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Famous inventions quiz

Ten inventions that changed the world.

10 multiple-choice questions, with the answer explained after each one.

Answer each question, see why, and beat your best score.

All 10 questions and answers

Want to check an answer or run the quiz out loud? Every question is here, with the answer hidden until you open it.

  1. Who developed a printing press with movable type in Europe, around 1440?
    • Johannes Gutenberg
    • William Caxton
    • Leonardo da Vinci
    • Galileo
    Show answer

    Johannes Gutenberg. The Gutenberg Bible followed in the 1450s.

  2. Who was granted the patent for the telephone in 1876?
    • Alexander Graham Bell
    • Nikola Tesla
    • Thomas Edison
    • Guglielmo Marconi
    Show answer

    Alexander Graham Bell. Others were working on similar ideas at the same time.

  3. Who made the first powered, controlled aeroplane flight, in 1903?
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Louis Blériot
    • Lawrence Hargrave
    • The Wright brothers
    Show answer

    The Wright brothers. At Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

  4. Who discovered penicillin, in 1928?
    • Marie Curie
    • Joseph Lister
    • Alexander Fleming
    • Louis Pasteur
    Show answer

    Alexander Fleming. Howard Florey's team later made it into a medicine.

  5. Who developed the first smallpox vaccine, in 1796?
    • Edward Jenner
    • Robert Koch
    • Louis Pasteur
    • Jonas Salk
    Show answer

    Edward Jenner. He used material from cowpox.

  6. Who first publicly demonstrated a working television, in 1926?
    • Alexander Graham Bell
    • John Logie Baird
    • Philo Farnsworth
    • Thomas Edison
    Show answer

    John Logie Baird. Baird was a Scottish inventor.

  7. Who invented dynamite and later founded famous prizes?
    • Alfred Nobel
    • Albert Einstein
    • Thomas Edison
    • Henry Ford
    Show answer

    Alfred Nobel. The Nobel Prizes were first awarded in 1901.

  8. Whose improvements made the steam engine far more efficient?
    • George Stephenson
    • James Watt
    • Benjamin Franklin
    • Isaac Newton
    Show answer

    James Watt. The watt, a unit of power, is named after him.

  9. Who is credited with making the electric light bulb commercially practical, around 1879?
    • Thomas Edison
    • Michael Faraday
    • Joseph Swan only
    • Nikola Tesla
    Show answer

    Thomas Edison. Joseph Swan developed bulbs at the same time in England.

  10. Who is credited with pioneering long-distance radio communication?
    • Samuel Morse
    • Alexander Graham Bell
    • Heinrich Hertz
    • Guglielmo Marconi
    Show answer

    Guglielmo Marconi. He sent a transatlantic radio signal in 1901.

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