The 20 quiz questions
Question 1 : The first iPhone was launched in 2007.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone on January 9, 2007, and it went on sale June 29, 2007.
Question 2 : Bill Gates founded Apple.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in 1976.
Question 3 : The term "computer bug" comes from a real insect found in a computer.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! In 1947, Grace Hopper found a moth stuck in the Harvard Mark II, popularizing the term "bug".
Question 4 : Linux was created by Microsoft.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Linux was created by Linus Torvalds, a Finnish student, in 1991. It is an open-source system.
Question 5 : The first SMS was sent in 1992.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! On December 3, 1992, Neil Papworth sent the first SMS ("Merry Christmas") to Richard Jarvis at Vodafone.
Question 6 : Bluetooth is named after a tooth color.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Bluetooth is named after Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, a 10th-century Viking king of Denmark known for unifying tribes.
Question 7 : Google was founded in a garage.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998 in Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park, California.
Question 8 : The first personal computer was portable.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! The first personal computers (like the Altair 8800 in 1975) were desktop machines. The first consumer portable came much later.
Question 9 : Wi-Fi does not stand for "Wireless Fidelity".
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! Wi-Fi is a trademark with no particular meaning. The Wi-Fi Alliance confirmed it is not an abbreviation of "Wireless Fidelity".
Question 10 : Amazon started as a clothing sales website.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 as an online bookstore. It only diversified later.
Question 11 : The first email was sent before the World Wide Web was created.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! Ray Tomlinson sent the first email in 1971, while the World Wide Web wasn't created by Tim Berners-Lee until 1989.
Question 12 : Steve Jobs invented the first personal computer.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! The Apple I (1976) wasn't the first. The Altair 8800 (1974) and other machines preceded it. Also, Steve Wozniak designed the Apple I.
Question 13 : The first webcam was used to monitor a coffee pot.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! In 1991, Cambridge researchers installed a camera to monitor their coffee pot's level to avoid unnecessary trips.
Question 14 : The MP3 format was invented in Japan.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! MP3 was developed mainly by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany in the 1980s-1990s.
Question 15 : YouTube was acquired by Google in 2006.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! Google acquired YouTube in October 2006 for $1.65 billion, only 18 months after its creation.
Question 16 : The first mobile phone weighed less than 100 grams.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983), the first commercial mobile phone, weighed about 800 grams (almost 1 kg)!
Question 17 : The GPS system was originally developed by the US military.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! GPS (Global Positioning System) was developed by the US Department of Defense in the 1970s.
Question 18 : Tesla was founded by Elon Musk.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Tesla was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Elon Musk joined in 2004 as an investor and chairman.
Question 19 : The concept of "cloud computing" has existed since the 1960s.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! The concept of sharing remote computing resources was theorized by J.C.R. Licklider in 1963 with his "galactic network" idea.
Question 20 : The first video game was Pac-Man.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Pac-Man dates from 1980. The first video games include "Tennis for Two" (1958) and "Spacewar!" (1962), well before Pac-Man.
