The Thursday Quiz is a twelve item is-it-or-isn't-it test of your knowledge, reasoning, stamina, and moxie!
Remember always the Fundamental Rules of the Thursday Quiz:
1. The Thursday Quiz is a POP quiz. No research, Googling, Wikiing, or use of reference books. Violators will never be able to look at themselves in the mirror again.
Wicked Clever Inventor Dudes2. Don't get all stressed out about it! It's supposed to be fun!
Here are twelve legends of science and technology, along with the devices they invented. Or shall we say, history being the murky business that it is, the devices for which they have a defensible claim for being described as the inventor. Except a few of the pairings are, of course, totally bogus. Which of the following IS and which ISN'T an accurate pairing of inventor and invention?
1. Alexander Graham Bell -- the telephone
2. Thomas Edison -- the phonograph, the commercially practical light bulb, and the motion picture projector
3. Enrico Fermi -- the nuclear reactor
4. Benjamin Franklin -- the magnifying glass and the gas oven
5. Paul von Hindenburg -- the Zeppelin
6. Thomas Jefferson -- the theodolite (a surveying tool)
7. Antoni van Leeuwenhoek -- the microscope
8. Samuel Morse -- the telegraph
9. Alfred Nobel -- dynamite
10. Igor Sikorsky -- the helicopter
11. Alessandro Volta -- the battery
12. Frank Lloyd Wright -- reinforced concrete
Submit your answers in the comments.
1. Yes, credited for it, but in my mind is that someone else came up with the idea first. But yes anyway.
ReplyDelete2. Yes
3. No.
4. Yes. Franklin stoves.
5. No, you're joking, aren't you?
6. Oh, sure, why not.
7. Love that name. Botanist, right? For some reason I associate the name with amoebas so I'll say yes.
8. Yes.
9. No.
10. No, but because I'm crediting Da Vinci here.
11. That just seems too convenient name-wise. No.
12. Reinforced with what? You're just putting this one in for Mrs. 5000 ... I'll end with a yes, though.
42!
1. Supposedly yes
ReplyDelete2. Hmm on the projector, though the dictaphone would be a yes along with the first two on your list.
3. Enrico was a busy boy, but I've never heard him credited for the whole thing!
4. No. (Bifocals, yes.)
5. No. (I am probably wrong.)
6. no
7. yes, but just call him Anton
8. the code, yes; but the telegraph? Oh, let's say, "What hath God wrought?" and give him the credit.
9. Yes
10. Hmmm. Wasn't it Da Vinci? ha ha. Sure-- there are choppers named for him, so let's say Yes
11. yeah (like I would know)
12. Well, he sure used enough of it-- I having attended Florida Southern where we had to live with his miserable designs.... but somehow I doubt that he invented this concept. Or I just don't want to give him credit.
1. is (although there are others who dispute it, he won the lawsuits)
ReplyDelete2. is - the Wizard of Menlo Park
3. is - I know he had something to do with nuclear power, but it may have been some other process and Michael is being tricksy again...
4. isn't - Franklin stove was not gas
5. isn't - President of Weimar Germany, Zeppelin invented the Zeppelin
6. is - seems likely
7. isn't - don't really know, but I have too many other is
8. is - same kind of thing as Bell
9. is go boom
10. is
11. isn't (not sure on that one, but it sounds too corny to be true)
12. No, he just drew pictures of things that others used concrete to build
1. Y (that's what we're taught anyhow)
ReplyDelete2. Y
3. N?
4. N
5. N (I was going to say Y, but I'm about to embark on a long list of Ys, so this is a sacrificial N)
6. Y
7. Y
8. Y
9. Y
10. N
11. Y
12. Y (I wouldn't have thought this, but I'm in a credulous mood this morning, apparently)
1n - he's credited, but i vaguely remember someone else actually doing it first
ReplyDelete2y - that guy was smrt
3y - best guess anyway
4n - he did a lot, but not those two i think
5n - wasn't it led?
6y - i have no idea, but i'll guess y
7y - ooooo. i vaguely remember this.
8n - right? i really feel like this is a trick, so i'm gonna say n.
9y - i have no earthly idea
10y - although da vinci really drew up the plans for the very first one.
11n - that's way too easy
12y - sure. why not?
1. Yes,
ReplyDelete2. yes
3 no
4. no
5. no
6. yes
7. sure, why not
8. yes
9 yes
10. yes
11. no
12. no
1 yes
ReplyDelete2 yes
3 uh, yes
4 he did the Franklin stove, but that was woodburning, and basic optics had been around a long time. maybe he came up with the handle. no
5 uh, no
6 uh, yes
7 yes
8 yes
9 yes
10 yikes, too many yeses, thus no
11 yes
12 OK, definitely a pioneer if not inventor--those sagging cantilevers at Fallingwater, for instance--yes
1. Yes
ReplyDelete2. Yes
3. Yes
4. No
5. No
6. Yes
7. Yes
8. Yes
9. No
10. No
11. No
12. Yes
...Like I'd know.
ReplyDelete1. Yes, right about the same time as some other dude--Bell beat him to the patent.
2. Sounds right.
3. No?
4. Nah.
5. Nope.
6. Sure.
7. Yes.
8. According to School House Rock (Science Rock), yes.
9. Strange enough to be true.
10. Yes.
11. No. Wasn't that the Egyptians?
12. No.
1. Yes.
ReplyDelete2. Yes.
3. No.
4. No.
5. No. We're doing our WWII unit in school.
6. Yes.
7. No.
8. Yes.
9. Yes.
10. No.
11. Yes.
12. No
And the official answers are:
ReplyDelete1. Alexander Graham Bell -- the telephone: YES. This one seems to have really drawn out the Bell haterz, but as far as I can tell, Bell has a highly defensible claim, in the sense of being the first to have, you know, actually made a working telephone.
2. Thomas Edison -- pretty much everything: YES.
3. Enrico Fermi -- the nuclear reactor. YES. Obviously not a one-man show, but he probably has the best individual claim.
4. Benjamin Franklin -- the magnifying glass and the gas oven. NO. The magnifying glass had been around basically forever. I didn't look up the gas oven, but I bet Franklin didn't invent it.
5. Paul von Hindenburg -- the Zeppelin. NO. Hindenburg was a German chancellor.
6. Thomas Jefferson -- the theodolite (a surveying tool). NO, although it sure seems like something he'd do. But the theodolite had been around since the early 1500s.
7. Antoni van Leeuwenhoek -- the microscope. YES.
8. Samuel Morse -- the telegraph. YES, although this is another one where tons of people were involved.
9. Alfred Nobel -- dynamite. YEP. Then he, as an ancient Mad magazine cartoon put it, endowed the Nobel Peace Prize to reward people who kept people from using dynamite on each other.
10. Igor Sikorsky -- the helicopter. SURE. Leonardo and probably thousands of others realized that rotating angles blades had the potential to provide upward thrust, but neither he nor anybody else came up with a way to make it happen. Experimental helicopters were built in the early 20th Century; Igor was the first to manufacture a production series of fully-functional craft, starting in the late 1930s.
11. Alessandro Volta -- the battery. YES.
12. Frank Lloyd Wright -- reinforced concrete. NAH. Reinforced concrete was being used as early as the 1860s.
So, relative newcomer Elaine makes it to the winner's circle a second time, this time bringing home that most cherished of prizes -- a Thursday Quiz Gold Star.
ReplyDeleteThe TQLXXX Silver goes to Cartophiliac. It's his 20th Star, making him only the fourth person to gather that many wins.
DrSchnell takes his seventh Blue Star, tieing Rex Parker for the greatest amount of Blue in the trophy case.
Greens go to Mrs.5000 and to Ben.
No. 10 is debatable depending on the definition of "helicopter", because De la Cierva's autogyro came earlier.
ReplyDeleteBut what does it matter, i forgot yesterday was thursday :(
On a visit to Monticello last year, it was pointed out that Jefferson was not much of an innovator / inventor at all. The only device he is credited with inventing is a tool that created copies of documents (picture a second pen that moves in synch with the writers primary quill.
ReplyDeleteOf course he did "invent" a few little institutions like the Univeristy of Virginia and the Library of Congress.
Sorry to miss the recent quiz season...it's been a weird 2009.