Continued from Page 1: Contests that Changed the World
6. Contest Leads to Steam Tractor
As automobiles began to replace horse-drawn carriages on the road, it didn't take long before people started to wonder whether they couldn't also replace horses in the fields. Technology that could allow more food to be produced at a lower cost in time and money would clearly be a huge advantage to farmers.
So in 1875, the Wisconsin government offered a large $10,000 reward to the first person who could make an affordable device that could be used on roads and could also replace animals in the field. The requirements included being able to travel at least 200 miles on a road at an average speed of at least 5 miles an hour.
Two inventors rose to the challenge, and the steam tractors "Oshkosh" and "Green Bay" started out on what might be the world's first automotive race. The Green Bay broke down partially through the race, but the Oshkosh continued to finish with an average speed of 6 MPH.
The Wisconsin governor, however, didn't want to award the prize to the Oshkosh, calling the tractor impractical. Eventually, the Oshkosh development team received $4,000 and the Green Bay team got $1,000.
7. Contest Solves Fermat's Last Theorem
In 1637, mathematician Louis Fermat wrote, "I have a truly marvelous proof of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain" about his theorem, "If an integer n is greater than 2, then the equation a raised to the n power + b raised to the n power = c raised to the n power has no solutions in non-zero integers a, b, and c." Unfortunately, he died before ever writing out his proof, and the problem puzzled mathematicians for centuries.
In 1906, Paul Wolfskehl left a princely sum as a prize to the mathematician who could prove the theorem. It took nearly 80 years, but in 1997 Andrew Wiles claimed the prize. By the way, this also lead to book I really enjoyed: " Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem" by Simon Singh and John Lynch.
8. Contests Encourage Advancements in Nanotechnology
Today, we're enjoying more and more gadgets that incorporate tiny technology, like MP3 players that can hold thousands of songs and yet are smaller than a single finger. Much of the research into tiny technology has been spurred by contest prizes.
For example, physicist Richard Feynman identified the need for smaller technology back in 1959, when he offered the Feynman Prizes for a motor smaller than 1/64th of an inch per side and for writing done in 1/250,000 scale. William McLellan seized the prize for the tiny motor in 1960, but it took an additional 15 years for Thomas Newman to achieve the prize for miniature writing in 1985.
9. Artificial Intelligence Developed Due to Contest
You might have heard about the legendary chess match where the computer A.I. "Deep Blue" defeated reigning world champion Gary Kasparov at a game of chess. But did you know that the impetus to build Deep Blue came from a contest? A team from IBM won the $100,000 prize in 1996.
10. Contest Sends the First Private Aircraft Into Space
In the spirit of the Orteig Prize that sent Lindbergh across the Atlantic, the X-Prize Foundation offered a big prize of $10 million in cash to the first privately-owned aircraft to reach space 100 kilometers above the Earth's surface with at least three people on board, and then to repeat the achievement within two weeks.
In 2004, Scaled Components, an experimental aircraft company owned by aeronautics designer Burt Rutan, won the $10,000,000 prize with its aircraft, SpaceShipOne. As the first privately funded human spaceflight, the achievement has caused a great amount of interest in private space exploration.
For more information about these and other historic contests, Selected Innovation Prizes and Reward Programs by KEI Research.
Contests have had a major impact on human history in the past, and continue to do so today. Not all of the contest winners were doctors, physicists, or scientists, either. Why don't you try your hand at changing history by entering contests today?
