I’m a big fan of the TV show, Jeopardy! and TiVo it daily so I can watch it later and pause when I want to think a little longer about an answer – hey, my house, my rules!
It is very rare that they are wrong, but I think I found a serious error :eek: last Thursday, July 10, 2003. The category was “Science and Tech Digest 1885,” and the answer was
The question given by contestant #1, Nulty Lynch, was
…and this was accepted as correct by Alex Trebeck.
I have yet to see a transformer convert Alternating Current electricity to Direct Current; a transformer can raise or lower an AC voltage, but it is still AC. So, had I been on the show, I would have answered, “What is a rectifier?” which DOES convert AC to DC, albeit pulsed, not smooth, DC.
Then I did some web-wandering about William Stanley. It appears he is credited with a patent on an induction coil, or transformer. So Lynch’s question was correct, but the Jeopardy! answer was faulty.
Am I right, or am I missing something? Anyone else out there see this show and react the same way?
(BTW, I wrote the quotes down very carefully from the show tape, so a transcribing error is not likely.)
: one that transforms; specifically : a device employing the principle of mutual induction to convert variations of current in a primary circuit into variations of voltage and current in a secondary circuit
In common usage, the word transformer refers to a unit which comprises a transformer and rectifier together. In that sense, a transformer does convert AC to DC. Since Jeopardy is a game played and watched by laymen, they aren’t necessarily going to try to have the most exacting technical distinctions in their answers and questions. So yeah, you’re right, but in this context it’s being too picky, and they’re not wrong.
Sorry, Gary T, but I’m with Musicat on this one. True, many people call the plug-in adaptors used to power many electronics “transformers” and I’m mostly OK with that usage, however, the Jeopardy answer very specifically mentions Stanley’s invention, which is strictly an AC-AC transformer incorporating no rectification, and is therefore wrong.
I agree with musicat on this one (I did not see the show though).
“Jeopardy” is very anal retentive (and with good reason) and something like this seems a serious breach in their rather strict rules and regulations.
I remember someone saying “silicone” for an answer and it was properly determined to be an incorrect answer when it should have been “silicon”.
I am electronics hobbyist and I do know a transformer will not convert AC to DC unless (and these are rare) a rectifier is built in to the transformer. But then it is still the RECTIFIER doing that job and NOT the transformer.
Hey, I saw that episode and I thought the same thing too.
I figured they must’ve accepted it as a common usage term for those wall units, but that didn’t seem to fit with Jeopardy’s usually strictly correct answer requirements.
I think Gary T may be referring to the common plug-in-the-wall units used to power many electronic gadgets nowadays. We may call it a transformer, but, as Q.E.D. pointed out, if it supplies DC, it is a combination device – a transformer & rectifier, as a minimum.
The number of radio/hobbyist power supplies I have designed/built/repaired in my lifetime strongly suggests that Jeopardy! has a short in their electrical department.
And Handy, a transformer, when a voltage is passed thru the primary winding, induces a voltage in the secondary, but only when the voltage is changing. (That’s why a transformer cannot be used to alter the voltage of a DC current.) The secondary waveform mirrors the primary (there’s a phase change, but never mind that). AC in, AC out. The voltage can be ramped up or brought down with different P:S winding turn ratios, but it’s all AC from beginning to end.
It didn’t occur to me that they might have been referring to modern wall units. After all, the subject was “Science 1885,” not many AC sockets in homes back then.
One other time I recall a Jeopardy! error was a for a geographical subject. I can’t remember the exact wording, but the answer given and accepted would only be correct if the map you used was a large-scale one. A smaller-scale one would have shown more local features and the question then becomes incorrect; I knew about it since I lived in the immediate area.
I wonder if Jeopardy! takes polite letters pointing out clear and obvious errors seriously or they just get dumped?
Well, you folks have convinced me. I can see how a layman might think of a modern “transformer” (-cum rectifier) as an AC to DC converter, but apparently Jeopardy!'s standards aren’t as loosey-goosey as I thought, and they blew it.
Good point about the Fleming valve, Q.E.D., but there were other ways of rectifying an AC current, like a cat’s whisker/galena (lead sulphide) crystal used in pre-tube radio sets. I don’t know if this method is practical for higher power than just weak RF, tho.
I agree with you completely that modern colloqial usage of “transformer” can include wallpacks with rectification. But I kinda resent your appeal to “layman” mentality on Jeopardy. Some folks call their computer tower the “Hard drive.” If you are working help desk, that can be a convenient expression: “Turn off your hard drive.” But it is inaccurate for a quiz show. If the category is Shakespeare and I say “Macbeth” when it should have been “Hamlet,” they aren’t going to let me slide on the idea that I was close enough. Same with opera or other categories that I don’t feel are my strong suit. But as a techno geek I can hold my own if there is an electronics or computer category. It evens the playing field. Seems unfair then to suggest that fudging should be allowed in technical categories because they are just, afterall, laymen.
>> The point-contact diode wasn’t invented until 1906
And that was good for listening to the radio signals but worthless for power rectifying. But then and now AC could and was converted from AC to DC using a motor coupled to a generator.
Musicat, I also saw the show and was shocked at Jeopardy’s mistake – highly unusual for them. I didn’t recognize William Stanley’s name, but the Jeopardy “answer” clearly rules out “transformer” as the correct question. I knew that 1885 was too early for the Fleming valve, but thought that the correct question might be some other kind of rectifier.
To be perfectly honest, I don’t even believe that it is a “common layman’s error” to refer to a wall-wart with DC output as a “transformer”. I don’t recall hearing anyone say anything other than “adapter”, “converter” or “wall-wart”.
If you want to bombard Jeopardy with e-mails, count me in.
I found out Jeopardy! has a message board, so I registered and posted in the thread about the 7/10 Thursday show. Some others had noticed the AC/DC problem, but hadn’t figured it out quite as well as we did:
Yeah, what Q.E.D. says; I work in the audio/video/recording field on occasion, and we often refer to those power supply plugins as “transformers.” Some actually are, since some devices are powered by AC. The DC ones, of course, would have to include a rectifier as well.
But I don’t think this should have much effect on the J. dialogue, especially when the topic was “Science 1885.”
