How Useful Are You? Take This Technology Quiz
There is a Twilight Zone episode where a businessman makes a pact with the Devil, which allows him to go back in time so that he can capitalize off of his knowledge about the future. It turns out though that the businessman’s knowledge about the future is all superficial and thus he is unable to jump start any technological advancements by traveling back in time. This would likely be the plight of most contemporary humans if they were sent back in time. While we rely greatly on technology, most of us don’t know much about how it actually works and where the materials to make it come from.
If you were to travel 2000 years into the past, how useful would you be in jumpstarting technological advancements? This 10 question quiz will help you figure out your technological usefulness. If you do poorly on the quiz, as most people likely will, then just let that inspire you to study up more on how things work and where raw materials come from.
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140 Responses to “How Useful Are You? Take This Technology Quiz”
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7/10: I just might be able to save us all in the event of a nuclear holocaust, so be nice to me.
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10 for 10, Im glad I watched all those BBC Connections Series videos
Actually this type of ‘quiz’ is precisely what’s wrong in today science/technology – the world is full of people that might score 10/10 but which can’t actually repair anything – and even less so invent something meaningful – and they very often get to be the managers of people smarter than them …
taking quiz
Interesting. But about half of these questions I was able answer correctly without really understanding the overall process behind the technology; for instance, in steel making, I don’t know what the flux might be, nor would I know exactly what materials are needed to make cement.
[...] found this little quiz, designed to determine “If you were to travel 2000 years into the past, how useful would you [...]
I am techonlogically useful, starting from the year 0 i can advance a civilization all the way to the 19th century. Time to go play some Civ 4 ^^
Where are the answers! I can bring us up to the 19th century but no further
[...] could I? A new site, The Universe As, posted today a little technology quiz asking, “How Useful Are You?” Exactly how useful am I? Well I got 7/10 right, so I’m pretty useful. Dropped into the [...]
[...] How useful are you? The Technology Quiz More: Quiz — Read (1) [...]
Who wants to go 2000 years in the past? I just wanna go back 20. Man, if I re-lived my childhood, I’d be way better at the second time around.
But, to stay on topic, I rocked out 7 of 10. I’d say that’s decent.
Hmmm, 3 out of 10. I could get civilization to the 10th century. Not bad for someone who isn’t mechanically or scientifically inclined!
Well
I aced it
Ten out of ten
Curious indeed.
I agree with cucu. Most people I know in college may have above a 3.7 gpa but cannot fix a loose dresser drawer or even figure out how to connect a dvd player to a television. theory is useless without practice.
Anyone interested in this subject might like a series of books called the cross-time engineer series by Leo Frankowski. It’s about a Polish engineering student who gets dumped through time back to Poland ten years before the Mongol horde is due to destroy the place. That gives him ten years to turn Poland into the technological superpower of the middle ages. There’s lots of engineering information as he sets up a steel mill, etc.
This applet has an error for sure at least on replays!
I got 8/10. Retook it changing only the 2 questions I was unsure of and got 8/10. Retook a 3rd time changing the same 2 questions to the final available answers and got a 7/10 ?!?
The retake error was fixed (if there really was one) by getting rid of the retake feature.
Correct answers are listed at the end of the quiz.
colinnwn, it is possible for what you did to happen.
Consider if you missed another question that you were sure of.
1) one of the questions you were unsure of was originally right and one was originally wrong, giving you a score of 8
2) when you changed those two, you changed the wrong one to the right answer and the right one to the wrong answer, keeping your score the same 8/10
3) then when you changed them again, you changed them both to the wrong answer and thus had 2 wrong in addition to the one that you were sure about and still got wrong.
Obviously the flaw is not with the technology.
This was enlightening.
Nice quiz – looks like I do better in teams…
Yeah? Will I can advance the first century to the 10th xD. Im just THAT smart! :]
I got 5 out of 5. I feel pretty good about that. If I wanted to know the answer to any of those questions, I could find the answer by buying Encarta for $59 bucks. Or a $300 dollar set of Encyclopedia Brittanica if the world comes to an end. So if you got 10 out of 10, your worth somewhere between $59 and $300 bucks. lol
Google for the win!
I got 7 of 10. I will manage all of you nerds.
I’m 13 and got 6/10. So apparently I can help until the 15th century. Well, if I was going back 2000 years, I wouldn’t bother with the “knowing” crap, I would just bring some fun today stuff to wow them for money 8-D
a lousy 6 correct…funny i can write a convolution reverb software but cant tell a diesel engine from a combustion engine.
Well I’m only 13 and I could bring us back to the 17-19th century, think about what I can do in the future!
9/10 wonder which one I missed
Fun little test. I got an 8 out of ten.
All in all agree that this is not a good test of technological usefulness
. There’s a big difference between knowing basic thermodynamics and being able to build a fridge, or between knowing the components of steel and how to actually make it. Still, it would make figuring things out a LOT easier. As compared to taking 2000 years to reach the modern day, you might cut the recovery down to a few hundred. All in all a win for civilization.
I was powned.
whr is the quiz link?
Hi there,
Nice idea for a quiz, but it could have done with feedback for each of the questions so that I knew which ones I got right and wrong.
I’d like to offer you a complimentary academic license for Question Writer if you’d like to add that kind of feedback for this or future quizzes. Contact me at above e-mail address if you’d like to take me up on the offer.
This doesn’t really tell us anything… It is one thing to know trivia… it is another to be grounded in science, and its application, technology…
[...] construir las alas de un avión? ¿Qué elementos necesitas para obtener alumnio? Descubre a través de este test de 10 preguntas si alguno de tus conocimientos es realmente últil o todo lo que tu cerebro atesora son saberes [...]
as a reply to the guy who said `this is what’s wrong…we need people who can invent, repair stuff’
I think Joe Rogan put it best when he said `Let’s say I drop you off in the woods with a hatchet; how long before you can send me an email?’
For the 14 out of 30,000 people who haven’t been able to open this flash quiz, try this link.
Link
[...] me considere un emigrante digital estupendamente integrado. A través de La Tejedora encuentro este quiz para poner a prueba, en 10 preguntas, mis conocimientos sobre tecnologÃa aplicada. SÃ, esa que [...]
I guess I’m only useful enough for the middle ages.
Oh well..
o/~Bring out yer dead o~/
7/10 … not too bad for an old guy: I might be able to advance mankind from Year 0 to the 19th century! Only problem is, there *is no year 0!*
I supposedly got 8 right, but I noticed some of the questions weren’t worded well. For example, a diesel engine is a type of internal combustion engine. Some books to read are Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, or Harry Harrison’s Deathworld trilogy.
10 of 10, but then I like to real about industrial processes. They might have gone for more obscure processes – as an example making nitric acid is critical for a lot of industrial processes but not well known. Other things would be more critical – getting decent hygiene in place, mechanization of farming to get more labor available, things that are more concept than invention.
Some errors in the list – the question on making steel more properly should reference making cast iron, making steel uses cast iron.
See The Tech Quiz Follow Up Post
Yeah, the thing that doesn’t make sense about a quiz like this is that I don’t think I “knew” any of the answers-I guessed on every question and still got a 60%. There’s a reason people are experts in their fields. Ask me about the principles of design!
I got 5 out of ten, I’m only thirteen but at some point in my life I’m sure I’ve know each of the answers.
All very suspicious. I know the elements of an atom, but i don’t know what i would do with that information in the time of Augustus Caesar except maybe get myself killed. I do, however, know the ingredients required to make gunpowder. Some individuals might consider this a little more influential than refrigeration. I would also hi-jack the christian faith, maybe modify some of the texts to make sure those fucking pharisees never stepped on my toes again, maybe remove all mention of hell and revenge and see if i couldn’t avert the crusades. Just for laughs. I really wonder what i would do with a diesel engine without knowledge of petrol refinement, just as i am not sure what the purpose of an incandescent lightbulb would be without electrical current/electrical generators. Especially when i know the basics of cocaine and heroin manufacture, of poker and blackjack, of bourbon production and lotteries. More importantly, i know a bit about history and human fallacies and the power of propaganda. With these tools i would quickly bring the local population to a phase equivalent to what you would expect of Colombus, Ohio, or Philadelphia, PA. Pretty advanced, indeed. The only relevant thing the writers of the quiz got right was the steel-making process. And even then, neglected the superiority of the longbow.
This quiz tests a range of subjects to grasp a person’s range of knowledge. There is only so much that can be done in a little 10 question quiz. Thus, not every invention of history can be linearly covered. It is meant to be fun. So don’t take it too seriously.
8/10.
Question 3: Though your “correct” answer is workable, and the only possible choice out of your selection, isn’t it true that most air conditioners and refrigerators work by DECOMPRESSION of refrigerant?
Just semantics. By decompressing it, it evaporates.
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Actually, I got 6 right – but I think the quiz was prejudicial towards only one kind of technology/knowledge that could improve civilization. I know how to make paper, for example, weaving and other fabric arts and I know a great deal about health, food and healing – cleaning and preserving food. Think about telling them how to clean wounds properly – and most of all, and we all know this – that there are two new continents across the ocean ripe for colonization and what about historical knowledge -the reasons why the Roman Empire collapses in the 400′s – sell that to an emperor and advise him how to prevent it – knowledge about the future is very strong magic in any era- or tell him not to persecute the Christians because it will just make them stronger …. more so than how light bulbs work, helping to prevent the end of the Roman Empire could do much to change the last 2000 years & setting the world up to evolve quickly. That is, if you don’t get killed for being a witch – something the Romans mistrusted as much as their Christian descendants.
I got 8/10. This is surprising that I scored so high!
Quite good, i got told…i would have advanced civilisation to the 17th or even 19th Century..now i totally think thats a lie!! ha ha
I got 9/10
10/10.
only took 2 tries to memorize the answers.
I’m sure people cheated 2000 years ago, too!
Many of these actually tie together.
You would need knowledge of power generation, the steam engine, and lightbulbs to create electric lighting. In turn, you would need a knowledge of metallurgy(steel, aluminum) for the steam engine, generators and the bulbs themselves(tungsten filament). Atomic theory, while a nice aside, would be about the only unnecessary item, unless you are using it for the purpose of electricity.
Obviously I would be totally useless as I can’t even get the quiz to start! But then would being able to jump start technology and cause global warming 200 years earlier be a good thing anyway!
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And what about knowing the languages of 2000 years ago ?
What would you say in Rome if you only know english, french, german, japanese…? …Ave Ceasar, morituri te salutant
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Soma….
Soma overnight. Soma without prescription. Soma. Watson soma. Antidote soma valium. Drug soma. Soma and addiction….
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Yeah, technology is almost on our fingure tip.
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8/10,
but in math I could give very strategic advances
see http://brownsharpie.courtneygibbons.org/?p=673
I scored 9 out of 10 but my penis is still small?
so hared but i did it 100%
i guessed on all of them. i can advance civilization by 2 days.
abhinav–>……10 on 10 on 1st try witout ny hlp……nthng mor 2 say thn dat….
would be interesting to see the wrong answers :/
if i would only bring us into the 15th century, i fear that in present day i am literally dragging us back into the 18th century, maybe even further.
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I have been up three days Drinking and 6/10 ,shit i need more beer!
only 5/10 and i was just guessing, cant remember anything from school and if you dont use it, you will forget/ most of the questions are irrelevant, so this quiz is fail from the start.
9/10. I wish that they would tell me which one I missed.
¿Serías una persona útil si fueras 2.000 años al pasado?…
Si pudieras viajar 2.000 años atrás en el tiempo, ¿cómo serías de útil para ayudar a la gente a dar el salto a una edad de avances tecnológicos? Con este test de 10 preguntas basadas en conceptos básicos sobre la industria actual sabrás si tus conocimi…
7/10 yehhh…… I could do something
Wow, thats pretty cool stuff dude!
RT
http://www.true-privacy.net.tc
Very good quiz, even if your result is bad.
[...] How Useful Are You? Take This Technology Quiz [...]
Congratulations, Reddit front page. It looks like your website is holding up with all the traffic.
None of the choices for #9 are correct. You do not need need “copper” wire to build a generator. A magnet, ANY conductive wire, & appropriate motion will generate electic potential, period.
Knowledge of materials required to further technological advancement is only a small factor in how quickly a civilization evolves. For example, I’m more of a philosopher and I’ve studied religion and metaphysics heavily. I could have brought logic and enlightenment to the people and prevented the dark ages. Also, understanding the basic principles of general science and physics would allow for a much quicker growth than just knowing how to build a few specific devices.
On another note, there are inventions that could be considered far more important to mankind than anything listed here. Such things include soap, antibiotics, water purification, etc…
There is other knowledge that would be useful, such as biology and anatomy, but most of all if you truly want to rule the world… weaponry.
I Shouldn’t drop Engineering :3 …………….. But I wanted to Rock
8/10
Got the Aluminium one wrong, even if I live in a country region that produces tons of it. Bauxite was the only one I remember being involved in the process, so choosed that one.
I’m pretty sure the question about concrete was missing by most people. Who would have thought the mixing was to fuse instead of keeping it liquid. Weird.
[...] Here’s a quiz with a slightly different angle. If you were to travel 2000 years into the past, how useful would you be in jumpstarting technological advancements? This 10 question quiz will help you figure out your technological usefulness. If you do poorly on the quiz, as most people likely will, then just let that inspire you to study up more on how things work and where raw materials come from. [...]
9/10…..pretty useful….
9/10. To the 19th century!
I’m qualified to haul water…sadly, for none of the above
[...] got a 4 out of 10 in this quiz about inventing things we currently take for granted in our day and age. What did you get? [via [...]
Got 7/10 even though I guessed on almost everything. I’m smart enough to make educated guesses on multiple choice tests, but I doubt I’d be very useful in the year 0.
[...] scored 7 out of 10 on the ‘If I were sent back to the year 0 how technologically useful would I be?’ quiz (though slightly embarrassingly I’m not 100% sure which ones I got wrong), and as Jason says [...]
[...] 9:25 am on October 14, 2009 Reply Tags: science (84) Starting from the year 0 I might be able to advance civilization to the 15th century. Good quiz, I got 6/10. [...]
[...] Technology Quiz There is a Twilight Zone episode where a businessman makes a pact with the Devil, which allows him to go back in time so that he can capitalize off of his knowledge about the future. It turns out though that the businessman’s knowledge about the future is all superficial and thus he is unable to jump start any technological advancements by traveling back in time. This would likely be the plight of most contemporary humans if they were sent back in time. While we rely greatly on technology, most of us don’t know much about how it actually works and where the materials to make it come from. If you were to travel 2000 years into the past, how useful would you be in jumpstarting technological advancements? This 10 question quiz will help you figure out your technological usefulness. If you do poorly on the quiz, as most people likely will, then just let that inspire you to study up more on how things work and where raw materials come from. [...]
10/10 for me – just goes to show, I watch FAR too much ‘How its made’ on Discovery.
8/10 here.
But in 0009AD, there would be no one giving out the choices — so that I can make my “educated” guesses.
8 OUT OF 10! I often wonder if ET was asked how his spaceship worked, how much he would know!
Back 2000 years? At that time, the answers to most of these questions were known by the Sumerians, Greeks, Chinese, etc, etrc……
7 out of 10 hmm I think I would rather stay in year 0 life is just to complicated now
[...] for fun, The Universe As website has a technology quiz to work out how much good you could do if this happened. I got 10 right, which they say makes me a [...]
The lift question is bogus. Most of the lift generated by an airfoil comes from redirection of air flow–the trailing edge of a useful airfoil angles downward to some degree. The explanation we were all taught in school, that the lift comes from differential pressure due to faster movement of air on the top surface is pretty much bogus. In reality, there wouldn’t be much difference between answers A and C, especially at low air speeds.
First, there was no year 0. Second, if anyone tried to tell people 2000 years ago about these “technological” advances they would most likely have been killed for sorcery, heresy, etc.. What makes you think they’d listen? They’re not listening now!
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[...] Este questionário coloca questões algo pertinentes para o dia-a-dia da Humanidade e meu contributo foi considerado medíocre, já que “só” permite avançar 1000 anos. Ou seja, o meu nível de conhecimento técnico está ao nível dum cientista do sec. X. Quem dera! Infelizmente, neste capítulo ainda me sinto ao nível dos chamados Pré-Socráticos (e mesmo assim). [...]
@BobDumberg “First, there was no year 0. ”
The christian calender has no year 0, but the astronomical one does, with 10 BC = year -9, 1BC = year 0!
Works for me.
(10/10 – just as well, as I teach this stuff in college)
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I’m not even going to take it. I’m confident that all I’d accomplish is somehow squaring-off the wheel and cooling down fire.
8 out of 10. Lucky guest!!!!!!!
yo aportaría el mechero y el mapamundi. de paso, me haría erigir como un dios ante los romanos, pues sabría cómo es el mundo y sacaría fuego de un aprato que cabe en un bolsillo
I got eight out of ten. I would guess however that most of the information would be useless if you went back over 300 years. People would think you were nuts if you brought up some of the information required for answers.
I’m 86 and have forgotten a lot but still get a kick out of doing as well as did.
Suggest that you make up a new test and ask about starting a fire with out matches, elementary first aid, finding food and how to prepare it and what to use for shelter when the temperature is below freezings.
[...] Technology Quiz – If you were to travel 2000 years into the past, how useful would you be in jumpstarting technological advancements? This 10 question quiz will help you figure out your technological usefulness. [...]
very easy quiz
i got 9 out of 10…awesome!!!! very easy
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I’m going to agree that this quiz does not really tell you how useful someone may be. I’ve got a fairly firm grasp on mathematics and could jump start quite a bit of it if I was not called a wizard and burned alive. Plus I’ve got fairly good grasp on putting things back together and fixing them so I guess I would do better at giving them some technology as opposed to giving them the fundamentals to build the technology. 6/10
7/10
And by the way, there never was a year 0 in our current calendar.
Thank you for your explanation. There really useful information.
m an iitian n got 9 correct
….i am useful upto 19th century….i think this quiz is judging your aptitude, quest for knowledge, and whether you know the basics or not….but i don’t understand how it has been linked with present day and age….
10/10, but I cheated by being really smart.
Great quiz.
i would ask the original jesus christ. to lay his hands on me.
now do i sit for the quiz. in person? amen
for the question ask . you wouldnt need to ask!
but if you needed help in this case. all you need is the manual. its called the bible
3 on 10 noooooooooooooooooo
asaan tha
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It’s too difficult even for geek like me but thanks anyway.
Very interesting info!Perfect just what I was looking for!
I don’t even know how I stopped up here, however I thought this post was good. I do not understand who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger in the event you aren’t already
Cheers!
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