Here is the Element Quiz Question:

The Question:
This element will melt in one's hand due to body heat. This element is
truly "exotic" as it can form monovalent, divalent and trivalent compounds.
This element is a  non-toxic, environmentally friendly alternative to
mercury for thermometer and dental amalgam applications. This element
expands upon solidification from its liquid state. This element is widely
used in the electronics industry. Which element is being described?

The Answer:
The element is Gallium (Ga)! Gallium is one of 4 elements non-radioactive
metals (with caesium, rubidium, and mercury) that are known to be liquid
at, or near, normal room temperature. Of the four, gallium is the only one
that is neither highly reactive (rubidium and caesium) nor highly toxic
(mercury). Gallium liquid expands by 3.1% when it solidifies.  Gallium
arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN) used in electronic components
represented about 98% of the gallium consumption in the United States in
2007. About 66% of semiconductor gallium is used in the U.S. in integrated
circuits (mostly gallium arsenide), such as the manufacture of ultra-high
speed logic chips and MESFETs for low-noise microwave preamplifiers in cell
phones.


The winner of the quiz is Scott Decker, UTAS and will get the services
of Clumpy
and Kloumpios for the week. Scott and Joyce Koo both submitted the first
correct responses but per the firewall stamp, Scott beat out Joyce by 1
minute.

EQAB is still reviewing Wayne's submission of Gallium as his rationale for
the element's origin is a tad bit different than the historical record.
Their ruling on the validity of Wayne's response is pending a data request
from the Soviet Union National archives which is never a fast process (Doug
can vouch for that).


So far Clumpy and Kloumpios have done the following:

Past Quiz winners/tasks:
Week 1 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 1 Ron Feyereisen, SigmaTron Intl.
Week 2 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 3 Mark Kostinovsky, Schlumberger Ltd.
Week 3 John Burke
Week 4 Drew Meyer, Benchmark Electronics
Week 5 No Winner - no correct responses!
Week 6 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 7 Keith Calhoun, Sopark Corp
Week 7 Ian Fox, Rolls Royce
Week 8 Leland Woodall
Week 8 David Bealer, SMT
Week 9 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 10 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 11 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 11 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 12 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 13 No Quiz,
Week 14 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 15 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 16 John Maxwell
Week 17 Leland Woodall
Week 18 Leland Woodall
Week 19 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 20 Robert Kondner
Week 21 Tom Brendlinger, ClearMotion Inc.
Week 22 Carl Van Wormer, Cipher Engineering LCC
Week 23 Juliano Ribeiro, DATACOM
Week 24 Gerry Gagnon, FLIR Commercial Systems
Week 25 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 26 Joyce Koo, IPC International
Week 26 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 27 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 28 Leland Woodall
Week 29 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 30 Leland Woodall
Week 31 Leland Woodall
Week 32 Steve Gregory
Week 33 Leland Woodall
Week 34 Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp
Week 35 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 36 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 37 Richard "Dean" Stadem
Week 38 Leland Woodall
Week 38 Tom Carroll
Week 39 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 40 Leland Woodall
Week 41 Tom Carroll
Week 42 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 43 Joyce Koo
Week 44 Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 45 Leland Woodall
Week 45 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 46 Ian Fox, Rolls-Royce Control Systems
Week 47 Fred Cox, Bluering Stencils
Week 48 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 49 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 49 Leland Woodall

Week 50 Russell Kido, Practical Components
- They can help me this week prepare for Valentine's Day.  I'm sure they
are great cooks!!  They can also babysit my daughter. (Should I trust
them?) I can also use some assistance with my Apex preparations and
meetings as well as for wafer and substrate packing for the show.  Too bad
I couldn’t have them for setting up our booth in a couple of weeks.

Week 51  Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
- I have a hectic week ahead, and I can really use help from the boys.  I
don't know much about their computer skills, but I need to carry out lot of
simulation work.  Since the work is mostly routine, I am sure they can pick
it up fast.  Then there are ESD measurements to be done. Since we are
closed on Monday, they can enjoy long weekend with their families, and show
up on Tuesday.

Week 52 Leland Woodall
-  I'm going to have the boys to review the new IATF 16949 standard, and at
the end of the week they can give me their take on how we're going to make
the transition from TS.  This will be an arduous task, as they usually get
to just play while they're here.  This time it's gotta be straight-up
work.  I've already apologized to them in advance...

Week 53 Scott Decker, UTAS
- assisted with ????


I hope everyone has a awesome week!

Dave Hillman
Rockwell Collins
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