Diagnostic Test

The diagnostic test is meant to check some basic ‘fundas’ to see if you are ready
for this course.

MATERIALS SCIENCE
Part of & AALearner’s Guide
Learner’s Guide
ENGINEERING
AN INTRODUCTORY E-BOOK
Anandh Subramaniam & Kantesh Balani
Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur- 208016
Email: anandh@iitk.ac.in, URL: home.iitk.ac.in/~anandh
http://home.iitk.ac.in/~anandh/E-book.htm
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answer

 What is the fundamental constituent of the matter we see around? Atoms (diamond is made carbon atoms),
(we are not referring to the fundamental particles!) Ions (common salt is made of Na+ and Cl– ions,
Molecules (ice is made of H2O molecules).

The strong bonds are: Covalent, ionic and metallic

 What kinds of bonds exist? bonds. The weak interactions include: hydrogen
bond and Van der Walls bond.

Solid, liquid and gas.

 What are the states of matter?
Change in state can be brought about by temperature
How can change in state be brought about? and pressure.

Motion of free electrons.

 In metals the electrical conduction takes place by________.

Motion of cations (vacancies are needed for this)

 In ionic solids electrical conduction takes places by ______.

Covalent bonds are directional.

 Which of the following bonds has a more ‘directional’
character: covalent, ionic, metallic?

The average kinetic energy of the molecules.

 Temperature is a measure of _______________.

Crystal. Glasses may have short range order but no

 Which of the two has an ordered structure: crystal or glass.
long range order.

Cu wire is made of crystalline regions called grains.

 Is a Cu wire a single crystal?
It is a polycrystal.
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(i) monochromatic source, (ii) coherent radiation,
 What properties of electromagnetic radiation will make
(iii) wavelength of the order of lattice spacing.
‘ideal’ diffraction possible?

Reflection, transmission, absorption. A combination

 What can happed if waves impinge on a material? of these may also occur.

A vector, unlike a scalar has both direction and

 What is a vector? magnitude. In 3 dimensions a vector is specified by
3 numbers.

Crystals can have many defects. 3 of these are

 Can we have ‘perfect’ crystals? unavoidable: Surface, thermal vibration of atoms,
vacancies.

X-rays have wavelength of the order of lattice

 Why are X-rays used for study of materials?
spacing and can be used for diffraction studies to
determine crystal structures.

The internal energy (E) increases due to increase in

 What happens to the internal energy of water when we heat
translational, rotational and vibrational kinetic
it? energy of water molecules.

An electron has mass, charge, spin (and hence

 What are the basic properties associated with an electron?
angular momentum and magnetic moment).

In spite of having the properties mentioned above,

 How big is an electron? the electron is nearly a point (pointlike)- no known
dimension to ~1015m.
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 What is the difference between a insulator and a semi- Both have bandgaps. The semiconductor has a small
bandgap, such that even at room temperature some
conductor? electrons can be excited across the bandgap.

Ge, Si, GaAs, GeSi (they can be elements or

 Give examples of semiconductors. compounds).

A hole is the vacant state in the valence (energy) band of a

 What is a hole? semiconductor, when a electron is excited to the conduction
band (should not be confused with a vacancy).

The regions where ‘magnetic spins’ are arranged in parallel are

 If Fe is a ferromagnetic material, why is a sample of Fe non- called domains. The domains are arranged in such a way as to
magnetic (unless ‘magnetized’)? give a minimum external magnetic field.

Blue light with a shorter wavelength, will give a

 If microscopy is done with red light or blue light- which one
better resolution.
of the two illuminations will give better resolution?

Decrease. Electrons will be scattered more by lattice

 Electrical conductivity of metals will increase or decrease vibrations. Hence a ‘nearly perfect crystal’ will become a
with T? superconductor at 0K.

3D. But in materials science we often deal with

 How many dimensions does space have?
lower dimensional objects which are ‘effectively’
2D, 1D and 0D. Sometimes even with higher dimensions!

Certain arrangement of spheres give a highest volume

 What are close packed crystals? occupied by matter (of ~74%). Crystals which have this kind
of packing are called close packed crystals.
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