Consider the following actions :
- 1.Detection of car crash/collision which results in the deployment of airbags almost instantaneously
- 2.Detection of accidental free fall of a laptop towards the ground which results in the immediate turning off of the hard drive
- 3.Detection of the tilt of the smartphone which results in the rotation of display between portrait and landscape mode
In how many of the above actions is the function of accelerometer required?
Show answer
Answer: C. An accelerometer measures acceleration and orientation. It senses the sudden deceleration in a crash to fire airbags, senses free fall to park a laptop's hard disk heads, and senses tilt to rotate a phone screen. So all three.
Watch for: Screen rotation feels like a gyroscope job, but basic auto-rotate relies on the accelerometer sensing gravity.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Wrong because all three actions use an accelerometer.
- B. Wrong because all three actions use an accelerometer.
- D. Wrong because all three actions use an accelerometer.
Source to check: STMicroelectronics / Bosch Sensortec MEMS accelerometer application notes (free-fall detection, tilt sensing, crash detection)
Answer from the official UPSC key. Written and fact-checked by AI against the official key. Spotted a mistake? Report it.