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And here you are, skimming the internet

28 Incredible Accomplishments by Kids and Teenagers

April 06, 2024

If you’re already an adult, don’t sweat it! You can always live vicariously through your kids. Or your nephew. Or your cat. Honestly, your best bet to feel any sense of inspired youth is to get into college sports.

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28

YOUNG INVENTORS AN 8-YEAR-OLD KID GAVE US BACON. Alright, bacon existed way before, but in 1993, an girl in Minnesota had a brilliant idea while watching her parents' messy way of microwaving bacon: a rack to hang bacon strips while the excess grease falls in a pan below. It's like hanging clothes to dry, but with bacon-and you've surely seen the TV ads for the final product: Makin' Bacon. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

YOUNG INVENTORS A TEENAGER INVENTED THE TRAMPOLINE. Today we have to tell kids to stop messing around with the trampoline, but in 1930 someone had to start messing around with it. 16-year-old George Nissen thought it'd be cool if circus acrobats could continue doing tricks after falling in their nets. After a few tries, he created a metal frame with a nylon canvas, for more bounce. CRACKED.COM — Source

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YOUNG INVENTORS A KID INVENTED TV (SO WE CAN ALL WATCH TOO MUCH TV). 15-year-old Philo Farnsworth came up with diagrams on how to make an actual electronic TV system. In 1921. By 1927, he had created an image dissector that could indeed transmit images. Later, he developed a complete TV system, camera and all. VHE 13 860L 12 17 - PICTURE UHF ASTOJA -٤8 SOLID STATE HUE COLOR CRACKED.COM — Source

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YOUNG INVENTORS A TEENAGER INVENTED THE REVOLVER. In 1835, Sam Colt patented his first revolver at age 26, but the idea of a gun with a rotating cylinder first came to him when he was 17. His first model blew up, but he got there eventually. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

YOUNG INVENTORS A HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENT CAME UP WUTH A METHOD TO DIAGNOSE CANCER. Jack Andraka created an award-winning method of finding pancreatic cancer early. It's a paper strip dipped in a solution that allows it to specifically detect, erm, stuff way over our heads. Still, the method has required a lot of tinkering, and widespread use is still to be seen. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

CRACKED.COM YOUNG INVENTORS AN 11-YEAR-OLD DISCOVERED HOW TO TALK UNDERWATER. Little Richie Stachowski wanted to talk to his dad while swimming, so he literally researched water acoustics and came up with the Water Talki, a cone- shaped device that allows swimmers to talk to each other from as far as 15 feet away. Sometime later he gor an order for 50,000 units from Toys R Us, and in 1993 he sold his company. — Source

22

YOUNG INVENTORS A 22-YEAR-OLD INVENTED GAME-CHANGING TRAIN BRAKES. In 1869, young George Westinghouse invented brakes based on compressed air. They could be released simultaneously on all train cars, and they would be activated even if there was a disconnection in the brake system, stopping the train before brakes were even necessary. GRACKED.COM — Source

21

YOUNG INVENTORS A BADASS 15-YEAR-OLD BLIND KID INVENTED BRAILLE. 10-year-old Louis Braille got to attend the only school for the blind in the entire world, in France. But he still felt he could learn even more if he could just read, so he got to work, and by age 15 he had invented the Braille alphabet as it is today. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

YOUNG INVENTORS A 10-YEAR-OLD GIRL INVENTED A WAY TO WRITE IN THE DARK. In 1972, Becky Schroeder thought of of painting a clipboard with phosphorescent paint, and then placing paper on top, which would allow writing in the dark. She named her invention Glow Sheet, patented it in 1974, and got calls from NASA-while still being around 12 years old. CRACKED.COM

19

The (Teen) Father of the Snowmobile

YOUNG INVENTORS A 15-YEAR-OLD INVENTED THE SNOWMOBILE. Quebec-born Joseph Bombardier took an old Model T and added a sleigh frame and a hand-whittled propeller to it. By 1937, at age 30, he was already selling Bombardier snowmobiles that sat seven people, but it all started at an age at which some of us were just discovering late-night Cinemax movies. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

YOUNG INVENTORS 19-YEAR-OLD BLAISE PASCAL INVENTED THE FIRST FUNCTIONING CALCULATOR. In 1642, the French mathematician and philosopher started developing a machine that could add and subtract (and multiply and divide by repeating additions or subtractions). Pascal built around 70 prototypes until 1645, nine of which still survive. 2 2 3 dizai Container mail Containne de mills do malle of CRACKED.COM — Source

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YOUNG INVENTORS A RAD TEEN MADE A COVID TRACKING WEBSITE. 17-year-old Avi Schiffmann, from Washington Stat, created one of the world's most-visited and accurate coronavirus tracking sites. Не did it in late 2019, before COVID literally took over the world. And then he turned down $8 million to run ads. I CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 No PULSE82 125 COM 54 38 E NH FLINT STAT STATE TAMP SINCE NH CRACKED.COM — Source

16

YOUNG INVENTORS A KID SAID, HEY, MAYBE LET'S NOT HAVE ACTUAL FIRE IN OUR CHRISTMAS TREES. Yup, Christmas trees used to have candles. By 1925, though, Christmas lights existed, but they were way too expensive. Enter Albert Sadacca. At age 15, he adapted the novelty lighting sold by his parents into a battery-powered version, and the rest is frustratedly untangling Christmas lights history. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Water Skiing

YOUNG INVENTORS A TEEN INVENTED THE GEAR FOR A SPORT (AND THE SPORT). Water skiing was pretty much invented by 18-year- old Ralph Samuelson in Lake Pepin, Minnesota, in 1922. Не made his own skis made of pine board, after wooden barrel staves and snow skis proved not to be able to do the job. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

YOUNG INVENTORS SOME KID NAMED BENJAMIN FRANKLIN INVENTED SWIMMING FLIPPERS. Yup, it was that Ben Franklin. When he was 11, he loved to swim but wasn't too good at it, so he came up with lily pad-shaped wooden planks to move with his hands. They did help swim faster, but they got his wrists tired so he abandoned the idea. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

CRACKED FRANK EPPERSON When he was 11 years old, Frank Epperson invented the popsicle, and applied for a patent. His kids called it Pop's 'sicles instead of Eppsicles, which is what he had originally named it. — Source

12

GREGORY WATSON CRACKED In 1992, the 27th Amendment was ratified, 203 years after being proposed. This was all thanks to Watson, a college student. Не noticed it could still legally be ratified, didn't give up, and led a successful grassroots campaign to make it happen. UPDATE OF STUDENT ACADEMIC RECORD Gregory watson Del with Business watson ad 1 Students college/school - Sarian 1982 3101 36585 American Government - A Signer - a one ot the following - tema - appropriate 11 Conversor preventing Explain Symbol.X below - reverse - Extension Correction of the Sue to grading or resorve X recording Symbol X is edended amor Explain below المن operation - — Source

11

CRACKED TAYLOR WILSON At 14 years old, Taylor Wilson made history by becoming the youngest person ever to construct a functional nuclear fusion reactor. Kind of a Dexter's Laboratory-in-real-life situation. — Source

10

CRACKED PHILO FARNSWORTH When he was 14, Farnsworth had a life-changing idea that eventually resulted in him getting a patent for the first ever all-electronic television system in 1930. Не was a farm boy, and he was inspired by fields being plowed in horizontal lines. — Source

9

CRACKED DIANE HARTLEY Hartley, an engineering student, asked about the Citigroup Center in NYC and how strong the winds were at its corners. This made the chief engineer go back and look at the wind tunnel test results again, and they had to do some emergency repairs. Center Subway — Source

8

CRACKED CALCEA JOHNSON AND NE'KIYA JACKSON These two high schoolers from St. Mary's Academy in New Orleans showed off a new proof of the Pythagorean theorem, using trigonometry, which some people thought couldn't be done. az+b=c2 — Source

7

CRACKED ALEXANDER HAMILTON Hamilton wrote an account of a really bad hurricane hitting the island of St. Croix in 1772. This was printed in a local newspaper, and it was so good, especially from a teenager, that it encouraged people to raise money to send him to the U.S. from the West Indies. — Source

6

CRACKED JOHN VON NEUMANN Не published his first paper on polynomials when he was only 19, then more or less invented half of the 20th century-up to and including the atomic bomb. — Source

5

Bill Gates

CRACKED BILL GATES AND PAUL ALLEN When Bill Gates was 15 years old, he and his friend Paul Allen started a business called Traf-o-Data. It was a computer program that looked at traffic patterns in Seattle, and they made $20,000 from it. — Source

4

CRACKED ANYA POGHARIAN Pogharian, an 18-year-old from Montreal, created a low-cost, portable dialysis machine for a science fair project in 2015. It quickly filters blood, and has earned her worldwide recognition and job offers. — Source

3

CRACKED GEORGE DANTZIG Dantzig, a PhD student at UC Berkeley, saw some problems on the chalkboard in a class and thought they were homework. But they were actually unproven statistics theorems and, in solving his homework, he came up with proofs for them. — Source

2

CRACKED BRITNEY GALLIVAN Gallivan is famous for being able to fold a single sheet of paper in half 12 times as a high school junior. Before this, 8 was considered the maximum, and she set the Guinness World Record in 2002. She rigorously worked out the math behind it, too. — Source

1

CRACKED JOHN ROMERO Romero was hired by the Royal Air Force when he was a teenager to do some coding for them. I can't tell you what I was programming because that's classified, he said in an interview decades later ... and he left it at that. — Source

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