Inventions by Country #1

For each selected invention or discovery, name the country where it originated.

Guess the modern day country. Answer must correspond to highlighted box

Dates are approximate

Some answers used more than once

Quiz idea: Milanthro

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Last updated: August 9, 2019

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First submitted	May 22, 2013
Times taken	43,033
Average score	58.3%
Rating	4.43

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Invention	Year	Country
Gunpowder	700s	China
Airplane	1903	United States
Automobile	1885	Germany
Bikini	1946	France
Chess	500s	India
Coffee	1400s	Ethiopia / Yemen
Espresso	1884	Italy
Compass	1000s	China
Democracy	400s BC	Greece
Dynamite	1867	Sweden
Eyeglasses	1286	Italy
Golf	1400s	United Kingdom

Invention	Year	Country
Hot Air Balloon	1783	France
Locomotive	1804	United Kingdom
Basketball	1891	United States / Canada
Monosodium Glutamate	1908	Japan
Orange Carrot	1500s	Netherlands
Pizza	?	Italy
Psychoanalysis	1890s	Austria
Rubik's Cube	1974	Hungary
Satellite	1957	Russia
Silk	3500 BC	China
Stock Market	1602	Netherlands
7-Day Week	?	Iraq

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104 Recent Comments

Level 26

Jul 13, 2013

Surprised Ethiopia is where Coffee originated from, when you consider that I as well as others would expect it to have been a new world (South America) discovery.

+11

Level 82

Jul 13, 2013

tons of foods come from the Americas, but why would you think coffee did? Has been around forever. and the most popular form is called coffee arabica. Some claim it was first made in Yemen, but the histories of Yemen, Ethiopia, Somalia and the surrounding countries are all pretty intertwined.

Level 67

May 20, 2014

Coffee production was introduced to the New World, just as cocoa production was moved from the New World to Africa, in the hope of outrunning native pests.

Level 44

Jan 18, 2015

hah guessed all of those but ethiopia lol

+11

Level 90

Jul 13, 2013

You should totally read the legend of how coffee was discovered. It involves an Ethiopian goatherd and some hyperactive goats!

Level 82

Jul 13, 2013

same story circulates around the Arabian peninsula as well.

Level 73

Oct 28, 2019

I went to an Ethiopian restaurant in Toronto and their menu has this story printed on it.

Level 68

Dec 17, 2022

Coffee comes from Africa and Chocolate comes from America but today most Coffee is grown in America and most chocolate is grown in Africa.

Level 82

Jul 13, 2013

Some nits that could be picked but I'll pass. Got almost everything almost right away except for MSG (guessed China- I was close), carrots (had no idea), the Rubik's Cube (was guessing a lot of European countries but didn't get the answer), and the stock market (should have known.. duh)

+12

Level 90

Jul 13, 2013

Carrots were originally a whitish-yellow color. The Dutch bred them to be orange in honor of the House of Orange, which was leading the fight for independence against Spain!

Level 82

Jul 13, 2013

cool. Never knew that. thanks for sharing. :) I thought they were orange because of beta keratin.

Level 23

Jul 13, 2013

How about purple carrots? :D

Level 71

Oct 15, 2014

Huh, you learn something new every day.

@kalbahamut: Beta carotene. Keratin would be in your hair and nails.

Level 39

Apr 3, 2015

Some claim it is a myth that the Dutch bred carrots to be orange for nationalist purposes, and also that the orange carrot existed before the Dutch bred them http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history3.html

Level 66

Oct 29, 2019

I believe there were many different colours of carrots around, and the Dutch just isolated the one they liked, though I may be wrong.

Level 63

Dec 20, 2022

Given that this was all before the age of GMOs, carrots that turned orange through some natural genetic mutation must have existed already, but it was the Dutch who selectively bred them to isolate the orange variety.

Level 71

Jul 10, 2023

A huge number of our produce fruits and vegetables only existed the way we know them after Dutch horticulturalists made them that way.

Level 66

Dec 10, 2015

how was guessing China close re MSG?

Level 68

Dec 10, 2015

...because China is geographically near Japan, the correct answer. ':|

Level 82

Jun 27, 2016

also, Chinese food, similar to some Japanese cuisine, is loaded with MSG.

Level 47

Dec 10, 2015

MSG was first sold in my country by Japanese-based company, and it is now advertised related with the term umami which is the fifth taste discovered by Japanese scientist.

Level 73

Oct 28, 2019

I always thought the Rubik's cube was a Russian invention for some reason.

Level 71

Dec 17, 2022

Maybe you were thinking of Tetris? Which was invented in Russia. Obviously they're very different, but they both involve colorful blocks

+10

Level 14

Jul 13, 2013

Kind of frusterating that America invented basketball since it was Dr James Naismith (a Canadian) who developed the game. I know he was in the states when he did invent it, but still gotta give my Canada a little love in this quiz!

+10

Level 68

Jul 26, 2015

Yup. I guessed Canada first and only begrudgingly yielded to putting in USA.

Level 46

Sep 12, 2017

Canadian invented it, therefore it is a Canadian invention

Level 75

Oct 28, 2019

The quiz is called "Inventions by Country #1"

The instructions say "For each selected invention or discovery, name the country where it originated."

Nowhere does it say "Name the nationality of the inventor / discoverer"

Level 89

Oct 28, 2019

Hi own choice was the U.S.A. He ditched Canada.

Level 64

Dec 17, 2022

Deathsunglasses do you then accept the responsibility of the Canadian man that invented what we now know as “American cheese”

Level 65

Aug 2, 2023

Yes, we will happily take responsibility for American Cheese. After all, we also invented Baseball, Apple Pie, and Superman, we will take any chance to slowly conquer the American national identity.

Level 23

Jul 13, 2013

Technically, pizza first originated from China - yes, it is slightly different and it was not called 'pizza' in China, but Marco Polo helped Italy produce Pizza.

+13

Level 82

Jul 15, 2013

you've got your urban legends confused. The popular (false) story is that Marco Polo brought pasta (noodles) back from China. Not pizza. The origin of pizza really depends on how you define pizza. Food that has been called pizza or something similar, and born some resemblance to pizza, has been around longer than anyone knows for sure. It probably originated in Greece (pita), Turkey or Syria. It's some of the oldest food in the world. Neopolitan flat bread was invented in Naples, Italy, and was much more similar to what most people think of as pizza than the stuff that came before which typically did not include cheese or tomato sauce. However, the pizza that is popular around the globe today was first made in Little Italy in New York City by Italian immigrants. Other popular variations sprouted up in Chicago and elsewhere, but usually when you order pizza almost anywhere in the world what you are getting is New York style pizza.

Level 82

Jul 15, 2013

In the Middle East today they eat something that is probably much closer to the original pizza precursor. Warm flat bread with some simple toppings spread over it, usually olive oil and zatar (a kind of seasoning), or sometimes spinach or cheese or olives. Often folded over on itself. I have this stuff for breakfast most days.

+10

Level 55

Jul 17, 2013

Ecstatic that you used my idea for a quiz!!! Also I think you should accept Brazil as the inventor of the plane as well. The States and Brazil both have claims on that.

Level 76

Oct 28, 2019

so does New Zealand. and maybe other countries too.

Level 65

Oct 28, 2019

UK has a fairly good claim too, with Sir George Cayley, although his aeroplane was really just a glider...

Level 71

Oct 28, 2019

Soooo... He has a claim to inventing the airplane with his invention that's not an airplane? Sure, it adds up.

Level 35

Jun 10, 2022

The north americans invented a catapult airplane... Santos dumont took off the ground...

Level 64

Dec 17, 2022

This is discounted when we know that the Wright’s were making non-catapult flights before DuMont, as well as the use of a catapult does not make something not a plane

Level 66

Oct 24, 2013

nice!

Level 38

Dec 10, 2015

Would've loved an Aussie invention. *sighs* But that's impossible, because there are too many stuck-up Americans on here who hate Aussies.

Level 82

Dec 10, 2015

Where?

+12

Level 75

Dec 10, 2015

I haven't seen any abuse from Americans toward the Aussies - my daughter did a study abroad there and loved your country - but apparently there is at least one Aussie who hates Americans.

Level 66

Dec 10, 2015

Well it depends on who you ask.

Level 69

Mar 30, 2016

So many more than one... So many

Level 74

Apr 2, 2020

Yeah, if anything, I would suggest there is an enormous amount of Australophilia among Americans. There may, in fact, be only two types of Americans: those who have visited Australia and loved it and those who want to. Don't take good-natured ribbing for antipathy.

+10

Level 82

Aug 4, 2016

Re: stuck-up Americans, I suspect the reverse is true. Americans in my experience are extremely positive about Australia and Australians, but Australians love to bash America.

Level 57

Mar 28, 2017

ive never met an american that had something bad to say about Australia, most think its pretty awesome over there

Level ∞

Aug 9, 2019

It's weird. Of all the countries in the world, Australia is (except Canada) the most culturally similar to the U.S.. And yet in Australia it is acceptable to call Americans "seppos". You can look up where this comes from. It isn't flattering. I honestly think Australians see themselves in the mirror when they look at America and they don't like what they see. It's a shame.

Level 80

Sep 5, 2019

Have never heard an American called a seppo by an Australian, had to look that up. The historical basis of anti-American sentiment in Australian dates back to WW2 and the relationships between US troops based here and the wives/girlfriends of Australian troops who for the first several years of the war were stationed in Europe. The media at the time set up a cartoon stereotype of Americans as brash/arrogant and some of it has stuck many decades later.

Level 67

Oct 28, 2019

I had the same thought. Americans can be pretty obnoxious about almost any other country, but I really don't think I have ever heard an American make an earnest negative comment about Australia as a country, and certainly not Australian people. Americans love them, probably more than they love any other nationality now that I think about it. I have no idea where that commenter was getting his idea from.

Level 75

Oct 29, 2019

@manchesterutd10 I once heard an American say "I don't believe in Australia"

Level 82

Dec 18, 2022

HinesBrothers, "not believing in australia" is an internet joke meme.

Level 64

Oct 28, 2019

I have never heard of a single American hating Australians. Not one. And I am American.

Level 77

Dec 10, 2015

Just happened to see a documentary where the Dutch East India company was explained. So knew the answer to stock market!

Level 24

Dec 10, 2015

ummm... chess was invented in mongolia. not india.

Level 76

Dec 15, 2015

I googled it and found tons of references to India. Some to arabian countries. One or two to China. None to Mongolia. Not sure where you came up with that.

Level 76

Oct 28, 2019

I had also heard Iran

Level 53

Oct 28, 2019

If chess would've been invented in Mongolia then there would be a LOT more knighs.

Level 62

Dec 20, 2022

And the bishop would be a goat instead.

Level 41

Dec 10, 2015

I believe that basketball was derived from an ancient sport played by one of the Mesoamerican civilizations.

Level 55

Dec 10, 2015

Basketball was invented by a Canadian. So shouldn't the answer be Canada?

Here's a link to a Heritage Minute about the invention of basketball, produced by the Canadian government about the Canadian invention of basketball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxAYQGfdUWk

Level 82

Dec 10, 2015

The instructions clearly say to name the country of origin, not the nationality of the inventor.

Level 76

Dec 15, 2015

McIntosh Apples, Instant Replay, the Foghorn, the egg carton.....lots of Canadian inventions out there. But not Basketball. Hockey maybe. But not B-ball.

Level 73

Oct 28, 2019

There's some debate about where hockey was actually invented, there's some evidence that it was played in the UK as early as the 1790s which seems to put them before Canada, but I don't think it's really known for sure

Level 39

Jan 26, 2016

Coffee is from Mexico (Aztecs and Mayan drank it for milleniums)

Basketball is from Canada, USA just claims to have invented it.

+10

Level 32

Mar 10, 2016

You got confused between coffee and cocoa. Ethiopians and Yemeni has been drinking coffees since the Roman times

Level 64

Dec 17, 2022

Basketball was invented in the US. It was just a Canadian man that invented it.

Level 32

Mar 10, 2016

I know the story of Bikini's invention, but I forgot the inventor. Should've guessed it though

Very surprised that not many get Ethiopia. Ethiopians coffees are very famous and more diverse than Brazilian coffee.

Fun fact: Yemeni and Ethiopians has been trading coffees for Millennias and the name 'mocha' came from a port in Yemen where a lot of trading took place

Level 82

Aug 4, 2016

It took me all of 3 seconds to get carrots even though as far as I'm aware that is not something I've ever heard before. I can only guess it was to do with the association of orange with the Netherlands and it just happened to work.

Level 63

Jan 24, 2017

Of course orange carrots had to be a Dutch invention. :D

Level 16

Feb 5, 2018

Brazil is the inventor of the airplane....

Level 89

Oct 28, 2019

Hahahaha

Level 64

Dec 17, 2022

Brazil really needs to let this idea go

Level 37

Dec 18, 2022

The creator of the plane was clearly Santos Dumont, he didn't need a catapult for the plane to go up, just fix it and the quiz is great

Level 23

May 9, 2018

The inventor of Basketball was Canadian. Did he invent it in the USA?

Level ∞

Aug 9, 2019

Yes

Level 50

Aug 16, 2018

I'm so proud to see my lovely country Hungary on the list ♡

Level 48

Oct 8, 2018

the seven day week got me...watched too many programmes on how the Brits in some industries gained a half day holiday during the working week... (Sunday was a day of prayer)

Level 49

Oct 25, 2018

the 7 day week was actually made by the aztecs

+12

Level 85

Jun 10, 2019

Really? Just searched it and read that they had 13 day weeks. Regardless, the Babylonians predate the Aztecs by thousands of years!

Level 70

Oct 28, 2019

The invention of the airplane (a proper airplane, not a catapult-propelled glider) should really be atributted to Santos Dumont, not the Wright Brothers...

Level 64

Dec 17, 2022

The Wright Flyer was not a glider. Using a catapult to takeoff does not remove the status of “plane” from an aircraft, otherwise any seaborne catapult launched aircraft would no longer be considered a plane. Not only that, but it was making self powered takeoffs before Dumonts as well.

Level 79

Oct 28, 2019

Why is basketball the only one out of alphabetical order?

Level 63

Oct 28, 2019

Basketball was invented IN the states, but BY a Canadian (James Naismith from Almonte, Ontario. Depending on the criteria of your quiz, this should be altered, or at least add mention.

Level 63

Oct 28, 2019

Or maybe change the write up to "Choose the country it was invented in" instead of "where it originated" as that is a bit open to interpretation.

Level 90

Oct 28, 2019

Doesn’t that mean the same thing?

Level 28

Oct 28, 2019

I know it says "modern day" country in the rules, but could you at least accept "Babylon" as an alternate answer for the 7 day week?

Level 54

Oct 28, 2019

24/24. One of my favourite quizzes on this site.

Level 76

Oct 30, 2019

Not Burkini Faso for bikini?

Level 54

Nov 9, 2019

That's where the burkini is from ;)

Level 50

Nov 14, 2019

The first known stock exchange opened in Bruges (modern day Belgium) in 1309, 300 years earlier than Dutch East India Company.

Level 57

Dec 24, 2020

Yes I thought it was a Belgian thing too

Level 62

Dec 20, 2022

I looked this up on a few sites. This web page has some useful info on it:

https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/history-of-the-stock-market/

In Belgium, "It’s thought that some merchants would buy goods at a specific price anticipating the price would rise so they could make a profit...for people who needed to borrow funds, wealthy merchants would lend money at high rates. These merchants would then sell the bonds backed by these loans and pay interest to the other people who purchased them."

I'm no expert but that doesn't qualify as a stock exchange to me; seems like Amsterdam was the first to actually trade shares in companies although I'm sure someone out there knows more than me.

Level 46

Jan 12, 2020

Pizza invented in 1889

Level 39

Apr 17, 2020

I'm pretty sure Canada invented basketball not USA.

https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/basketball-the-invention-of-a-canadian

Level 57

Sep 27, 2021

Santos Dumont (Brazil) invented the airplane

Level 82

Dec 17, 2022

nobody brought that up before

Level 64

Dec 17, 2022

No stop spreading this notion

Level 55

Dec 20, 2022

He invented it 3 years after the Wright brothers.

Level 66

Dec 17, 2022

Kin ell. "Orange Carrot"....you are giving to us on a plate (so to speak) and still I fluffed it! Doh!

Level 63

Dec 17, 2022

Stock exchange should at least be changed to Belgium/Neth.

Level 48

Dec 19, 2022

it's times like this I curse the Chinese for inventing gunpowder

Level 68

Dec 19, 2022

Geez, thank God for Western countries- otherwise we'd still be living in mud huts

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