History of Science and Technology Online Quiz

The first highly successful commercial robotic vacuum, the Roomba by iRobot, was released in 2002. Although Electrolux demonstrated a prototype of the Trilobite in 1996, 2002 is widely recognized for the mass-market introduction of these devices.

Steve Jobs announced the first-generation iPad on January 27, 2010, and it was released for sale in the United States on April 3, 2010.

Galileo Galilei is often credited with inventing the thermoscope around 1593 to 1600, which allowed temperature variations to be measured. This laid the foundation for the sealed liquid-in-glass thermometers developed later in the 17th century.

William Gilbert published his landmark treatise "De Magnete" in the year 1600, which proposed that the Earth itself behaves as a giant magnet. This publication is widely considered the beginning of the modern scientific study of magnetism.

Boats are among the earliest human inventions, with evidence of watercraft dating back to the Paleolithic era (at least 8,000 to 10,000 years ago). The wheel (c. 3500 BCE), the alphabet (c. 2000 BCE), and paper (c. 100 CE) were developed much later in human history.

Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone on January 9, 2007, and it went on sale later that year in June, revolutionizing the smartphone industry.

Nicolaus Copernicus lived from 1473 to 1543, which is earlier than the other scientists listed. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), and Isaac Newton (1643-1727) all lived and worked in later periods.

John Daugman patented the first algorithms for iris recognition in 1994, which became the basis of all commercial iris recognition systems.

Laszlo Biro, a Hungarian newspaper editor, patented the first commercially successful ballpoint pen in 1938, which falls in the 1930s. Although earlier patents existed, the modern functional design is credited to this decade.

The Soviet Union's Luna 2 spacecraft successfully impacted the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959, becoming the first human-made object to reach another celestial body.

The dishwasher was first patented in 1850 by Joel Houghton, with the first practical commercial model invented by Josephine Cochrane in 1886. The vacuum cleaner, air conditioner, and chainsaw were all developed later, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

A Geiger counter is an instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation, such as alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays. It works by detecting the ionization produced in a Geiger-Muller tube by the incoming radiation. It does not measure gases like oxygen or carbon monoxide, nor does it measure sunlight.

The first patent for an electric bicycle was granted to Ogden Bolton Jr. on December 31, 1895. His design featured a direct-current hub motor mounted in the rear wheel with no gears. Other patents, such as Hosea W. Libbey's double electric motor bicycle, followed shortly after in 1897.