Programme For International Student Assessment Pisa / Sample Science Passage 2: Clothes


Read the text and answer the questions that follow. 

CLOTHES TEXT 

A team of British scientists is  developing 'intelligent' clothes that  will give disabled children the power of 'speech'. Children wearing waistcoats  made of a unique electrotextile, linked  to a speech synthesiser, will be able to  make themselves understood simply  by tapping on the touch-sensitive  material. 

The material is made up of normal  cloth and an ingenious mesh of carbonimpregnated  fibres that can conduct  electricity. When pressure is applied to  the fabric, the pattern of signals that  passes through the conducting fibres is  altered and a computer chip can work  out where the cloth has been touched. 
It then can trigger whatever electronic  device is attached to it, which could be  no bigger than two boxes of matches. 

'The smart bit is in how we weave the  fabric and how we send signals through  it – and we can weave it into existing  fabric designs so you cannot see it's in  there,' says one of the scientists. 

Without being damaged, the material  can be washed, wrapped around  objects or scrunched up. The scientist  also claims it can be mass-produced  cheaply. 

Source: Steve Farrer, `Interactive fabric promises a  material gift of the garb', The Australian, 10 August 1998. 

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QUESTION 6.1 

Can these claims made in the article be tested through scientific investigation in the laboratory? 
Circle either 'Yes' or 'No' for each.  (Note: Answer this part of the question in your notebook)

The material can be - Can the claim be tested through scientific  investigation in the laboratory?  
washed without being damaged. - Yes / No  
wrapped around objects without being damaged. - Yes / No  
scrunched up without being damaged. - Yes / No  
mass-produced cheaply.  - Yes / No 

 



Which piece of laboratory equipment would be among the equipment you would need to check that the fabric is conducting electricity?

Light box
Voltmeter
Sound meter
Micrometer