45 inventions and discovery trivia questions and answers
The set links household devices, communications, transport, medicine, materials, laboratory tools, computing, navigation, industrial processes, and the people who developed them.
Updated
Questions 1–20
Who is credited with inventing the World Wide Web?
medium
Berners-Lee
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee?oldid=1364264098
Which invention lets people see distant objects in space?
easy
A telescope
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescope?oldid=1352125963
What household machine keeps food cold?
easy
A refrigerator
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator?oldid=1362715767
Which brothers built and flew the first successful powered airplane?
easy
The Wright brothers
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers?oldid=1363216710
What did Alexander Graham Bell receive the first U.S. patent for in 1876?
easy
The telephone
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell?oldid=1366001031
Which invention uses a needle to show magnetic north?
easy
Compass
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass?oldid=1362279305#Design
What machine did Johannes Gutenberg improve for mass-producing books?
easy
Movable-type printing press
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press?oldid=1364130523#History
Which device turns sunlight directly into electricity?
medium
A solar cell
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell?oldid=1361196839
What technology was Percy Spencer’s microwave oven based on?
medium
British radar technology
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven?oldid=1365212135
What did Louis Braille create for readers who are blind?
easy
A tactile writing system
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braille?oldid=1363763862
What process inscribes and recreates sound waves?
medium
Sound recording and reproduction
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_recording_and_reproduction?oldid=1365449655
What safety device inflates during a car crash?
easy
An airbag
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbag?oldid=1354934129
Who demonstrated in 1796 that cowpox infection conferred immunity against smallpox?
medium
Edward Jenner
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_vaccine?oldid=1362191119
What did the first practical steam engines pump out of mines?
hard
Water
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_engine?oldid=1364866925
Which office invention fastens papers with a small bent wire?
easy
A paper clip
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_clip?oldid=1356536849
What is point-to-point distance communication by electric signals over wire?
medium
Electrical telegraphy
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_telegraph?oldid=1365702343
What was Velcro inspired by in nature?
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Burs of burdock
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velcro?oldid=1365770566#History
Who produced and detected the radiation now known as X-rays?
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Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_R%C3%B6ntgen?oldid=1358692749
What did the invention of the bar code make faster at store checkouts?
easy
Automate supermarket checkout systems
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcode?oldid=1365928510
Why was the safety elevator important to skyscrapers?
medium
A safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Otis?oldid=1365889810
Questions 21–40
What links a keyboard, a ribbon, and a carriage return?
easy
A typewriter
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter?oldid=1365428254
How did penicillin first reveal itself to Alexander Fleming?
medium
The mould killed the bacteria
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_of_penicillin?oldid=1364421317#Background
Who invented the phonograph in 1877?
medium
Thomas Edison
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph?oldid=1364939187
What is the purpose of a seismograph?
medium
A continuous record of ground motion
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seismometer?oldid=1351431406#Nomenclature
Which engineer’s improved engine used a separate condenser to save fuel?
hard
Watt
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watt?oldid=1364471942
At sea, which navigation problem did the marine chronometer help sailors solve?
hard
Calculating longitude
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_chronometer?oldid=1347030045#History
Which material did Charles Goodyear make more useful through vulcanization?
medium
Rubber
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcanization?oldid=1355226272#History
ENIAC could electronically solve which broad class of problems?
hard
A large class of numerical problems
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC?oldid=1365289299
Which physicist shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for discovering radioactivity?
hard
Henri Becquerel
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Becquerel?oldid=1361409560
How does a gyroscope help a vehicle navigate?
hard
Measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroscope?oldid=1360681379
What was the original purpose of bubble wrap?
hard
Wallpaper
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_Wrap_(brand)?oldid=1272843340#History
Which laboratory tool did Robert Bunsen help popularize for heating?
easy
A Bunsen burner
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunsen_burner?oldid=1310422827
What makes the gap in a thermos slow heat transfer?
medium
Partially evacuated of air
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_flask?oldid=1356376168
What kind of traffic signal did Garrett Morgan design?
hard
A manually operated traffic signal
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_Morgan?oldid=1361168428#Traffic_signal
What did Ada Lovelace describe for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine?
hard
The algorithm in Note G
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace?oldid=1360639004#First_published_computer_program
Which process uses light to make detailed patterns on computer chips?
hard
Photolithography
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photolithography?oldid=1360556521
What was the first synthetic plastic called?
hard
Bakelite
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite?oldid=1365791986
Who developed the pasteurization process named after him?
easy
Louis Pasteur
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasteurization?oldid=1365836055
What principle allows a hydraulic press to multiply force?
hard
Pascal's principle
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_law?oldid=1363145553#Applications
Which invention did Hedy Lamarr co-design using frequency hopping?
hard
A radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr?oldid=1365774365
Questions 41–45
How does a catalytic converter reduce harmful car exhaust?
medium
By catalyzing a redox reaction
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalytic_converter?oldid=1365087910
Which two inventors independently created the first AC commutator-free polyphase induction motors?
hard
Galileo Ferraris and Nikola Tesla
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_motor?oldid=1357672203#History
What does CRISPR-Cas9 allow scientists to change with high precision?
medium
The genomes of living organisms
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR_gene_editing?oldid=1363447485
Which device made by Evangelista Torricelli measures atmospheric pressure?
medium
The barometer
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barometer?oldid=1365704103#History
Why did the Haber-Bosch process transform agriculture?
hard
Increase the productivity of agricultural land
Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process?oldid=1352979226#Economic_and_environmental_aspects
How to play
Tell players whether the response should name a person, device, process, material, or problem solved. When two inventors are requested, announce that both names are needed before reading the rest.
Plan the round and team scores
8 turns × 60 seconds = 8 minutes of play, plus instructions and breaks.
60
These are adjustable house rules. Pause whenever the group needs more time.
Team 1: 0
Team 2: 0