Why is the 'black box' called the black box even though its not black?

Answer 1

The term Black Box is used casually, often by journalists, to refer to a collection of several different recording devices used in transportation: the flight data recorder, flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder in aircraft, the event recorder in railway diesel locomotives, the Event Data Recorder in automobiles and other recording devices in various vehicles. Black box (systems) is also a term used in physics and electronics to describe a mechanism in which the input and expected outputs are well understood but whose internal operations are deliberately and completely unknown, but this has no special connection with recording devices.
The black box term originated when after a meeting about the first commercial flight recorder, named the "Red Egg" for its colour and shape, someone commented that, "This is a wonderful black box." Black box is more a humorous cadigan than an accurate term, and almost never used within the flight safety industry.

Answer 2

Black box is technical jargon for a device or system or object when it is viewed primarily in terms of its input and output characteristics. Almost anything might occasionally be referred to as a black box: a transistor, an algorithm, the Internet.

Some other common uses are:
1.In computer programming and software engineering, black box testing is used to check that the output of a program is as expected given certain inputs. The term "black box" is used because the actual program being executed is not examined.
2.In transportation, a Black Box (transportation) refers to any of a number of systems designed to collect and preserve data for analysis after an accident: In aerospace, the term "black box" refers to a flight data recorder, an instrument designed to survive a catastrophic event which records the last few minutes of audio and instrument data from a complex system, such as an aircraft. (The actual recorders are painted a bright orange, not black, in order that they can be located quickly in the event of a disaster.

Hope that helps!!! Cheers!

Answer 3

I don't know why it is black but, I know it's usually the only thing that survives in a plane accident and I ask you - why isn't the whole plane made out of the same stuff as the Black Box?

Answer 4

It was initially called Black Box because the box was painted black and difficult to find in the wreckage. Afterwards they changed it to orange to make it easier to find in wreckage.

Answer 5

Because it's just like the little black book!
things that are secrets and personal are usually kept in it!
You only look into it when in despair!

Answer 6

Black is the symbolic color for death, doom, etc. The black box is usually only consulted after a disaster, hence the name "black box."

Answer 7

Flight data recorders used to be black (even though they're now orange), so the name stuck.

Answer 8

First of all, I bet it used to be black at one time. Most old aeronauticle devices were painted black to inhibit rust, and to hide it once it started.

second, once the plane has crashed and burnt it is usually black by then.

Answer 9

They had to have been black when they were used initially, otherwise the name would not make sense.

Answer 10

It's black after it's pulled from the charred wreckage.