You use them every day without a second thought. Do you know who came up with them?
10 questions on the inventions that shaped daily life, from paper to the smartphone, and on the people who made them.
Pick your level
The normal quiz covers the inventions everyone knows and the names school taught us: the light bulb, the telephone, the aeroplane, the World Wide Web.
Hard mode looks at inventions born by accident, the women inventors history overlooked, and the patents behind everyday objects.
Few inventions have a single parent. Radio, television and the telephone all had several people racing for the same patent. The questions name the person history usually credits, and the explanations mention rivals where it matters.
Some of the most useful inventions came from people who never became famous, and hard mode gives several of them their due.
All ten easy level questions, with the answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: The phonograph
The phonograph. The first words he recorded were "Mary had a little lamb".
Correct answer: Email
Email. Ray Tomlinson sent the first network email in 1971 and chose the @ sign to separate user and computer.
Correct answer: The wheel
The wheel, used for pottery and carts more than 5,000 years ago.
Correct answer: Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming, in 1928, after mould grew on one of his bacteria cultures.
Correct answer: The telegraph
The electric telegraph, with the code that carries his name.
Correct answer: Apple
Apple, presented by Steve Jobs in January 2007.
Correct answer: The microwave oven
The microwave oven. Engineer Percy Spencer noticed the melted bar in his pocket in 1945.
Correct answer: Printing books
Printing books, thanks to reusable metal letters, around 1450.
Correct answer: Lego
Lego, whose name comes from the Danish "leg godt", "play well".
Correct answer: Charles Macintosh
Charles Macintosh, who sandwiched rubber between two layers of cloth. Dunlop is remembered for the pneumatic tyre.
Want to warm up before playing or double-check something? Open any question to reveal the correct answer and a short explanation.
Correct answer: The Wright brothers
Orville and Wilbur Wright, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The first flight lasted 12 seconds.
Correct answer: Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison's, with a carbon filament that lasted long enough to sell. In Britain, Joseph Swan was working on the same idea at the same time.
Correct answer: Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee, who proposed it in 1989 and put the first website online in 1991.
Correct answer: China
China. The court official Cai Lun is credited with improving papermaking around 105 AD. Egyptian papyrus is a different material.
Correct answer: Television
Television, showing moving images of faces to members of the Royal Institution at his Soho laboratory.
Correct answer: Post-it Notes
Post-it Notes. Spencer Silver created the low-tack adhesive in 1968; Art Fry used it for bookmarks in his hymn book, and the notes went on sale in 1980.
Correct answer: Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, first sold as a tonic at a drugstore soda fountain.
Correct answer: Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh. Elisha Gray filed papers for a similar device at the patent office the very same day.
Correct answer: The Rubik's Cube
The Rubik's Cube, by Ernő Rubik, who needed about a month to solve his own puzzle the first time.
Correct answer: Riveted work trousers, the first jeans
Copper-riveted work trousers. Davis, a tailor, had the idea of reinforcing pockets with rivets, and Strauss supplied the denim.
Stuck on one, or just curious how nasty it gets? Every hard mode question is here with its answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: Josephine Cochrane
Josephine Cochrane, of Illinois. Her company eventually became part of KitchenAid.
Correct answer: Stephanie Kwolek
Stephanie Kwolek, while looking for a lighter fibre for car tyres. Kevlar is five times stronger than steel for the same weight.
Correct answer: The windscreen wiper
A hand-operated windscreen wiper, after watching a tram driver lean out of the window to clear the glass.
Correct answer: Percy Shaw
Percy Shaw, of Halifax, said to have been inspired by the reflection of a cat's eyes on a dark road.
Correct answer: Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, with a steam-powered carriage designed to haul artillery.
Correct answer: Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage. Ada Lovelace's notes on the machine, published in 1843, include what is often called the first computer program.
Correct answer: Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr, with composer George Antheil, to stop radio-guided torpedoes from being jammed.
Correct answer: LászlĂł BĂrĂł
LászlĂł BĂrĂł. That's why many Britons still call a ballpoint pen a biro. Marcel Bich later made it cheap with the Bic Cristal.
Correct answer: The safety pin
The safety pin, which he sold for 400 dollars. The buyer made far more from it than he did.
Correct answer: Martin Cooper
Martin Cooper of Motorola, on a New York street, calling his rival Joel Engel at Bell Labs.