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Inventions and discoveries: GK questions and answers

Behind every machine and medicine there is a person who thought of it first. These questions match the great inventions and discoveries with the people credited for them.

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Ten questions picked at random from this topic, four choices each. Or go through every question as flash cards.

20 questions on inventions and discoveries

  1. Who invented the telephone? Alexander Graham Bell He was granted the patent in 1876.
  2. Who is credited with inventing the practical electric bulb? Thomas Edison He showed his long-lasting bulb in 1879.
  3. Who made the first successful powered aeroplane flight? Wright brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright flew in 1903.
  4. Who is credited with inventing the radio? Guglielmo Marconi Marconi shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909. J. C. Bose also did early work on radio waves.
  5. Who is credited with inventing television? John Logie Baird He gave the first public demonstration of television in 1926.
  6. Who is called the father of the computer? Charles Babbage He designed the Analytical Engine, a mechanical computer, in the 1830s.
  7. Who invented the World Wide Web? Tim Berners-Lee He proposed it in 1989 while working at CERN in Switzerland.
  8. Who discovered penicillin? Alexander Fleming He discovered it in 1928.
  9. Who developed the first vaccine, against smallpox? Edward Jenner He showed in 1796 that cowpox could protect a person from smallpox.
  10. Who discovered X-rays? Wilhelm Röntgen He discovered them in 1895 and received the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.
  11. Who discovered the element radium? Marie Curie She worked with her husband Pierre Curie.
  12. Who gave the law of gravitation? Isaac Newton The story goes that a falling apple set him thinking.
  13. Who gave the theory of relativity? Albert Einstein His famous equation is E = mc². He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.
  14. Who invented the printing press with movable type in Europe? Johannes Gutenberg He set up his press in Germany in the middle of the 15th century.
  15. Whose improvements to the steam engine helped start the Industrial Revolution? James Watt The unit of power, the watt, is named after him.
  16. Who invented dynamite? Alfred Nobel The Nobel Prizes are named after him.
  17. Which Indian scientist discovered the Raman effect? C. V. Raman National Science Day, 28 February, marks this discovery.
  18. Which Indian scientist showed that plants respond to stimuli and built the crescograph? Jagadish Chandra Bose He was also a pioneer in the study of radio waves.
  19. Who discovered the circulation of blood in the human body? William Harvey He published his finding in 1628.
  20. Who invented the stethoscope? René Laennec He invented it in France in 1816.

These are well-established facts, written in our own words and last checked on 11 November 2026. If your textbook says something different, follow your textbook and tell us.

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