competitions & quizzes...pit your wits & win with Planet Science
inspiration quiz
howzat for genius!
Inspiration, dedication, motivation, perspiration …
You need plenty of all of these to come up with a world-changing invention…
Sir Clive Sinclair and Trevor Baylis OBE are two of the UK’s most famous and successful inventors, and we’ve rounded up three fantastic prizes which will allow you to bask in the sight and sounds of their ingenuity.
Trevor’s Freeplay Wind-Up Torch. Batteries not included – because they don’t have to be! Just give the handle a few turns, and never be left in the dark again …
And Sir Clive’s X1 Button Radio. It’s the size of a 10p coin, and it sits in your ear and picks up FM radio … And if you’ve got a bouffy hairdo, no-one’ll even know it’s there.
All you have to do to win a Torch & Button Radio set, is get the following 10 inventive questions correct.
Ready?
GOOD LUCK!
01 Legend has it that when Archimedes discovered his law of buoyancy he was in the bath. It is thought that he leapt out of the bath shouting. What did he shout?
Banzai
Doh
Eureka!
Where's the soap?
02 Isaac Newton was one of the greatest physicists of all time, and one of his most important discoveries concerned the force of gravity. Bizarrely, Newton is thought to have been inspired by a piece of fruit. Which fruit?
Mango
Banana
Apple
Watermelon
03 Velcro was invented by George deMestral who took the sticky idea from nature - what inspired the invention?
Monkeys clinging to their mothers
Burs (stickyweed) sticking to his socks after a walk in the woods
His pet gecko sticking to the inside of its tank
Sticks
04 Which famous scientist and inventor said "Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration"?
Faraday
Einstein
Edison
Franklin
05 Love inspired Alfred Bird's invention. His wife had an allergy to eggs, but loved desserts. Which alternative form of a popular 'eggy' dessert did he invent?
Custard Powder
Meringue
Souffle
Rhubarb Crumble
06 Science Fiction sometimes predates and inspires science! What did Arthur C. Clarke envision which has become a reality?
Text messaging
Geostationary satellites
Formula One racing cars
X Box games
07 Which ancient Greek was the inspiration behind 'modern' medicine, being the first person to attribute disease to physical causes - rather than considering it a punishment from the gods?
Medicius
Hippocrates
Subtractius
Phlegmium
08 Darwin's idea about evolution was partially inspired by animals on the Galapagos Islands. He found 14 similar species of one animal not found on the mainland and he concluded that one type had evolved into many others. What were these animals?
Earthworms
Finches
Giraffes
Badgers
09 Edward Jenner developed one of the first vaccines. He showed scientifically that an exposure to cowpox immunised someone against fatal smallpox. How did he find this out?
He noticed that milkmaids did not have a reaction to smallpox
He noticed that cows did not have a reaction to smallpox
He noticed that people with a diet containing lots of beef did not have a reaction to smallpox
He noticed that people who had had chickenpox did not have a reaction to smallpox
10 One element in the periodic table is named after the German for goblin. It got its name because miners sometimes unexpectedly died while mining it. Originally it was thought that the mines haunted but now it is known that it was arsenic poisoning because arsenic was also present. What is this element?
Krypton
Tantalum
Cobalt
Gold
Answers:
1= Eureka! • 2= Apple • 3= Burs • 4= Edison • 5= Custard Powder • 6= Geostationary satellites • 7= Hippocrates • 8= Finches• 9= Milkmaids • 10= Cobalt
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