What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us? Quiz

Answer: Sunblock

The Roman amphitheatres were open-air structures most often used for sporting events and are similar to modern-day baseball or football stadiums. The earliest known example of a Roman amphitheatre was built in Pompeii in 80 B.C. Perhaps the best-known example, the Colosseum in Rome, was completed in 80 A.D.

Roman public bath houses were called thermae (or sometimes balnea). They can be seen as a very early example of a gym or health club. People went there to exercise or lift weights, then soak in the hot baths and/or apply oils and fragrances to themselves, and socialize with their friends and neighbours.

Romans invented the Codex, the first book that took the form of modern books, with separate pages bound together and placed in between covers. The invention held many advantages over the previously-used scroll (it was easier to hold and handle while reading, for example), and eventually replaced the scroll in all of Eurasia.

Sunblock was not developed until the 1930s.

Answer: Latitude and longitude

The compass and gunpowder are two of the things considered to be the 'Four great inventions of ancient China'; the other two are paper and printing. It is not known precisely when the magnetic compass was invented in China, but it could be as early as the 4th century B.C. It was irrefutably used as a direction finder by 1044 A.D., but perhaps not as a navigational device until the next century.

Gunpowder was developed by the Chinese between the 1st century A.D. and sometime around the 9th or 10th century A.D. Once it was understood and developed, it was used almost immediately as an element of war.

Playing cards (also known as money cards in ancient texts) existed in China as early as the 9th century A.D. The four 'suits' of the money cards were coins, strings of coins, myriads of strings, and tens of myriads.

Measures of latitude and longitude were developed by Greek astronomers. The first was probably Hipparchus (190-120 B.C.), whose system was further developed by Ptolemy in the 2nd century A.D.

Answer: Badminton

The Braille system of raised dots was created by Louis Braille in 1821, as a method of reading and writing for the seeing impaired. Louis Braille's 'language' was an improved version of a military code created by Charles Babier, called 'night writing' - a way for soldiers to communicate and read silently in the dark.

The discovery of margarine is credited to Michel Eugène Chevreul who discovered the fatty acid 'margaric acid' in 1813. The invention of the butter substitute is credited to another Frenchmen, Hippolyte Mège-Mouriés, who created oleomargarine in 1869.

Louis-Sébastien Lenormand made the first recorded jump with his invention the parachute, based on earlier designs by da Vinci, in 1783. It was further developed just a few years later as a means of emergency escape from a hot air balloon by Jean-Pierre Blanchard.

A game similar to badminton existed in ancient Greece. Another similar form was played in Japan in the 16th century. The modern game of badminton has Indian roots, and was further developed in the 19th century by British soldiers who had been stationed in India.

Answer: Rubik's Cube

The seed drill was invented by the agricultural technology pioneer Jethro Tull. The seed drill allowed farmers to sow seeds more efficiently and in proper fashion.

The invention of a system of interlinked hypertexts known as the World Wide Web is credited to Tim Berners-Lee, in 1989. Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium in 1994.

Worcestershire sauce was created by two druggists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, and first sold commercially in 1837.

The Rubik's Cube puzzle was invented in 1974 by Hungarian Erno Rubik, and was first sold by Ideal Toys in 1980.

Answer: The concept of pi

Physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit proposed his developed temperature scale in 1724. On the Fahrenheit scale, water freezes at 32 degrees, and boils at 212 degrees.

The Mohs scale of mineral hardness describes and ranks minerals by their resistance to being scratched. The scale was created by Friedrich Mohs in 1812.

The patent for the diesel engine was granted to German Rudolf Diesel in 1898.

The earliest known concept of pi (an accurate approximation of the length of circumference, based on radius) was developed by Egyptians.

Answer: Bikini

Pablum, a cereal for infants that comes pre-cooked and easy to prepare for serving, was created by a team of pediatricians and nutritionists at the Sick Kids' Hospital in Toronto, Ontario. It was first sold commercially in 1931.

Basketball was invented in the late 19th century by Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian educator, because he wanted to create an indoor game that was enough of a workout to be played by his students during the winter. The first official game of basketball was played in 1892 at a YMCA in Massachusetts, USA, where Naismith sometimes taught (he also taught at McGill University, in Montreal).

Snowblowers (electric, gas, or diesel-fueled snow removal machines) were first thought up by Robert Carr Harris, of New Brunswick, in 1870, but the first prototype of the snowblower as we know it was completed in 1925 by Arthur Sicard, of Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec. The machines were in fairly wide use around the Montreal area by 1927.

Bikini-like outfits can be traced back to ancient Greece, but the modern two-piece swimsuit was invented in France in 1946, by a boutique owner and a fashion designer, Louis Réard and Jacques Heim.

Answer: Popcorn

Ancient Egyptians created the 365-day calendar, based on a lunar calendar of twelve months of 30 days each, plus five extra days. In 238 B.C., an extra day was added to their calendar every four years.

Eye make-up was worn by Egyptians of all social classes. The wealthier Egyptians had nicer applicators and better eye palettes. Eye make-up, especially galena, was seen as protection from the the Evil Eye, as well as protection from the strong sun. Ancient Egyptians were also the first to use Kohl around their eyes.

Very rudimentary scissors have been discovered in ruins of ancient Egypt. Experts have placed their invention around 1500 B.C. Modern cross-blade scissors were invented in ancient Rome around 100 A.D., but they were not widely popular across Europe until the 16th century.

Popcorn is an invention of Native Americans, picked up by European settlers.

Answer: Celsius temperature scale

The periodic table of elements as we know it was created by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869. His intent was to display the periodic trends among the elements. The table has been amended over the years as more elements are discovered, but it is basically as Mendeleev created it.

Vodka was created in Russia in the 14th century. The word vodka was not applied to the beverage that we know until the 18th century; previously the term applied to very high-alcohol concoctions that were used primarily for medical use.

The first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite was Sputnik, launched in October 1957. The project was first proposed by Sergei Korolev in 1954, and was completed in 1956 by a large team of Soviet engineers.

The Celsius temperature scale was first created in 1740 by Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius, and was refined and named after him in 1742.

Answer: Dynamite

The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax. It was first presented to the world in 1841 at an exhibition in Brussels.

Modern asphalt used to pave roads was invented in 1870 by Edward de Smedt, a Belgian working at Columbia University in New York City. Despite being invented by a Belgian in America, it became known as 'French asphalt pavement'. The first road paved with de Smedt's invention was William Street in Newark, New Jersey.

Andreas Vesalius, sometimes called the founder of modern human anatomy, published a seven-volume human anatomy textbook in 1543, "De humani corporis fabrica" ("On the Structure of the Human Body").

Dynamite was invented by the Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel. It was first patented under the name dynamite in 1867.

Answer: Banknotes

The phonograph was invented by the great American inventor Thomas Edison, in 1877. He began working on it in May of that year, at first because he was playing around with ways to record telegraph messages for transmission by telephone. He unveiled the phonograph to the world a few months later, in November.

The world's first airplane was invented and flown by Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1903. Importantly, especially because of claims of earlier aviation pioneers, the Wright brothers' flying machine was the first to use controls specifically designed for fixed-wing flight.

A treat similar to the popular carnival snack cotton candy was first invented in the mid-18th century, but the process of machine-heating and spinning it (making it much easier and cheaper to produce) was developed by William Morrisson and John C. Wharton in 1897. They first served their confection, under the name 'fairy floss' at the World's Fair in 1904. It was renamed to cotton candy.

Paper currency (banknotes) can be traced back to ancient China, and they were certainly around before the United States of America was.