The Most Important 'H' People Trivia Quiz

Answer: Portugal

Prince Henry the Navigator was the son of Portuguese King John I. In the interest of expanding the empire and converting 'heathens', Prince Henry founded a school for navigators in 1419. Through the work of scholars at his school, advances in the various technologies used in navigation were made, and several excellent seamen studied under the tutelage of Henry's finest experts. Largely because of his work, Portugal became the early European leader in sailing the high seas, and Portuguese sailors were the first to round the southern tip of Africa and reach India and the 'spice islands'.

Answer: No

On the contrary, Hammurabi (or better yet, Hammurapi) is considered the greatest ancient king of Babylonia, and the empire had reached its widest extent under his reign, the sixth of the Babylonian Amorite Dynasty. Besides drawing up the complex law code that bears his name, Hammurabi also worked hard to improve society through public works programs. Under his reign, Mesopotamia was united for the first time under one rule, quite a list of accomplishments for a single rule that lasted about 40 years.

Answer: Cell

Hooke's invention of the microscope allowed him to be among the first to observe the 'little boxes' that he would call 'cells'. Hooke's work also prompted Isaac Newton to write his 'Principia', which led to a controversy in which Hooke accused Newton of plagiarizing his theories about 'falling bodies'. Hooke's Law can be simply stated in Latin, 'Ut tensio, sic vis' (essentially, the deformation of a solid is proportional to the stress applied.)

Answer: Cos

Hippocrates of Cos lived during the 4th and 5th centuries B.C., and was the first to establish the study of holistic medicine. Though he died over 2000 years ago, doctors even today swear by the Hippocratic Oath that he developed! By the way, his name and the word hypocrite have nothing in common, that word coming from an ancient Greek term for 'actor'.

Answer: Persian Wars

Herodotus made a special analysis of the Persian Wars, which pitted the various Greek city-states against the colossal Persian Empire. His rich narrative history of the wars mark probably the first works of genuine significance in the field of history from a historiographical standpoint.

He is also considered by many to be the world's first ethnographer as a result of his travels and studies within the Persian realm.

Answer: First English-sponsored voyage to the new world

King Henry VIII, who reigned from 1509 to 1547, presided over some of the most significant events in English history. Most significant was his break with the Catholic Church, which was largely caused by the pope's refusal to grant Henry a marriage annulment. Ironically, Henry had been deemed a 'Defender of the Faith' prior to his significant act of rebellion.

It is true that exploration also thrived under Henry VIII, and that the royal navy that would one day dominate the world was built up under his reign, but the first exploration of America took place in 1497 when Italian navigator John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), under the auspices of English King Henry VII, first encountered the east coast of North America.

Answer: Blindness

Homer was said to have been blind, which makes his poetic accomplishments all the more extraordinary. Of course, there is some question to the validity of claims that he was the writer of the two epic works mentioned above. Recent scholarly research has shown that it is likely that both 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' were written by the same hand, so the possibility that Homer did indeed pen the two works is still good.

It must be noted, however, that the stories contained within both works were probably passed down orally for several generations before being finally compiled in written form.

Answer: Embryology

Harvey's great work, called 'An Anatomical Treatise on the Movement of the Heart and Blood in Animals', exploded the theories of Galen and Aristotle, who held fanciful ideas about the function of the heart. These ideas were preserved for hundreds of years before Harvey came along and clearly explained the function and mechanisms of the circulatory system. Harvey's other major work, 'On the Generation of Animals', is considered to be the first modern work of any consequence in the field of Embryology, and hence, we have another 'father' (of both physiology and embryology!)

Answer: False

Indeed, Heisenberg did win a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1932 for helping to create the science of quantum mechanics. Probably the most significant principle to come out of Heisenberg's work is the 'Uncertainty Principle', which states that it is impossible to know both the position and momentum of a particle.

Heisenberg's pronouncement of the 'Uncertainty Principle' proved so disturbing to Albert Einstein (who never accepted it) that it elicited the famous comment, 'I cannot believe that God plays dice with the universe.' Apparently, though...it could be just one giant craps game!

Answer: Helmholtz

Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz was a 19th century German scientist who, like Robert Hooke, was quite well-rounded. Aside from his discovery of the First Law of Thermodynamics, Helmholtz also invented the ophthalmoscope, the myograph and the opthalmometer, and explicated on the physiology of the human eye.

Helmholtz also developed the concept of free energy, which sounds great with the way gas prices have risen! Thank you for trying this quiz, please feel free to try my other alphabetic people quizzes if this one appeals to you.