English Inventions #1

I have a couple of qualms with this one. Firstly, plastic isn't really a moldable material. You can't mold it to something else once it's been set. It will just break.

I'm also not sure why a corkscrew is "ironically" not invented in France. Corkscrew isn't a french word. Cork isn't. Screw isn't. That clue makes no sense.

Lastly, are you sure sugar isn't the top ingredient in Coke? :)

I believe the irony referred to with the corkscrew comes from the fact that France is very famous for its wine.

Symmetrik is right...irony is where the result is the opposite of the intention...and is often used incorrectly (more often than not).

It should be worded "Funnily enough" instead

No one is saying they legitimately expected France to have invented the corkscrew. It's just a joke playing on the stereotype of the French liking wine. It would be more misleading to say the fact is interesting or intriguing. "Ironic" at least makes it seem more obvious that it's a joke.

Yes, it's obvious that that was the intention, but the clue is still very poorly phrased. As pointed out, the origin of the corkscrew not being French is not ironic at all. It's not really enough of a clue to rely on people's minds instantly going to wine when France is mentioned and connecting it to 'opening device'. It's a bit of a stretch.

I also guessed sugar first, then stopped to think about it, and thought of the correct answer.

I also tried sugar, and corn syrup, before getting the right idea. I then tried water, CO2 and carbonation before finally giving up.

For plastic, well, considering that before the material was invented, "plastic" as an adjective basically meant "mouldable".

I think for the plastic one, they are talking about it's ability to be moulded into any shape before setting. When you make something from plastic you usually put it in a mould, and then let it set. a couple of the definitions for the word "Mould" actually include the example of a plastic mould. - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/mould - For the coke one, sugar is not the top ingredient. it's water. It goes in order of the amount of each ingredient and there is definitely more water than sugar. I think maybe asking for carbonated is a bit nit picky but that's just my opinion.

@roleybob: Nope. Plastic is definitely a material. Hence why you can say "This is made of plastic." There are different types of plastic just as there are different types of rock. Both materials. The first four words of the Wikipedia article on plastic: "Plastic is a material".

I've never heard anyone refer to a hoover as a Dyson other than when they're specifying the actual brand name of their hoover. Calling a hoover a "henry" is a thing.

No, can you not allow hoover

im sorry you cant do a quiz in which English people invented things and still call football by its American name

Soccer is an abbreviation for association football and it was created by British. The majority of the world adopted football whilst USA adopted soccer.

Plenty of us Brits still call it soccer - especially in areas where rugby is as popular or more popular.

Well said, Arron

Soccer's just the older posh British name for association football, in opposition to rugger.

Heck, they can't even write down 'hoover'! Who are these people and what are they doing with the language Brits invented?

Some say it was actually invented by the French

Synthetic moldable material immediately made me think of Play-Doh and Silly Putty. How about "Cheap modern substitute for nearly everything formerly made of wood, glass or metal"?

Haha, I like it.

I tried plasticine, which was lucky as it begins with plastic.

Come on is ven not good enough?

Can you please accept “Ven” for Venn Diagram? I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t getting it right.

It's incorrect, there's no good reason to accept it

The weird one about the "opening device" had me wondering if Americans had a strange French name for a Yale lock, or a mortice lock or any other of opening devices. I was only thinking of doors and windows when I saw "opening device".

Come on. You can't invent electrons or Hydrogen. Or the helix in DNA. The Brits invented lots of things. I'm sure you can think of a few replacements.

It includes inventions and discoveries. Though they could expand the title.

Can you not have soda or soda water for carbonated water?

So what do we call it??

It might be a question of taste, but I'd say Newton and Leibniz discovered calculus, not invented it. It's not like doing it any other way gets you results at all. You don't say Newton invented gravity either, or do you? -- Also wondered for a long time what do you put in Coke really? It's water, carbondioxide and sugar, not? Didn't think of combining the two.

try reading the clue: "Branch of mathematics simultaneously

invented by Newton and Leibniz"

If this is an English quiz, could we PLEASE have soccer written as football? You Americans with your differen words... It's confusing.

If there's a quiz on British inventions, we'd need a lot more for all the other great Scottish and Welsh inventions.

"Soccer" smh