Arrianna

Actually.. no, we only fall behind in grades in our public schools. The US's Universities are listed among the best in the world as is our engineers. Why do you think that so many continued innovations come from the US? No, they are not just from immigrants. At one time that was true but back then a very large populace of the US was immigrants within 1 or 2 generations. Where do you think most of us come from anyway?

You need to stop buying into this America Sucks mentality and start actually appreciating what we have here.

__________________

l Stone Hold l Now We're Cooking! l Thanks to Kaos for the awesome sig!

Hassun

Are those really the top 5 inventions that changed the world?



The biggest trees catch more wind Arrianna, there's no helping it.

__________________

Arrianna

According to the BBC it is.

(I would put a few other things in there as well myself.)

__________________

l Stone Hold l Now We're Cooking! l Thanks to Kaos for the awesome sig!

mellow maromi

America didnt invent the gun anyways.

China invented gunpowder and black powder. and also created an early version of the gun using bamboo, black powder, and rocks. Germans invented the gun.

Chinese has been doing chemistry and alchemy at the same time egyptions were building things as useless as pyrimids.

__________________

Legend

Probably did, changing the world for the worse.

EDIT: Try to stay on topic guys.

__________________
LEGEND IS: UP TO SOMETHING, GOOD FOR NOTHING.

Hassun

I'd put my money on:
the printing press (China),
Penecillin (Scotland/UK),
gunpowder (China),
Steam Engine (UK)
I'm not really sure about the last one.


Note: I'm not trying to promote the intelligence of China's or the UK's population.

__________________

exderz

i don't get it why do you people care so much...i mean i don't really care of what china UK America invented( its not like if it is you guys...) but its true that America is scared how fast china is growing. and i still don't get why America is still fighting Iraq. and here is Another fact America is scared of china because Chinese are not scared to die for their own country so if they were fighting ( which i hope it won't happen) that Chinese might have a chance to win.

Arrianna

Actually both the printing press and the guns that were invented and all others since have been based on came from Germany. Yes, China had printing but it was never done in a way as to allow mass production of written materials to the general populace. Yes, they had gunpowder and even invented guns but they did it so badly they abandoned their use within a few hundred years.

All the credit goes to Germany.

China's own policy of closed borders and no change prevented their inventions from being developed to their full potential let alone from spreading to the rest of the world. Someone did smuggle out gunpowder but there is question about whether or not the discovery was also made in other locations as well simultaneously to it's spread into Arabia. It doesn't matter who invented something first if they never passed it to the person that invented it next... If that makes any sense.

BTW, I think that may have been the top 5 things in the past century... it would make more sense.


Anyway...
So what? How does that have any bearing on whether or not their military is competent rather then just large?

__________________

l Stone Hold l Now We're Cooking! l Thanks to Kaos for the awesome sig!

Hassun

Actually the Chinese did invent the printing press like it was used later in Germany. The thing is, they had no use for it and opted to stay with the even older, simpler press that just copied one whole page at the time. It could be operated swiftly, could be operate with only one person and was incredibly fast.

The Chinese just didn't have much use for a press with single letter blocks.


About the gunpowder: The Chinese didn't use it like the Europeans did (they did use it for weapons though) but e.g. the Mongols used them for hand grenades. A weapon that is still in use today (although not in the same form of course). Also note that I was not calling guns but gunpowder one of the most important inventions.


All in all, even though these inventions were put to a different use in Europe. The credit for the inventions goes to China.

__________________

Arrianna

I will grant you the gunpowder even if there is some question about whether it spread from China or was discovered simultaneously elsewhere.

The printing press? Nope. Not unless you show show a direct link between a disused (very breakable) clay movable type in China and the Gutenberg Press invented in Germany. That is the press that changed the world.

As I said before, you cannot claim to have changed the world if what you did did not go to the rest of the world, even if you invented it first.

__________________

l Stone Hold l Now We're Cooking! l Thanks to Kaos for the awesome sig!

Hassun

Well I don't have a picture of an example. You're just going to have to take an professor in the Chinese studies at a university's word for it. (Not my own word of course ).
The Chinese did invent a press like the Gutenberg press. The letter blocks were made of wood though. But as I said, they discarded the model for the other one because they just didn't have any use for it.


The invention of it changed the world. It might not have changed the world when they were invented. (Which would be very hard considering China's isolationist attitude.) But they did invent it. That's a fact.


It's just like the discovery of the American continent. The Vikings did it before Columbus. They didn't do much with that discovery but I still acknowledge the fact that they did it.

__________________