The Transistor - About

The Transistor Recycler game and two related readings are based on the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics, which was awarded for the invention of the transistor.

Transistor Recycler Game

- In what items can you find transistors?
- What can a transistor do?
- How is a transistor made?

In this game, your job working at a Transistor Recycling Centre is to ensure that only items containing transistors are sent to the recycling machine. Goods enter the recycling machine via a conveyer belt, and you must remove all the items that do not contain transistors. You are awarded one point for each item that you correctly remove from the belt. If you mistakenly remove an item with a transistor, two points will be deducted from your total score. The game has an infinite number of levels, and you will be evaluated at the end of each level. When you have completed one level you can move onto the next, in which the belt moves faster and there will be new items to sort. If you're really skilled you could become this month's super recycler!

For instructions on how to play the game, click on the HELP button found at the bottom of the game window.

Reading: "Learn about how a transistor functions and what it is made up of"

39 short illustrated and animated text pages about the transistor including a "Building a Transistor Game". In the end there is a small game in which you can try to build the first transistor yourself.

Read "Learn about how a transistor functions and what it is made up of" »

Reading: "The Transistor in a Century of Electronics"

- A Three Terminal Device
- Light Bulbs and Vacuum Tubes
- Lee De Forest and the Radio
- Early Computers
- The First Transistor
- Limits of Individual Transistors
- The Integrated Circuit

Read "Learn about how a transistor functions and what it is made up of" »