full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Clifford Stoll: The call to learn

Unscramble the Blue Letters

To measure the wgtnaelveh, all I need to do is measure the distance from here — one full wave — over to here. From here to here is the wavelength of sound. So, I'll put a measuring tape here, measuring tape here, move it back over to here. I've moved the mnorhpocie 20 centimeters. 0.2 meters from here, back to here, 20 centimeters. OK, let's go back to Mr. Elmo. And we'll say the frequency is 1.76 kilohertz, or 1760. The wavelength was 0.2 meters. Let's figure out what this is. (Laughter) (Applause) 1.76 times 0.2 over here is 352 mteres per second. If you look it up in the book, it's really 343. But, here with kludgy material, and lousy dirnk — we've been able to measure the speed of sound to — not bad. ptrety good.

Open Cloze

To measure the __________, all I need to do is measure the distance from here — one full wave — over to here. From here to here is the wavelength of sound. So, I'll put a measuring tape here, measuring tape here, move it back over to here. I've moved the __________ 20 centimeters. 0.2 meters from here, back to here, 20 centimeters. OK, let's go back to Mr. Elmo. And we'll say the frequency is 1.76 kilohertz, or 1760. The wavelength was 0.2 meters. Let's figure out what this is. (Laughter) (Applause) 1.76 times 0.2 over here is 352 ______ per second. If you look it up in the book, it's really 343. But, here with kludgy material, and lousy _____ — we've been able to measure the speed of sound to — not bad. ______ good.

Solution

  1. microphone
  2. meters
  3. drink
  4. pretty
  5. wavelength

Original Text

To measure the wavelength, all I need to do is measure the distance from here — one full wave — over to here. From here to here is the wavelength of sound. So, I'll put a measuring tape here, measuring tape here, move it back over to here. I've moved the microphone 20 centimeters. 0.2 meters from here, back to here, 20 centimeters. OK, let's go back to Mr. Elmo. And we'll say the frequency is 1.76 kilohertz, or 1760. The wavelength was 0.2 meters. Let's figure out what this is. (Laughter) (Applause) 1.76 times 0.2 over here is 352 meters per second. If you look it up in the book, it's really 343. But, here with kludgy material, and lousy drink — we've been able to measure the speed of sound to — not bad. Pretty good.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
electronic music 3
love mobius 2
mobius loops 2
klein bottles 2
klein bottle 2
suny buffalo 2
robert moog 2
frequency times 2
measuring tape 2
tear gas 2
hayes hall 2

Important Words

  1. applause
  2. bad
  3. book
  4. centimeters
  5. distance
  6. drink
  7. elmo
  8. figure
  9. frequency
  10. full
  11. good
  12. kilohertz
  13. kludgy
  14. laughter
  15. lousy
  16. material
  17. measure
  18. measuring
  19. meters
  20. microphone
  21. move
  22. moved
  23. pretty
  24. put
  25. sound
  26. speed
  27. tape
  28. times
  29. wave
  30. wavelength