Greatest Invention or Innovation

I think the telephone is one of the greatest. The fact that you can put something to your ear and talk to someone on the other side of the world, is amazing.

 

telephone...
car/plane
internet/computer


but electricity(more a discovery) wins in my book

 

The printing press / moveable type.

 

beer

 

I stand corrected

 

The Flyswatter

 

The best example of a guy claiming the most obvious thing and making a mint. The newspaper or your hand works just as well. Guess he took best advantage of it.

 

cup
wheel
sewing needle
shoes
toothbrush


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Well actually the flyswatter was optimized to be the perfect thing for its intended use, and works way better than a newspaper or your hand. This is because the holes in the screen let the air through so it moves faster and is less detectable to the fly. Also, the handle and/or screen are somewhat springy to provide acceleration, and the overall size of the screen is just small and light enough to be fast, but big and heavy enough to easily catch and kill the fly. I think fly swatters used to be made from wood and metal and were somewhat expensive, then the plastic ones came out and were cheap enough for everyone to buy. Having said all that, I still don't own one and just use the nearest newspaper or magazine. But I suppose I'd get one if I lived somewhere with lots of flies.

 

i know its use isnt widespread out of NA and OZ/NZ..but deodorant and showers

 

I draw and shoo them out the door.




.

 

Oh, that sooooooooooooo hurts Since you lived in NZ, you're saying NZ smells. I'd be careful if i was you.

 

Oh really. You think we're so bad here in OZ? Ahem, read this:

Only in America...
A Charlotte, NC man having purchased a box of very rare, very expensive cigars, insured them against fire among other things.
Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of cigars and without having made even his first premium payment on the policy, the man filed a claim against the insurance company.
In his claim, the man stated the cigars were lost "in series of small fires".
The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason; that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion.
The man sued......and won! In delivering the ruling, the judge agreed that the claim was frivolous.
He stated nevertheless that the man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure against fire, without defining what is considered to be, "unacceptable fire," and was obligated to pay the claim.
Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid the man $15,000.00 for the rare cigars he had lost in the "fires".
HERE COMES THE BEST PART!!
After the man cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the man was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000.00 fine.


Yep

 

notice i said the use isnt widespread OUT of NA(North America) OZ and NZ..i was including you

 

Democracy..

 

i'm gonna have to second beer and add football.

 

Fire? I don't know if that would be considered an invention.

.

 

you can invent how to make it

 

Greatest invention: cathode ray tube/radio antenna
Greatest discovery: Electromagnetism (granted a combination of people Ampere, Biot-Savart, Maxwell etc)
Greatest theory: Quantum Mechanics
Greatest overall contribution: Calculus
Thing I couldnt live without draught bitter (I guess you may have to be British for that)

 

Calculus?? I would have chosen Analytic Geometry. I know that it (now) uses tons of calculus, but the link between geometry and numbers (Cartesian coordinates) is what allows us to use calculus to describe motion, etc....

I know its like asking who is better: Gauss or Newton?