full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Woody Norris: Hypersonic sound and other inventions

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I have a bnuch of other inventions. I invented a pmasla antenna, to sfhit gears. Looked up at the ceiling of my office one day — I was working on a ground-penetrating radar project — and my physicist CEO came in and said, "We have a real problem. We're using very short wegenltvahs. We've got a problem with the antenna ringing. When you run very short wavelengths, like a tunnig fork the atnnnea resonates, and there's more energy coming out of the antenna than there is the backscatter from the ground that we're trying to analyze, taking too much processing." I says, "Why don't we make an antenna that only exists when you want it? Turn it on; turn it off. That's a fluorescent tube refined." I just sold that for a million and a half dollars, cash. I took it back to the Pentagon after it got declassified, when the patent issued, and told the people back there about it, and they laughed, and then I took them back a demo and they bohgut. (Laughter)

Open Cloze


I have a _____ of other inventions. I invented a ______ antenna, to _____ gears. Looked up at the ceiling of my office one day — I was working on a ground-penetrating radar project — and my physicist CEO came in and said, "We have a real problem. We're using very short ___________. We've got a problem with the antenna ringing. When you run very short wavelengths, like a ______ fork the _______ resonates, and there's more energy coming out of the antenna than there is the backscatter from the ground that we're trying to analyze, taking too much processing." I says, "Why don't we make an antenna that only exists when you want it? Turn it on; turn it off. That's a fluorescent tube refined." I just sold that for a million and a half dollars, cash. I took it back to the Pentagon after it got declassified, when the patent issued, and told the people back there about it, and they laughed, and then I took them back a demo and they ______. (Laughter)

Solution


  1. shift
  2. tuning
  3. plasma
  4. antenna
  5. bunch
  6. bought
  7. wavelengths

Original Text


I have a bunch of other inventions. I invented a plasma antenna, to shift gears. Looked up at the ceiling of my office one day — I was working on a ground-penetrating radar project — and my physicist CEO came in and said, "We have a real problem. We're using very short wavelengths. We've got a problem with the antenna ringing. When you run very short wavelengths, like a tuning fork the antenna resonates, and there's more energy coming out of the antenna than there is the backscatter from the ground that we're trying to analyze, taking too much processing." I says, "Why don't we make an antenna that only exists when you want it? Turn it on; turn it off. That's a fluorescent tube refined." I just sold that for a million and a half dollars, cash. I took it back to the Pentagon after it got declassified, when the patent issued, and told the people back there about it, and they laughed, and then I took them back a demo and they bought. (Laughter)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
hypersonic sound 3
light bulb 3
put sound 3
tone arm 2
binaural sound 2
ear hears 2
stereo system 2
million dollars 2


Important Words


  1. analyze
  2. antenna
  3. backscatter
  4. bought
  5. bunch
  6. cash
  7. ceiling
  8. ceo
  9. coming
  10. day
  11. declassified
  12. demo
  13. dollars
  14. energy
  15. exists
  16. fluorescent
  17. fork
  18. gears
  19. ground
  20. invented
  21. inventions
  22. issued
  23. laughed
  24. laughter
  25. looked
  26. million
  27. office
  28. patent
  29. pentagon
  30. people
  31. physicist
  32. plasma
  33. problem
  34. processing
  35. project
  36. radar
  37. real
  38. refined
  39. resonates
  40. ringing
  41. run
  42. shift
  43. short
  44. sold
  45. told
  46. tube
  47. tuning
  48. turn
  49. wavelengths
  50. working