Question 1

True or false: Farnsworth grew up on a farm in rural Utah and was largely self-taught in electronics.

Accepted Answer

True. Born in a log cabin in Beaver, Utah, he taught himself from magazines and built his first motor at age 11.

Question 2

True or false: Farnsworth's early inspiration for television came from watching plowed fields in rows as a teenager.

Accepted Answer

True. While plowing a potato field as a teen, he imagined scanning images line by line, leading to his image dissector tube.

Question 3

True or false: Farnsworth died a billionaire from his television patents.

Accepted Answer

False. Despite his genius, Farnsworth struggled financially and died in 1971 with little money, partly due to patent battles.

Question 4

True or false: Farnsworth invented the cathode ray tube, which made modern television screens possible.

Accepted Answer

False. The CRT was invented earlier by Karl Ferdinand Braun in 1897; Farnsworth's innovation was in capturing and transmitting images.

Question 5

True or false: Philo Farnsworth was the first person to fully transmit a television image electronically.

Accepted Answer

True. In 1927, Farnsworth transmitted a simple line image, beating rivals like Zworykin to the first all-electronic TV system.

Question 6

True or false: Farnsworth's television system was first demonstrated publicly at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

Accepted Answer

False. RCA's rival system debuted there; Farnsworth's first public demo was earlier, in 1934 at the Franklin Institute.

Question 7

True or false: Farnsworth opposed the use of television for commercial advertising and believed it should educate.

Accepted Answer

True. He called TV a 'great educational tool' and was dismayed by its early shift to ads, but had little power to stop it.

Question 8

True or false: Farnsworth invented the first fully functional television remote control.

Accepted Answer

False. The remote control was invented later by others; Farnsworth focused solely on the television's core electronic transmission technology.

Philo Farnsworth Trivia Questions