Best invention of the 20th century

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In summary, the conversation revolves around discussing the best invention of the 20th century. Some of the ideas mentioned include the transistor, electric refrigerator, TCP/IP protocol, contemporary birth control, and the mobile phone. The conversation also touches on other inventions such as television, powered flight, heat engines, disposable diapers, and the common bar code. There is a debate on whether these inventions have truly transformed our lives or simply added convenience. Overall, the transistor is seen as the most significant invention of the 20th century due to its impact on modern technology and industries.
  • #1
Theo1
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Best invention of the 20th century!

I noticed that there is a thread for most pointless invention, how about one for the Best?

I will start by saying the transistor, i would like to hear some other views; it's your opinion so you can't be wrong!
I will do a poll at the end so even if its the same as someone else's feel free to comment it again or agree! THE MORE THE BETTER
 
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  • #2


The roller blind - because otherwise it would curtains for everybody !
 
  • #3


NobodySpecial said:
The roller blind - because otherwise it would curtains for everybody !
LOL

The electric refrigerator for the home.
 
  • #4


Evo said:
The electric refrigerator for the home.
There is a good argument that this and the (clothes) washing machine is what really liberated women.
It's fine for Emily Pankhurst to get the vote - she had a bunch of servants to do the day-day work - it's the fridge and washer become common that allowed women to have jobs outside the home.
 
  • #5


The TCP/IP protocol was the best invention. It revolutionized the way computers communicate with each other, and so, it naturally led to the rapid growth of the internet.
 
  • #6


Good question. So many amazing inventions.

Right now, I'll go with contemporary birth control. I shudder to think of a world without them. I think it's pretty hard to overrate the importance of reproductive freedom for women.
 
  • #7


waht said:
The TCP/IP protocol was the best invention. It revolutionized the way computers communicate with each other, and so, it naturally led to the rapid growth of the internet.

Nice, this is an interesting one, is this basically the invention of the ‘wireless’ internet? Before this did they have to use wires for the internet, or was there just no internet? does it also help with communications in mobile phones?
 
  • #8


Theo1 said:
Nice, this is an interesting one, is this basically the invention of the ‘wireless’ internet?
No it's the system of routing messages so you don't have to directly dial a specific computer to talk to PF - you just send a message to the nearest computer which sends it to another and so on until it arrives at PF. It's this packet-switching / routing that is the clever part of the internet. TCPIP is the particular standard that is used.

does it also help with communications in mobile phones?
Not TCPIP specifically but routed packet switched networks yes
 
  • #9


if the infomation is going to every computer woudnt you be able to just re-configure your own computer to steal infomation?...i know the security would be MASSIVE but is it possible
...sory for going off track, continue posting ideas, thx!
 
  • #10


Theo1 said:
if the infomation is going to every computer woudnt you be able to just re-configure your own computer to steal infomation?...i know the security would be MASSIVE but is it possible
The information doesn't go to every computer, it travels through the routers within a provider's network.
 
  • #11


Theo1 said:
if the infomation is going to every computer woudnt you be able to just re-configure your own computer to steal infomation
It only goes through the computers in the shortest path from your machine to the PF server.
In practice those machines are all likely to be owned by internet service providers / cable + telecoms companies so are totally untrustworthy

That's why when you go to your bank or a amazon checkout you see a little padlock and it says https - that means it's encrypted
 
  • #12


Perhaps not the best, but the mobile phone has to be highly ranked.

I'd say the ability to be contacted 24/7 pretty much anywhere has revolutionised business and personal lives. Especially now with the smart phones.
 
  • #13


When you do a traceroute, it shows you the path the data takes. Maybe that helps you envision it.
 
  • #14


You guys seem to be thinking only of the second half (or even quarter) of the 20th century.

What about:
- television
- powered flight
 
  • #15


DaveC426913 said:
You guys seem to be thinking only of the second half (or even quarter) of the 20th century.

What about:
- television
- powered flight
I see you noticed the mistake. :smile:
 
  • #16


[STRIKE]heat engines. both external combustion (steam), then its internal combustion cousins (gas,diesel). these things changed our lives, starting industrial revolutions and conquering continents with railways. you could even drive a heat pump with one before electricity. and most of the electrons delivering this message to you were put in motion by heat engines (steam turbine) driven by coal in an electric powerplant.[/STRIKE]

derp. me no can read. will think of something else.
 
Last edited:
  • #17


Proton Soup said:
heat engines. both external combustion (steam), then its internal combustion cousins (gas,diesel). .
All C18-C19 inventions though
 
  • #18


NobodySpecial said:
All C18-C19 inventions though

i don't sprechen your deutsch
 
  • #19


  1. Penicillin (1928)
  2. Electric Air Conditioner (1902)
  3. Nuclear Reactor (1942), Nuclear Weapons (1945)
 
  • #20


Proton Soup said:
heat engines. both external combustion (steam),

... invented 1690

Proton Soup said:
then its internal combustion cousins (gas,diesel).

...invented early-1800's
 
  • #21


Mech_Engineer said:
... invented 1690



...invented early-1800's

doh! yeah, my brain be fuzzy atm.
 
  • #22


We had a lot of little things invented that we normally wouldn't think of that made life a bit more tolerable Disposable Diapers for one.
 
  • #23


One most of us use most every day is the common bar code.
 
  • #24


edward said:
One most of us use most every day is the common bar code.

Have our lives really been radically transformed because of this though?

Certainly transistors are the winners in the last half century. The entire modern world pretty much runs on them.

Just not sure if they beat out television. TV was pretty big in terms of mass media - but it's really just a riff on radio.
 
  • #25


DaveC426913 said:
Have our lives really been radically transformed because of this though?

Depends, how long would it take to check out 100 plus items in a super market without it?

How would the postal services (at least in the UK) track parcels so efficiently?
 
  • #26


jarednjames said:
Depends, how long would it take to check out 100 plus items in a super market without it?
As someone who is old enough to remember this: not all that much longer.
jarednjames said:
How would the postal services (at least in the UK) track parcels so efficiently?
A little less efficiently than they did beforehand.

These are incremental changes. Convenience.

Compare to transistors that have created whole new industries - and then whole mega-industries just to service those industries - that have been created by modern electronics.

And the output of those sub-industries has defined our Age:

It ain't called The information Age for nothin'.
 
  • #27


DaveC426913 said:
A little less efficiently than they did beforehand.
Not sure that's actually mathematically possible
 
  • #28


ok, i think i have a slightly less retarded answer now. I'm going to go with control theory. which isn't strictly a single "invention", but the work of several people. still, it comes presented to engineers as a mostly unified framework (at least for linear systems), and most of the work was done in the 20th century. it was control theory that allowed much of the modern inventions to come to flourish. with control, you get efficient design, efficient manufacture, predictable outcomes, and safe operation. and i would further claim that efficiency, predictability, and safety are hallmarks of modernity. much of what we take for granted about the world around us now comes thanks to control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_theory
 
  • #29


Sorry, I don't think Control Theory counts:

Wikipedia.org said:
Although control systems of various types date back to antiquity, a more formal analysis of the field began with a dynamics analysis of the centrifugal governor, conducted by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1868 entitled On Governors.[1]
...
This generated a flurry of interest in the topic, during which Maxwell's classmate Edward John Routh generalized the results of Maxwell for the general class of linear systems.[2] Independently, Adolf Hurwitz analyzed system stability using differential equations in 1877, resulting in what is now know as the Routh-Hurwitz theorem.[3][4]
 
  • #30


DaveC426913 said:
As someone who is old enough to remember this: not all that much longer.

There's a shop near me that the staff used to remember the prices of every item (Aldi) and they could go through an entire cart load of items quicker than tesco staff ever could. Truly amazing to watch. However, they are now on barcodes so it's a feat of nature you never get to see anymore.

I don't think this applies to everyone though and was something of a unique case for such a big shop to have staff that could do this, and I certainly don't see how reading and typing up 100 prices is only slightly slower than scanning the barcodes.

A little less efficiently than they did beforehand.

These are incremental changes. Convenience.

As above

Compare to transistors that have created whole new industries - and then whole mega-industries just to service those industries - that have been created by modern electronics.

And the output of those sub-industries has defined our Age:

It ain't called The information Age for nothin'.

I never said I don't agree with the transistor or that the barcode is better than it (it ain't, transistors truly are one of the greats), but I also don't think the barcode is such a minor invention.

EDIT: A lot of things these days are designed for our convenience more than anything and some really are good inventions.
 
  • #31


Mech_Engineer said:
Sorry, I don't think Control Theory counts:

yes, there are some small beginnings of it in the 19th century, but the bulk of it, and the development of Control Theory as a systematic tool of the engineer, happened in the 20th century. that's my answer, and I'm not changing it.

Many active and historical figures made significant contribution to control theory, including, for example:

* Alexander Lyapunov (1857–1918) in the 1890s marks the beginning of stability theory.
* Harold S. Black (1898–1983), invented the concept of negative feedback amplifiers in 1927. He managed to develop stable negative feedback amplifiers in the 1930s.
* Harry Nyquist (1889–1976), developed the Nyquist stability criterion for feedback systems in the 1930s.
* Richard Bellman (1920–1984), developed dynamic programming since the 1940s.
* Andrey Kolmogorov (1903–1987) co-developed the Wiener-Kolmogorov filter (1941).
* Norbert Wiener (1894–1964) co-developed the Wiener-Kolmogorov filter and coined the term cybernetics in the 1940s.
* John R. Ragazzini (1912–1988) introduced digital control and the z-transform in the 1950s.
* Lev Pontryagin (1908–1988) introduced the maximum principle and the bang-bang principle.

they shouldn't have left out Bode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Wade_Bode
 
  • #32


Proton Soup said:
yes, there are some small beginnings of it in the 19th century, but the bulk of it, and the development of Control Theory as a systematic tool of the engineer, happened in the 20th century. that's my answer, and I'm not changing it.

Agree to disagree :approve:

Proton Soup said:
they shouldn't have left out Bode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Wade_Bode

It's Wikipedia, add him in yourself!
 
  • #33


First can i say thank you for the positive response!

Second i just wana say something about this post...

Mech_Engineer said:
  1. Penicillin (1928)
  2. Electric Air Conditioner (1902)
  3. Nuclear Reactor (1942), Nuclear Weapons (1945)

1) I never thought of penicillin and now i am wondering why the hell not! Maybe i was going too far along the idea of electricity (as that is one of the clear favourites, with internet/ TV/ Computers)...so thank you A LOT for putting the medical side of things back into my head.

2) I have seen a few people put Electric Air Conditioner, but i don't see what is so good about it, can u tell me why?

3) And, Nuclear Weapons is a great invention?...lol...but i don't wana go into that, just thought it a bit funny that u put it down, however agree with nuclear reactor

LAST, i don't think i can include the control theory as i was mainly talking about more material goods, however like the abstract idea! thx
 
  • #34


Theo1 said:
1) I never thought of penicillin and now i am wondering why the hell not! Maybe i was going too far along the idea of electricity (as that is one of the clear favourites, with internet/ TV/ Computers)...so thank you A LOT for putting the medical side of things back into my head.

Also look into things like DDT. It saved literally tens of millions of people from dying of malaria... until it was tragically banned on poor scientific evidence.

Theo1 said:
2) I have seen a few people put Electric Air Conditioner, but i don't see what is so good about it, can u tell me why?

Opened up much more of the US to comfortable living, upped the standard of living, expanded popularity of domestic electric appliances.

Theo1 said:
3) And, Nuclear Weapons is a great invention?...lol...but i don't wana go into that, just thought it a bit funny that u put it down, however agree with nuclear reactor

Maybe before you scoff at nuclear weapons you should define "great." It's definitely one of the most significant inventions of the 20th century. More significant than nuclear reactors IMO due to their widespread social and political ramifications.
 

What is considered the best invention of the 20th century?

The best invention of the 20th century is subjective and can vary depending on individual perspectives. However, some commonly cited inventions include the Internet, personal computers, and vaccines.

Why is the Internet considered the best invention of the 20th century?

The Internet revolutionized communication and information sharing on a global scale. It has transformed the way we live, work, and interact with one another, making it a popular choice for the best invention of the 20th century.

What impact did personal computers have on society?

Personal computers made computing accessible to the general public and paved the way for advancements in technology. They have become an essential tool for work, education, and entertainment, significantly impacting our daily lives.

How have vaccines changed the world?

Vaccines have greatly reduced the spread of infectious diseases and have saved countless lives. They have also contributed to the eradication of diseases such as smallpox and have helped control outbreaks of other diseases.

What other inventions could be considered the best of the 20th century?

Other inventions that are commonly mentioned as contenders for the best of the 20th century include the automobile, airplane, television, and mobile phones. Each of these inventions has had a significant impact on society and has transformed the way we live.

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