Quiz of the Day
Nikola Tesla & The Age of Electricity
Thursday, 9 July 2026
The forgotten genius who lit up the world — Tesla's inventions, rivalries, and legacy
1. In which country was Nikola Tesla born in 1856?
- Serbia
- Austria
- Hungary
- Croatia
Tesla was born in Smiljan, then part of the Austrian Empire, in the region now known as Croatia — but he was of Serbian ethnicity and always identified strongly with his Serbian heritage. He later became a naturalised American citizen in 1891.
2. Tesla's most famous rivalry was with which other inventor over the 'War of Currents'?
- Guglielmo Marconi
- George Westinghouse
- Thomas Edison
- Alexander Graham Bell
Edison championed direct current (DC) while Tesla promoted alternating current (AC). The war was vicious — Edison even publicly electrocuted animals to demonstrate AC's supposed danger. AC ultimately won because it could transmit power efficiently over long distances.
3. What type of electrical current did Tesla champion, which now powers most of the world's homes?
- Direct current
- Alternating current
- Resonant current
- Pulsed current
Tesla's AC system, backed by industrialist George Westinghouse, defeated Edison's DC system in the 'War of Currents.' The Niagara Falls power station, built using Tesla's AC designs in 1895, was the first large-scale AC power project and proved the technology could work at scale.
4. What was the name of the massive experimental tower Tesla built on Long Island, intended to transmit wireless energy around the world?
- Magnifier Tower
- The World Wireless
- Wardenclyffe Tower
- Tesla Tower
Funded initially by J.P. Morgan, Wardenclyffe was Tesla's grandest and most doomed project. Morgan pulled funding when he realised Tesla also planned to transmit free electricity to anyone with a receiver — a business model with no obvious revenue. The tower was demolished in 1917 to pay debts.
5. Tesla claimed to have received signals from another planet while working at his Colorado Springs laboratory. Which planet did he suspect?
- Venus
- Jupiter
- Mars
- Saturn
In 1899, Tesla picked up rhythmic electrical signals he couldn't explain and speculated they came from Mars. Scientists today think he was probably detecting naturally occurring electromagnetic phenomena — but the incident shows how far ahead of his time his thinking was, even when it led him astray.
6. The SI unit of magnetic flux density is named after Tesla. What is the symbol for this unit?
- Te
- T
- Tl
- Ts
One Tesla is a very strong magnetic field — an MRI scanner typically operates between 1.5 and 3 Tesla. Earth's own magnetic field is about 0.00005 Tesla, or 50 microtesla, which gives a sense of just how powerful MRI machines really are.
7. Tesla held a patent dispute with Guglielmo Marconi over which invention?
- The X-ray machine
- The radio
- The AC motor
- The neon lamp
Marconi won the 1909 Nobel Prize for radio, using 17 of Tesla's patents. The US Supreme Court ruled in Tesla's favour in 1943 — months after his death — restoring his priority. Many historians now credit Tesla as the true father of radio, though the debate continues.
8. Tesla was famously obsessed with which number, considering it and its multiples to have special significance?
- 9
- 7
- 3
- 12
Tesla reportedly walked around a block three times before entering a building, polished his silverware with 18 napkins (divisible by 3), and demanded hotel rooms with numbers divisible by 3. He attributed deep mathematical significance to 3, 6, and 9 specifically.
9. What famous company, founded in 2003, was named after Nikola Tesla?
- SpaceX
- Neuralink
- SolarCity
- Tesla Inc.
The electric car company was named by founders Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning as a tribute to Tesla's AC induction motor, which forms the basis of Tesla Inc.'s drivetrain. Elon Musk joined later as an investor but had no role in choosing the name.
10. In what year did Tesla die, alone and largely forgotten, in a New York hotel room?
- 1931
- 1937
- 1943
- 1950
Tesla died penniless at the New Yorker Hotel at age 86. Within hours, the FBI (at the urging of the US government) seized his papers, fearing his weapons research — particularly claims about a 'death ray' — could fall into enemy hands during World War II.
11. Tesla's 'Tesla coil' is best known for producing what visual effect?
- Rainbow arcs
- Plasma balls
- Artificial lightning bolts
- Magnetic fields
Tesla coils produce spectacular arcing discharges that look like lightning bolts and can reach millions of volts. They're now mostly used for entertainment and education rather than their original purpose of wireless energy transmission, and remain a staple of science museum demonstrations.
12. Where did Tesla spend much of his final years, reportedly befriending and feeding pigeons?
- Bryant Park
- Times Square
- Central Park
- Madison Square Garden
Tesla's devotion to pigeons — particularly a white female pigeon he described as loving — became legendary. He spent thousands of dollars on their care in his final, impoverished years and reportedly said the white pigeon communicated something profound to him when she died.
13. Tesla's AC induction motor, patented in 1888, is driven by what physical phenomenon?
- Electromagnetic induction
- Thermal expansion
- Piezoelectric effect
- Photoelectric effect
The rotating magnetic field principle behind Tesla's AC induction motor was so elegant that it has barely changed since 1888. The vast majority of industrial electric motors operating today worldwide still rely on the same fundamental design Tesla patented over 130 years ago.
14. Which institution holds a large collection of Tesla's papers and artefacts in Belgrade, Serbia?
- Serbian Academy of Sciences
- National Museum of Serbia
- Tesla Museum
- University of Belgrade Archive
The Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade holds over 160,000 original documents, 2,000 books, and 5,100 technical drawings. Tesla's ashes are also housed there in a golden sphere — honouring his famous quote about the sphere being a perfect geometric form.
15. Tesla reportedly had an eidetic (photographic) memory and could visualise inventions in such detail that he rarely needed to do what?
- Publish papers
- File patents
- Build physical prototypes
- Hire assistants
Tesla claimed he could construct, operate, and even dismantle an entire machine in his mind before ever building it, detecting design flaws through pure mental simulation. He described this ability as both a gift and a curse — the mental images were so vivid they were sometimes indistinguishable from reality.