Right answer:
Petting his cat
Explanation
Nikola’s interest in electricity became apparent at around the age of three, during a cold winter’s day in 1859: he was petting Macak, the family cat, when he realized that popping up from its fur were myriad luminous filaments that danced like tiny sparks.
Right answer:
Pigeons
Explanation
The elderly Tesla moved from one hotel to another, between one eviction and the next, but would breed huge colonies of pigeons on the terraces of the hotels where he was staying. They represented the only company he could count on, and he was fond of having long conversations with them.
Right answer:
To the success of his spectacular lectures
Explanation
Tesla delivered very successful lectures, in which he offered something that was better than magic and more interesting than a mere show, because everything had a scientific value. The audience loved him, the elite of the scientific world thronged his meetings to applaud him, and his presentations soon became famous across Europe and America.
Right answer:
By way of a letter of recommendation
Explanation
The director of a plant where Tesla had worked, who had been a close friend and assistant of Edison for many years, recognizing his skills, advised him to go to America. And so Nikola, armed with a letter of recommendation, emigrated to the New World, his ambition being to work with the great Thomas Edison.
Right answer:
In room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel, where he was living
Explanation
Nikola spent the last ten years of his life in a hotel room, number 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel, in Manhattan. "His manias had grown and his fear of germs had become so strong that even his dearest friends were forced to keep a certain distance from him".
Right answer:
He dealt with the birth of the electric power plant to exploit its inexhaustible energy
Explanation
When Westinghouse was asked to build an electric power plant that could harness the energy of Niagara Falls, Tesla was given a commission that would again change his destiny, showering him with acknowledgments and fame.
Right answer:
Every action of his had to be divisible by three, or else he would feel forced to repeat it
Explanation
Nikola counted his steps when he went out for a walk, and he also calculated the volume contained in plates and in cups, besides that of the portions of food, otherwise he couldn't enjoy his meal. All the repeated actions had to be divisible by three or else he would have felt forced to repeat them. Even when it took hours to do so. Many of these habits suggest an obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Right answer:
By designing the electric chair, after having immediately accepted the proposal of a dentist from Buffalo.
Explanation
The chance to bring public opinion over to his side came unexpectedly, when a dentist from Buffalo asked him for his help in the practical use of electricity as an alternative to being shot by firing squad and hanging for those sentenced to capital punishment. That is how the electric chair was born.
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Wow! An electrifying result!
You answer well almost every question but for Tesla it wouldn’t be enough. Study a little more and try again!
You probably have been reading Tesla’s story while neck-deep in binge-watching and group-chatting, haven’t you? And to think that we owe them both to Tesla himself... May this sense of guilt inspire you to do better!
Hard luck! With these low results, you are probably risking being used by Edison in his experiments with electrification. Trust us, play it safe and read the book if you haven’t already!