What question did the 1878 photographs answer?

Whether a galloping horse lifts all four hooves at once

How were the cameras triggered?

By threads or wires tripped by the horse

What dramatic event happened in 1874?

He crossed the Atlantic in a balloon

Eadweard Muybridge Quiz: The Horse in Motion Photos

Railroad baron Leland Stanford wanted to know how a trotting horse really moved, and this Eadweard Muybridge quiz explains how one photographer answered him and helped invent movies. Play 10 interactive questions on The Horse in Motion, tripwires, Palo Alto, the zoopraxiscope, Animal Locomotion, Yosemite views and a sensational murder trial.

Start Eadweard Muybridge Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Question
What question did the 1878 photographs answer?
Patron
Who hired Muybridge to photograph his horses?
Cameras
How many cameras did Muybridge line up in 1878?
Trigger
How were the cameras triggered?
Device
Which device did Muybridge invent to project moving images?
Book
What was his large study of people and animals in motion called?
Name
What was Muybridge's original name?
Birthplace
Where was Muybridge born?
Trial
What dramatic event happened in 1874?
Landscapes
Which national landscape did Muybridge photograph famously?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: What question did the 1878 photographs answer?
Answer: Whether a galloping horse lifts all four hooves at once
They showed the hooves tucked under, not stretched out.
Q2: Who hired Muybridge to photograph his horses?
Answer: Leland Stanford
Stanford owned a stock farm in Palo Alto.
Q3: How many cameras did Muybridge line up in 1878?
Answer: Twelve
Each was triggered as the horse passed.
Q4: How were the cameras triggered?
Answer: By threads or wires tripped by the horse
The shutters fired in sequence.
Q5: Which device did Muybridge invent to project moving images?
Answer: The zoopraxiscope
It is seen as a forerunner of cinema.
Q6: What was his large study of people and animals in motion called?
Answer: Animal Locomotion
He made it at the University of Pennsylvania.
Q7: What was Muybridge's original name?
Answer: Edward James Muggeridge
He changed the spelling several times.
Q8: Where was Muybridge born?
Answer: Kingston upon Thames, England
He emigrated to the United States.
Q9: What dramatic event happened in 1874?
Answer: He shot his wife's lover and was acquitted
The jury ruled it justifiable homicide.
Q10: Which national landscape did Muybridge photograph famously?
Answer: Yosemite
His large-format views won awards.

Eadweard Muybridge Quiz – The Horse in Motion

Eadweard Muybridge, born Edward James Muggeridge in Kingston upon Thames, England, became a celebrated photographer in California, known for views of Yosemite.

In 1878, for railroad tycoon Leland Stanford, he set up twelve cameras at a farm in Palo Alto, triggered by threads as a horse ran past. The photographs, The Horse in Motion, proved that all four hooves leave the ground, tucked beneath the body.

Muybridge invented the zoopraxiscope to project moving images and later made the huge study Animal Locomotion at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1874 he shot his wife's lover and was acquitted, a scandal that followed him for years.

What This Quiz Teaches

Photography and film fans will enjoy these questions.

What question Muybridge answered
How he set up the cameras
What he invented
Which studies he made
What scandal surrounded him

Did You Know?

Painters had often shown galloping horses inaccurately.
His sequences influenced artists like Degas.
The images are now on display at Stanford.
He died in 1904 in his hometown.
His work is a step toward motion pictures.