World War II?	Alan Turing is noted for his work in computation, Artificial Intelligence, and his code breaking efforts at Bletchley Park during World War II. In this case the Bombe is a mechanical device used in code breaking.	Steven Marshall
2002-07-27	Who does the US Supreme Court now officially recognize as the inventor of radio? Name at least one other of his inventions.	Nikola Tesla was The Serbian-American "Master of Lightning" He was the visionary behind the AC Power Plant at Niagra Falls.	James M. Llewellyn
2002-07-22	What business brain-child was born out of a Vietnam War veteran's college paper that received the dubious grade of "C" because it appeared in-feasible to the professor?	FedEx was founded in 1971 by Fred Smith who received this mediocre grade at Yale University.	Lyndon Zingale
2002-07-20	Which famous mathematician was beaten, mutilated, and burned by Christian monks?	Hypatia was known more for the work she did in mathematics than in astronomy, primarily for her work on the ideas of conic sections introduced by Apollonius.	Mike Justice
2002-07-19	What seafaring, surreptitious "animal" is the claim to fame of late eighteenth century Warrenton, GA resident Dr. Bush?	The Turtle, a 1776 submarine, was created by David Bushnell aka Dr. Bush.	John Martin
2002-07-15	Name the Yale graduate who is often termed the "father" of TQM.	W. Edwards Deming	Andy Khoo
2002-07-08	In 1983, AT&T was broken apart by judicial order. AT&T retained the long distance business as well as Western Electric and Bell Labs. What were the names of the seven original baby bell companies?	The original seven RBOCs are; Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Nynex, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, and U.S. West.	Ruth Alexander
2002-07-01	Can you name the automotive engineer and entrepreneur who died in 1992, wore colorful clothing, and claimed that non-conformity is required for innovation?	Soichiro Honda	Larry Holm