Invention Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers

Trivia quiz questions with answers about invention

Invention Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers

What is an invention?
A: An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process.

The invention process is a process within a what?
A: An overall engineering and product development process.

It may be an improvement upon a machine or product or a what?
A: A new process for creating an object or a result.

An invention that achieves a completely unique function or result may be a what?
A: A radical breakthrough.

Such works are novel and not obvious to whom?
A: To others skilled in the same field.

Some inventions can be protected how?
A: By being patented.

A patent legally protects the intellectual property rights of the inventor and legally recognizes what?
A: That a claimed invention is actually an invention.

The rules and requirements for patenting an invention vary from country to country and the process of obtaining a patent is often what?
A: Expensive.

Another meaning of invention is what?
A: Cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social behaviors adopted by people and passed on to others.

Invention is also an important component of what?
A: Artistic and design creativity.

Inventions often extend the boundaries of human what?
A: Knowledge, experience or capability.

Inventions are of what three kinds?
A: Scientific-technological (including medicine), sociopolitical (including economics and law), and humanistic, or cultural.

Volta is recognized as one of the what?
A: One of the most influential inventors of all time.

Idea for an Invention may be developed how?
A: On paper or on a computer, by writing or drawing, by trial and error, by making models, by experimenting, by testing and/or by making the invention in its whole form.

Brainstorming also does what?
A: It can spark new ideas for an invention.

Collaborative creative processes are frequently used by whom?
A: Engineers, designers, architects and scientists.

Co-inventors are frequently named on what?
A: Patents.

Many inventors keep records of their working process - notebooks, photos, etc., including whom?
A: Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Evangelista Torricelli, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.

In the process of developing an invention, the initial idea may what?
A: Change. The invention may become simpler, more practical, it may expand, or it may even morph into something totally different.

History shows that turning the concept of an invention into a working device is not always what?
A: Swift or direct.

Inventions may also become more useful after what?
A: After time passes and other changes occur.

For example, the parachute became more useful once what became a reality?
A: Powered flight.

Edison was one of the most what?
A: Prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name.

Invention is often what type of process?
A: A creative process.

An open and curious mind allows an inventor to do what?
A: To see beyond what is known.

Seeing a new possibility, connection or relationship can do what?
A: Spark an invention.

Inventive thinking frequently involves combining concepts or elements from different realms that would not normally be what?
A: Put together.

Sometimes inventions and ideas may seem to arise spontaneously while what?
A: Daydreaming, especially when the mind is free from its usual concerns.

For example, both J. K. Rowling (the creator of Harry Potter) and Frank Hornby (the inventor of Meccano) first had their ideas while doing what?
A: Riding on trains.

Inventors often envision a new idea, seeing it where?
A: In their mind's eye.

New ideas can arise when the conscious mind turns away from the subject or problem when the inventor's focus is what?
A: On something else, or while relaxing or sleeping.

Insight can also be a what?
A: A vital element of invention.

Such inventive insight may begin with what?
A: Questions, doubt or a hunch.

The odd metallic color of plastic made by accidentally adding a thousand times too much catalyst led scientists to do what?
A: Explore its metal-like properties, inventing electrically conductive plastic and light emitting plastic.

In the social sciences, an innovation is what?
A: Something that is new, better and has been adopted and proven to create positive value.

This is a key distinction from an invention which may not create positive value but does what?
A: Furthers progress in a given area of development.

An invention can serve many purposes, and does not necessarily create what?
A: Positive value.

An invention or its development may serve purposes never what?
A: Envisioned by its inventors. Plastic is a good example.

The term invention is also an important legal concept and central to what?
A: Patent law systems worldwide.

As is often the case for legal concepts, its legal meaning is slightly different from what?
A: Common usage of the word.

Additionally, the legal concept of invention is quite different in American and what?
A: European patent law.

In Europe, what is the first test a patent application must pass?
A: "Is this an invention?" If it is, subsequent questions are whether it is new and sufficiently inventive.

The implication—counter-intuitively—is that a legal invention is not inherently what?
A: Novel.

In the United States, all patent applications are considered what?
A: Inventions.

The statute explicitly says that the American invention concept includes what?
A: Discoveries.

The European invention concept corresponds to what American concept?
A: "patentable subject matter".

While the statute (35 USC § 101) virtually poses no limits to patenting whatsoever, courts have decided in binding precedents that what?
A: That abstract ideas, natural phenomena and laws of nature are not patentable.