2006-08-07 23:54:25 · 27 answers · asked by Showaddywaddy 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
The alphabet and decimal numbers. Without either we would be struggling to communicate anything that made sense. Certainly the system that we are using at this moment would not exist without them.
The strange thing is that we take both for granted and assume that they were always there. This simply isn't true and there were times in the distant past when the didn't exist.
The Arabs invented our number system and the Phoenicians (sort of modern Lebanon/Syria) invented the alphabet which was developed by the Greeks into the alphabet used there to this day. The Romans altered it to create the Latin alphabet which we use (there is no such thing as the English alphabet!)
2006-08-08 00:19:16 · answer #1 · answered by lykovetos 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The wheel, obviously! Can't believe no one else has mentioned that.
Without the wheel, none of the answers suggested above would have been discovered/invented.
Without the wheel, there could never have been an industrial revolution, and we'd still be primatively farming in small, isolated communities. If you want proof of that, look at sub-saharan Africa or Australia. The indigeonous people there never independently invented the wheel, and it didn't exist there until other peoples transfered it there relatively recently.
2006-08-08 01:59:04 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yahoo! Answers
2006-08-07 23:59:36 · answer #3 · answered by caitie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Refridgerator
2006-08-08 03:47:56 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
People do not know the differences among their ideas on different things.
This is the greatest discovery and invention.
2006-08-08 00:38:45 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The human race because without it no other inventions would have been made.
2006-08-08 00:01:56 · answer #6 · answered by LOAJP 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Calculus
2006-08-08 00:04:44 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the car just because your average person can decide to go anywhere in the country for an affordable(ish) price when they want to. I can't imagine being without my car now.
2006-08-07 23:59:36 · answer #8 · answered by greg m 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The internet
2006-08-08 00:38:11 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Electricity! without that, our modern world would be powered by steam... be interesting to see how steam would have evolved by now though... mini charcoal sticks with built in water tubes for batteries???
2006-08-08 07:20:34 · answer #10 · answered by want_to_explore_life 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋