Encyclopedia Of World Scientists

B. J. Habibie

2011-12-30T05:03:00.000-08:00

Habibie was born in Parepare, South Sulawesi(Province) on June 25, 1936 to Abdul Jalil Habibie and R. A. Tuti Marini Puspowardojo. His father was an agriculturist from Gorontalo and his mother was a Javanese noblewoman from Yogyakarta. His parents met while studying in Bogor. His father died when he was 14, and after his father's death, he travelled to Jakarta to continue his studies. In 1955, he flew to Germany to further his studies.[1] He successfully obtained his Dipl.-Ing. in 1960. After obtaining his degree, he remained in Germany as a research assistant for Hans Ebner at the Lehrstuhl und Institut für Leichtbau RWTH Aachen, while conducting research for his doctorate degree.[2]

In 1962, he travelled back to Indonesia for three months sick leave. During this time, he met Hasri Ainun, the daughter of R. Mohamad Besari. He and Ainun were childhood friends and knew each other since junior. They attended senior high school together at SMA-Kristen, Bandung. They married on May 12, 1962 and went to Germany later that month.[3]

They settled in Aachen for a short period before moving to Oberforstbach later that year. Habibie's minimum wage salary forced him to find a part time job. He choose to work for Talbot where he worked as adviser, where he contributed to two projects funded by Deutsche Bundesbahn, dan Talbot won both.[clarification needed] Due to his contribution to Makosh, the Head of Train Constructions offered his position to Habibie upon retirement 3 years later, but Habibie refused.[4]

In May 1963, his first son, Ilham Akbar Habibie, was born. In 1965, B. J. Habibie obtained his Dr.-Ing. after successfully defending his thesis with "Sehr Gut" (very good). During the same year, he accepted Dr.-Ing. Hans Ebner's offer to continue his research about Thermoelastisitas and Habilitation, but refused to join RWTH as a professor. Since his thesis about light construction in supersonic or even hypersonic, companies like Boeing and Airbus offered him to join their company, but he refused.[5]

During 1955–1965, he studied aerospace engineering at the RWTH Aachen University, Germany, receiving a Diploma (Germany's First degree certificate which is equivalent to Master in most countries) in 1960 and doctorate in 1965. He then worked for Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in Hamburg. His time spent in Europe might have made him interested in the Leica line of cameras.

While working in Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, he conducted many research assignments, producing theories on thermodynamics, construction, and aerodynamics, known as the Habibie Factor, Habibie Theorem, and Habibie Method, respectively.[citation needed]

When Habibie came back to Indonesia in 1974, he was made CEO of a new state owned enterprise called PT. Nurtanio. By the early 1980s it had grown considerably, specializing in making helicopters and small passenger planes. In 1995, he succeeded in flying an N-250 (dubbed Gatotkoco) commuter plane. He was assisted in his efforts by A.B. Wolff, former Chief of Staff of the Dutch Airforce.

In developing Indonesia's Aviation Industry, he adopted an approach called "Begin at the End and End at the Beginning".[6] In this method, things such as basic research became the last things that the workers at IPTN focused on, while actual manufacturing of the planes was placed as the first objective.

In 1985, PT. Nurtanio changed its name to Indonesian Aviation Industry and is now known as Indonesian Aerospace Inc. (Dirgantara).
Vice presidency

The 1998 People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) General Session was to be held in the midst of the Asian Financial Crisis and many were hoping for Suharto to take serious steps to take the country out of trouble. In January 1998, after accepting nomination for a 7th term as President, Suharto announced the criteria for the person who he wanted as Vice President. Suharto did not mention Habibie by name but his suggestion that the next Vice President should have mastery over science and technology made it obvious who he wanted to nominate.[7] The market reacted badly, causing the rupiah to further depreciate in value.

Despite protests and former Minister Emil Salim trying to nominate himself as Vice President, Habibie was elected as Vice President in March 1998.
Vice presidency

The 1998 People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) General Session was to be held in the midst of the Asian Financial Crisis and many were hoping for Suharto to take serious steps to take the country out of trouble. In January 1998, after accepting nomination for a 7th term as President, Suharto announced the criteria for the person who he wanted as Vice President. Suharto did not mention Habibie by name but his suggestion that the next Vice President should have mastery over science and technology made it obvious who he wanted to nominate.[7] The market reacted badly, causing the rupiah to further depreciate in value.

Despite protests and former Minister Emil Salim trying to nominate himself as Vice President, Habibie was elected as Vice President in March 1998.
[edit] Presidency
Main article: Post-Suharto Era
[edit] Rise to office
Habibie takes the presidential oath of office on 21 May 1998.

By May 1998, the increasing poverty caused by the Financial Crisis and political discontent had reached a boiling point. On May 13, the shooting of four students at Trisakti University in Jakarta, caused extreme anger which in turn caused widespread riots and lootings. There were now explicit calls for Suharto to step down as President of Indonesia. Suharto responded by saying on May 19, 1998 that if he stepped down, the Vice President would become President and in a not too subtle jab to Habibie, said that he was not sure whether the Vice President could solve the problems facing the country.[8]

After learning of Suharto's comments from television, he was upset with his mentor and from then on was increasingly sympathetic to those who wanted Suharto to step down. While careful not to oppose him directly or support those who did, he left the president in little doubt that he saw himself as Suharto's legitimate successor. Suharto, faced with dwindling civilian and military support, even among loyalists like Wiranto and Ginandjar Kartasasmita, decided to resign late on the evening of May 20, 1998.[9]

The next morning, on May 21, 1998, Suharto publicly announced his resignation and Habibie was immediately sworn in as President. There were mixed reactions to Habibie's assumption to the Presidency. Hardline reformists saw him as an extension of Suharto's regime while moderate reformists saw him as leading a transitional Government.

With the release of his 2006 book, Detik-Detik Yang Menentukan: Jalan Panjang Indonesia Menuju Demokrasi (Decisive Moments: Indonesia's Long Road Towards Democracy), there is speculation that Suharto had wanted Habibie to resign along with him.[10] In Javanese style, Suharto hinted at this intention subtly. Habibie, despite having Javanese roots from his mother, didn't take the hint and decided to take the office of the President. Because of this inability to read his intentions, Suharto showed nothing but contempt and never talked to him again.
[edit] Cabinet

Habibie's Cabinet, which was called the Development Reform Cabinet consisted mostly of the same faces which had served in Suharto's last Cabinet.[11] To show his reformist bent, he included United Development Party (PPP) member Hamzah Haz in the Cabinet.
[edit] East Timor

When he took office, he made it clear that East Timorese Independence was out of the question, but that he would consider giving East Timor special autonomy.[12] In January 1999, however, he surprised everyone by announcing that a referendum, choosing between special autonomy and independence, would be held in East Timor. This particular decision made him extremely unpopular with ABRI.

On 30 August 1999, the referendum was held and the East Timorese people chose overwhelmingly for Independence. However, the retreat of Indonesian troops from East Timor would not be peaceful as many people were killed during the crisis.
[edit] Suharto's corruption charge

The 1998 MPR Special Session in November declared that an investigation should be made into corruption charges especially that of Suharto's.

Habibie also thought of forming a special commission as a gesture of good faith towards Reformasi and invited noted lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution to be on the commission. Nasution would ask for a lot of power in investigating the matter and Habibie rejected the offer. Instead, he appointed Attorney General and loyalist, Andi Muhammad Ghalib to head the investigation.

On 9 December 1998, Suharto was questioned for three hours by Ghalib. The Habibie Government declared that Suharto had gained his wealth through corruption.

A controversial tape was released which involved a telephone conversation between Habibie and Ghalib. The conversation seemed to suggest that Habibie's Government was not giving a serious attempt at investigating Suharto's corruption charges.[13]
[edit] The economy

Habibie's Government stabilized the economy after the chaos which it went through in the Asian Financial Crisis and the last few months of Suharto's Presidency.[14]
[edit] Social

Habibie's Government also began making concilliatory gestures towards Chinese Indonesians who because of their wealth and dominance of the Indonesian economy were targeted during the violence and looting. In September 1998, he issued a Presidential Instruction which does not allow for the discriminatorial reference to pribumi (Native) and non-pribumi (Non-Native).[15] In May 1999, he followed this up with another Presidential Instruction which states that a display of ID Card is enough to prove someone's Indonesian citizenship whereas before, displaying the Letter of Evidence of Republic of Indonesia Citizenship (SBKRI) was the norm.

Although they were not mentioned specifically, it is clear that these policies were targeted towards Chinese Indonesians who in the Suharto years were referred to as non-Pribumi and had to display SBKRI to prove their Indonesian citizenship.
[edit] Other

When he was a State Minister for Research and Technology, he created a program called OFP (Overseas Fellowship program), SMDP (Science and Manpower Development Program) and STAID (Science and Technology for Industrial Development). The three programs were to provide scholarships to thousands of students to continue their study for master’s and doctorate program in the United States, Europe, Japan, and others.
[edit] End of presidency

Although he had been viewed as leading a transitional government, he seemed determined to continue as president. In May 1999, Golkar announced that Habibie would be their presidential candidate.

At the 1999 MPR General Session in October, Habibie delivered an accountability speech which was a report of what he had achieved during his presidency. Once this was completed, MPR members began voting to decide if they would accept or reject his speech. During this process, pro-Reform members of Golkar broke with the ranks and voted against him, and his accountability speech was rejected 355 votes to 322. Seeing that it would be inappropriate to press his candidacy for the presidency after having his accountability speech rejected, Habibie withdrew his nomination.
[edit] Post-presidency

Since relinquishing the presidency, he has spent more time in Germany than in Indonesia, however he has during Susilo Bambang Yudoyono's presidency been active both as a presidential adviser and through The Habibie Centre to ensure democratisation in Indonesia.

In September 2006, he released a book called Detik-Detik Yang Menentukan: Jalan Panjang Indonesia Menuju Demokrasi (Decisive Moments: Indonesia's Long Road Towards Democracy). The book recalled the events of May 1998 which led to his rise to the Presidency. In the book, he controversially accuses Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto, Suharto's son-in-law (at that time) and the Kostrad Commander, of planning a coup d'état against him in May 1998.
[edit] Family

Habibie was married to Hasri Ainun Besari, a medical doctor, from 12 May 1962 until her death on 22 May 2010. The couple had two sons, Ilham Akbar Habibie and Thareq Kemal Habibie. BJ Habibie's brother, Junus Effendi Habibie, is the current Indonesian ambassador to the Netherlands.[16][17]

Was Adolf Hitler A Right-Wing Ruler?

2011-12-30T05:01:00.000-08:00

The 1930s produced one of histories most infamous and destructive maniacs. The name of this maniac was Adolf Hitler who founded Nazi Germany (1943-1945). Tens of millions of people perished before his twelve-year reign ended. Many people today refer to his Nazi government as a right-wing organization. Let us carefully examine the facts to see exactly what form of government Hitler created and envisioned.

The letters in the name USSR actually represented the official name the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The USSR was a Progressive Communist system founded upon principles as stated by the 1880s German philosopher Karl Marx. The official name of the Nazi party was National Socialism. Both the USSR founders and the Nazi founders used the Socialist name to describe their governments.

Another case in point is that the background color of the National Socialist flag of Germany was Socialist red and that Mao's Chinese Communist government used the same colored flag and as well as the Bolshevik government flag of Lenin and Joseph Stalin. Once again it appears that the Nazi party was a left-wing government.

The German government had a Secret Police department named the Gestapo whose role was to enforce unity without dissent. The Soviets had a Secret Police department named the KGB and the KGB's role was also to enforce unity without dissent. Both the Gestapo and KGB readily used violence to ensure compliance of their government's respective policies.

The Soviet system created a structure where the government had complete ownership of the land and all means of production. The Soviet government determined the type and quantity of products. The government determined the size of the workforce. The government also determined how much the workers were to be paid. The Soviet Regime also determined who was to receive the produced items. The Communist government set the price of the items. The Nazi system allowed for the private sector to own the businesses and keep all of the profits but the Nazi's controlled the market place. The Hitler Fascist controlled the means of production in the same manner as the Communist did. Hitler and his subordinates had complete control of the same elements of production as Stalin did in the USSR.

Most of the top leaders in the German Fascist Regime wore military style uniforms. Most of the Chinese, Soviet, North Korean, and Cuban Communist leaders also wore military uniforms. If wearing a military uniform is the true test for a right-wing government then all government leaders that wear a military uniform must be right-wing in nature. The Communist leaders that wear a military uniform must be right-wing if the Nazi's that wore a military uniform were right-wingers.

Social justice is the backbone of all socialist forms of government. Social justice was the theme of Communism and Fascism during the Twentieth Century. This is the same social justice theme of the Progressive Socialist of today. The actual actions of the Nazi's in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s appear to have been actions of a left-winged form of administration. Why does the contradiction exist about what form of government ruled in Germany over three score years ago?

The Nazi handbook stated that you had no comrades. Everyone was expendable in the pursuit of social justice. "Rules for Radicals" was an infamous Socialist book written by Saul Alinsky. Alinsky's book became popular in America during the late 1960s. Alinsky proposed similar tactics as those used by the Communist and Fascist governments in gaining power. It appears that the progressives felt that Hitler and his henchmen that proposed social justice were also expendable in order to preserve social justice for the future. The leftists apparently are attempting to rewrite the facts of history once again.

The facts about Adolf Hitler and his cronies support the concept that Germany had a progressive (socialist) system that led the German people to ruin. I have my own opinion about whether or not Hitler was a right-winger. You are entitled to your own opinion.

What do you think America? It's something for you to ponder over

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2011-12-13T02:01:00.000-08:00

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2011-12-13T01:57:00.000-08:00

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2011-12-09T15:57:00.001-08:00

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Robert Boyle

2011-11-01T03:29:00.000-07:00

Robert Boyle FRS (25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was a 17th century natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor, also noted for his writings in theology. He has been variously described as English, Irish, or Anglo-Irish, his father having come to Ireland from England during the time of the English plantations of Ireland.

Although his research clearly has its roots in the alchemical tradition, Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method. He is best known for Boyle's law,[1] which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system.[2][3] Among his works, The Sceptical Chymist is seen as a cornerstone book in the field of chemistry.

Early years

Boyle was born in Lismore Castle, in County Waterford, Ireland, the seventh son and fourteenth child of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork and Catherine Fenton. Richard Boyle arrived in Dublin from England in 1588 during the Tudor plantations of Ireland and obtained an appointment as a deputy escheator. He had amassed enormous landholdings by the time Robert was born. Catherine Fenton was the daughter of English writer Geoffrey Fenton, who was born Dublin in 1539, and Alice Weston, the daughter of Robert Weston, who was born in Lismore in 1541.[4]

As a child, Robert was fostered to a local family,[5] as were his elder brothers. Consequently, the eldest of the Boyle children had sufficient Irish at four years of age to act as a translator for his father.[6] Robert received private tutoring in Latin, Greek and French and when he was eight years old, following the death of his mother, he was sent to Eton College in England. His father's friend, Sir Henry Wotton, was then the provost of the college.

During this time, his father hired a private tutor, Robert Carew, who had knowledge of Irish, to act as private tutor to his sons in Eton. However, "only Mr. Robert sometimes desires it [Irish] and is a little entered in it", but despite the "many reasons" given by Mr. Carew to turn their attentions to it, "they practice the French and Latin but they affect not the Irish".[6] After spending over three years at Eton, Robert traveled abroad with a French tutor. They visited Italy in 1641 and remained in Florence during the winter of that year studying the "paradoxes of the great star-gazer" Galileo Galilei, who was elderly but still living in 1641.

Middle years

Boyle returned to England from Continental Europe in mid-1644 with a keen interest for scientific research.[7] His father had died the previous year and had left him the manor of Stalbridge in Dorset, England and substantial estates in County Limerick in Ireland that he had acquired. From that time, Robert devoted his life to scientific research and soon took a prominent place in the band of inquirers, known as the "Invisible College", who devoted themselves to the cultivation of the "new philosophy". They met frequently in London, often at Gresham College, and some of the members also had meetings at Oxford.

Having made several visits to his Irish estates beginning in 1647, Robert moved to Ireland in 1652 but became frustrated at his inability to make progress in his chemical work. In one letter, he described Ireland as "a barbarous country where chemical spirits were so misunderstood and chemical instruments so unprocurable that it was hard to have any Hermetic thoughts in it."[8]

In 1654, Boyle left Ireland for Oxford to pursue his work more successfully. An inscription can be found on the wall of University College, Oxford the High Street at Oxford (now the location of the Shelley Memorial), marking the spot where Cross Hall stood until the early 19th century. It was here that Boyle rented rooms from the wealthy apothecary who owned the Hall.

Reading in 1657 of Otto von Guericke's air-pump, he set himself with the assistance of Robert Hooke to devise improvements in its construction, and with the result, the "machina Boyleana" or "Pneumatical Engine", finished in 1659, he began a series of experiments on the properties of air.[1] An account of Boyle's work with the air pump was published in 1660 under the title New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and its Effects....

Among the critics of the views put forward in this book was a Jesuit, Francis Line (1595–1675), and it was while answering his objections that Boyle made his first mention of the law that the volume of a gas varies inversely to the pressure of the gas, which among English-speaking people is usually called Boyle's Law after his name. The person that originally formulated the hypothesis was Henry Power in 1661. Boyle included a reference to a paper written by Power, but mistakenly attributed it to Richard Towneley. In continental Europe the hypothesis is sometimes attributed to Edme Mariotte, although he did not publish it until 1676 and was likely aware of Boyle's work at the time.[9]

In 1663 the Invisible College became the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, and the charter of incorporation granted by Charles II of England, named Boyle a member of the council. In 1680 he was elected president of the society, but declined the honour from a scruple about oaths.

He made a "wish list" of 24 possible inventions which included "The Prolongation of Life", the "Art of Flying", "perpetual light", "making armor light and extremely hard", "A ship to saile with All Winds, and a Ship not to be sunk", "practicable and certain way of finding Longitudes", "potent druggs to alter or Exalt Imagination, Waking, Memory and other functions and appease pain, procure innocent sleep, harmless dreams etc". They are extraordinary because all but a few of the 24 have come true.[10]

It was during his time at Oxford that Boyle was a Chevalier. The Chevaliers are thought to have been established by royal order a few years before Boyle's time at Oxford. The early part of Boyle's residence was marked by the actions of the victorious parliamentarian forces, consequently this period marked the most secretive period of Chevalier movements and thus little is known about Boyle's involvement beyond his membership.

Later years

In 1689 his health, never very strong, began to fail seriously and he gradually withdrew from his public engagements, ceasing his communications to the Royal Society, and advertising his desire to be excused from receiving guests, "unless upon occasions very extraordinary", on Tuesday and Friday forenoon, and Wednesday and Saturday afternoon. In the leisure thus gained he wished to "recruit his spirits, range his papers", and prepare some important chemical investigations which he proposed to leave "as a kind of Hermetic legacy to the studious disciples of that art", but of which he did not make known the nature. His health became still worse in 1691, and he died on 31 December that year, just a week after that of the sister with whom he had lived for more than twenty years. Robert Boyle died from paralysis. He was buried in the churchyard of St Martin in the Fields, his funeral sermon being preached by his friend Bishop Gilbert Burnet. In his will, Boyle endowed a series of Lectures which came to be known as the Boyle Lectures.

Scientific investigator

Boyle's great merit as a scientific investigator is that he carried out the principles which Francis Bacon espoused in the Novum Organum. Yet he would not avow himself a follower of Bacon, or indeed of any other teacher. On several occasions he mentions that in order to keep his judgment as unprepossessed as might be with any of the modern theories of philosophy, until he was "provided of experiments" to help him judge of them, he refrained from any study of the Atomical and the Cartesian systems, and even of the Novum Organum itself, though he admits to "transiently consulting" them about a few particulars. Nothing was more alien to his mental temperament than the spinning of hypotheses. He regarded the acquisition of knowledge as an end in itself, and in consequence he gained a wider outlook on the aims of scientific inquiry than had been enjoyed by his predecessors for many centuries. This, however, did not mean that he paid no attention to the practical application of science nor that he despised knowledge which tended to use.

Boyle was an alchemist;[11] and believing the transmutation of metals to be a possibility, he carried out experiments in the hope of achieving it; and he was instrumental in obtaining the repeal, in 1689, of the statute of Henry IV against multiplying gold and silver.[12] With all the important work he accomplished in physics – the enunciation of Boyle's law, the discovery of the part taken by air in the propagation of sound, and investigations on the expansive force of freezing water, on specific gravities and refractive powers, on crystals, on electricity, on colour, on hydrostatics, etc. – chemistry was his peculiar and favourite study. His first book on the subject was The Sceptical Chymist, published in 1661, in which he criticized the "experiments whereby vulgar Spagyrists are wont to endeavour to evince their Salt, Sulphur and Mercury to be the true Principles of Things." For him chemistry was the science of the composition of substances, not merely an adjunct to the arts of the alchemist or the physician. He endorsed the view of elements as the undecomposable constituents of material bodies; and made the distinction between mixtures and compounds. He made considerable progress in the technique of detecting their ingredients, a process which he designated by the term "analysis". He further supposed that the elements were ultimately composed of particles of various sorts and sizes, into which, however, they were not to be resolved in any known way. He studied the chemistry of combustion and of respiration, and conducted experiments in physiology, where, however, he was hampered by the "tenderness of his nature" which kept him from anatomical dissections, especially vivisections, though he knew them to be "most instructing".

Blaise Pascal

2011-11-01T03:22:00.000-07:00

Blaise Pascal 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662), was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method.

In 1642, while still a teenager, he started some pioneering work on calculating machines, and after three years of effort and 50 prototypes[1] he invented the mechanical calculator.[2][3] He built twenty of these machines (called the Pascaline) in the following ten years.[4] Pascal was a mathematician of the first order. He helped create two major new areas of research. He wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of sixteen, and later corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science. Following Galileo and Torricelli, in 1646 he refuted Aristotle's followers who insisted that nature abhors a vacuum. His results caused many disputes before being accepted.

In 1646, he and his sister Jacqueline identified with the religious movement within Catholicism known by its detractors as Jansenism.[5] His father died in 1651. Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he had his "second conversion", abandoned his scientific work, and devoted himself to philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensées, the former set in the conflict between Jansenists and Jesuits. In this year, he also wrote an important treatise on the arithmetical triangle. Between 1658 and 1659 he wrote on the cycloid and its use in calculating the volume of solids.

Early life and education

Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand; he lost his mother, Antoinette Begon, at the age of three.[7] His father, Étienne Pascal (1588–1651), who also had an interest in science and mathematics, was a local judge and member of the "Noblesse de Robe". Pascal had two sisters, the younger Jacqueline and the elder Gilberte.

In 1631, five years after the death of his wife,[8] Étienne Pascal moved with his children to Paris. The newly arrived family soon hired Louise Delfault, a maid who eventually became an instrumental member of the family. Étienne, who never remarried, decided that he alone would educate his children, for they all showed extraordinary intellectual ability, particularly his son Blaise. The young Pascal showed an amazing aptitude for mathematics and science.

Particularly of interest to Pascal was a work of Desargues on conic sections. Following Desargues' thinking, the sixteen-year-old Pascal produced, as a means of proof, a short treatise on what was called the "Mystic Hexagram", Essai pour les coniques ("Essay on Conics") and sent it—his first serious work of mathematics—to Père Mersenne in Paris; it is known still today as Pascal's theorem. It states that if a hexagon is inscribed in a circle (or conic) then the three intersection points of opposite sides lie on a line (called the Pascal line).

Pascal's work was so precocious that Descartes was convinced that Pascal's father had written it. When assured by Mersenne that it was, indeed, the product of the son not the father, Descartes dismissed it with a sniff: "I do not find it strange that he has offered demonstrations about conics more appropriate than those of the ancients," adding, "but other matters related to this subject can be proposed that would scarcely occur to a sixteen-year-old child."[9]

In France at that time offices and positions could be—and were—bought and sold. In 1631 Étienne sold his position as second president of the Cour des Aides for 65,665 livres.[10] The money was invested in a government bond which provided if not a lavish then certainly a comfortable income which allowed the Pascal family to move to, and enjoy, Paris. But in 1638 Richelieu, desperate for money to carry on the Thirty Years' War, defaulted on the government's bonds. Suddenly Étienne Pascal's worth had dropped from nearly 66,000 livres to less than 7,300.

An early Pascaline on display at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris

Like so many others, Étienne was eventually forced to flee Paris because of his opposition to the fiscal policies of Cardinal Richelieu, leaving his three children in the care of his neighbor Madame Sainctot, a great beauty with an infamous past who kept one of the most glittering and intellectual salons in all France. It was only when Jacqueline performed well in a children's play with Richelieu in attendance that Étienne was pardoned. In time Étienne was back in good graces with the cardinal, and in 1639 had been appointed the king's commissioner of taxes in the city of Rouen — a city whose tax records, thanks to uprisings, were in utter chaos.

In 1642, in an effort to ease his father's endless, exhausting calculations, and recalculations, of taxes owed and paid, Pascal, not yet nineteen, constructed a mechanical calculator capable of addition and subtraction, called Pascal's calculator or the Pascaline. The Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris and the Zwinger museum in Dresden, Germany, exhibit two of his original mechanical calculators. Though these machines are early forerunners to computer engineering, the calculator failed to be a great commercial success. Because it was extraordinarily expensive the Pascaline became little more than a toy, and status symbol, for the very rich both in France and throughout Europe. However, Pascal continued to make improvements to his design through the next decade and built twenty machines in total.

Contributions to mathematics

Pascal continued to influence mathematics throughout his life. His Traité du triangle arithmétique ("Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle") of 1653 described a convenient tabular presentation for binomial coefficients, now called Pascal's triangle. The triangle can also be represented:

He defines the numbers in the triangle by recursion: Call the number in the (m+1)st row and (n+1)st column tmn. Then tmn = tm-1,n + tm,n-1, for m = 0, 1, 2... and n = 0, 1, 2... The boundary conditions are tm, −1 = 0, t−1, n for m = 1, 2, 3... and n = 1, 2, 3... The generator t00 = 1. Pascal concludes with the proof,

t_{mn} = \frac{(m+n)(m+n-1)...(m+1)}{n(n-1)...1}.\

In 1654, prompted by a friend interested in gambling problems, he corresponded with Fermat on the subject, and from that collaboration was born the mathematical theory of probabilities. The friend was the Chevalier de Méré, and the specific problem was that of two players who want to finish a game early and, given the current circumstances of the game, want to divide the stakes fairly, based on the chance each has of winning the game from that point. From this discussion, the notion of expected value was introduced. Pascal later (in the Pensées) used a probabilistic argument, Pascal's Wager, to justify belief in God and a virtuous life. The work done by Fermat and Pascal into the calculus of probabilities laid important groundwork for Leibniz' formulation of the infinitesimal calculus.[11]

After a religious experience in 1654, Pascal mostly gave up work in mathematics.

Philosophy of mathematics

Pascal's major contribution to the philosophy of mathematics came with his De l'Esprit géométrique ("Of the Geometrical Spirit"), originally written as a preface to a geometry textbook for one of the famous "Petites-Ecoles de Port-Royal" ("Little Schools of Port-Royal"). The work was unpublished until over a century after his death. Here, Pascal looked into the issue of discovering truths, arguing that the ideal of such a method would be to found all propositions on already established truths. At the same time, however, he claimed this was impossible because such established truths would require other truths to back them up—first principles, therefore, cannot be reached. Based on this, Pascal argued that the procedure used in geometry was as perfect as possible, with certain principles assumed and other propositions developed from them. Nevertheless, there was no way to know the assumed principles to be true.

Pascal also used De l'Esprit géométrique to develop a theory of definition. He distinguished between definitions which are conventional labels defined by the writer and definitions which are within the language and understood by everyone because they naturally designate their referent. The second type would be characteristic of the philosophy of essentialism. Pascal claimed that only definitions of the first type were important to science and mathematics, arguing that those fields should adopt the philosophy of formalism as formulated by Descartes.

In De l'Art de persuader ("On the Art of Persuasion"), Pascal looked deeper into geometry's axiomatic method, specifically the question of how people come to be convinced of the axioms upon which later conclusions are based. Pascal agreed with Montaigne that achieving certainty in these axioms and conclusions through human methods is impossible. He asserted that these principles can only be grasped through intuition, and that this fact underscored the necessity for submission to God in searching out truths.

A Brief History of Roulette

2011-11-01T03:17:00.000-07:00

The history of roulette is in itself vague and uncertain. With so many myths and legends intertwined with fantasy-like stories, there is no real way to find out how exactly the game was created. Keeping this in mind, even though the invention of the game is uncertain, it is normally attributed to the French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal. In the 17th century, Pascal was known for his fascination with perpetual motion and some say this fascination of his led to the invention of the first real Roulette table.

In French, the term 'roulette' means 'small wheels'. In all probabilities, roulette was possibly invented by Pascal in the 17th century and by the early 18th century, there were already a few more versions of the game that were being played in England. However, it wasn't until the mid 19th century that Roulettes French connection was created.

In the year 1842, two French gentlemen Louis and Francois Blanc invented the first real modern roulette table. This invention consisted of single zero tables that are used till date. However, at this time gambling was considered to be an illegal activity in France. So, the Blanc brothers introduced this game to all the gambling halls all over Europe and the United States. Hereafter, roulette rapidly gained devoted followers and has eve since, become one of the most popular table gambling games in the New World. In those days, the game was played a lot by royalty and the game was soon nick named the 'King (or by some, the Queen) of all casino games!

Internet Roulette

With the passing of years, gambling has now moved to a whole new level in terms of popularity, and roulette has steadfastly marched along with it. With the advent of the Internet and online gaming, roulette has now reached its peak. Roulette, particularly French roulette, which was previously considered the game for the rich, has now become accessible to all and sundry. Even though it is still considered to be the king of all casino games, roulette is no longer only for royalty. This however, has made roulette even more popular and people from all over the world flock towards gambling halls to try their hands at the game.

Since its inception, roulette, along with its exceptionally humble beginnings, has gone through very little changes. What with the new developments and advancements in technology, roulette is just a click of a mouse away from you.

The history of roulette has spread over three centuries. From its beginning as the project of a famous mathematician till date, roulette is by and large the most popular casino game today. It is very unlikely that the popularity of this game will ever die.

To learn more about the game of Online Roulette and to find guides and balanced reviews of the roulette systems online today, then please check out our website at www.winningroulettesystems.com

Disclaimer: The material featured in this article is subject to copyright protection by winningroulettesystems.com unless otherwise indicated.

Johannes Baptista van Helmont

2011-11-01T03:12:00.000-07:00

Jan Baptiste van Helmont (1579-1644)

The earth is wrapped in a thin, loose shell of gases - which we call the atmosphere. The mix of gases that make up the atmosphere has changed greatly over the eons.

A Flemish alchemist and physician named Johann Baptista van Helmont was the first man to discover that the air we breathe is not one single substance but a mixture of substances. In a manuscript published after his death in 1644, he argued, based on his experiments, that an invisible "spirit" curled from every one of the bubbling flasks in his alchemical laboratory, and from each of the red coals in his furnaces. "I call this Spirit, unknown hitherto, by the new name of Gas," he wrote - coining the word from the Flemish pronunciation of the Greek word "chaos." One of the gases that he discovered was carbon dioxide, a gas that is now creating chaos on a global level.

Since van Helmont's discovery, we have come to realize, through scientific experimentation and persistent measurements, that carbon dioxide is almost everywhere. By the 1950s, Charles Keeling, working under the auspices of the California Institute of Technology, began extensive tracking of carbon dioxide levels on the planet. He recognized a pattern that had eluded others: the carbon dioxide concentration always dropped as the sun rose in the sky, and then in- creased as the sun went down. The count stayed high all night, bottomed out in the afternoon, and began climbing again after sundown.

The life cycle was becoming more and more obvious to the scientific community: every day, as the sun rises, every green thing on the planet - from skunk cabbage to club moss - begins inhaling carbon dioxide, for use in photosynthesis. As the plants inhale, the amount of gas in the air begins to drop.

Photosynthesis is, literally, "building with light." The building process takes place inside plant cells within organelles call chloroplasts. Inside each choloroplast, plants break apart molecules of carbon dioxide into carbon and oxygen. They also break water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Then they put most of these atoms back together in new combinations to build simple sugars like glucose, throwing out some of the oxygen as "trash." The process requires steady supplies of sunlight for energy, and steady supplies of carbon dioxide and water for raw materials.

By afternoon, plants have taken a good deal of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. At the same time, however, the plants are busily eating the sugars they have made for themselves. This is the metabolic process of respiration. Respiration means literally "to breathe back, to blow back;" it is a form of combustion, a very slow burn which consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide.

Photosynthesis and respiration are two of the most fundamental processes of life on Earth, and they run in opposite directions. Photosynthesis takes in carbon dioxide and releases oxygen; respiration takes in oxygen and releases carbon di- oxide. The two processes also run on different timetables: photosynthesis works a day shift, because the process requires sunlight and most plants take in carbon dioxide only when the sun shines. The gas enters the plant through a myriad of microscopic pores, stomata, on the underside of each green leaf. These little doors open at sunrise and close at sundown on every plant on the planet.

Respiration, on the other hand, works both a day shift and a night shift. At four o'clock in the morning - while the stomata are closed and green leaves are taking in virtually no carbon dioxide - the leaves are still respiring, blowing back carbon dioxide to the air. At the close of most twenty-four hour periods, most plants have "borrowed from and returned to" the atmosphere about the same amount of carbon dioxide.

This "breathing cycle" is apparent throughout the plant life on the planet: plants and trees breathe once a day. (Animals, including people, aren't a natural part of this cycle. They have no cholorplasts, so they get their energy and their raw materials by eating plants, and by eating the animals that have eaten plants, and by inhaling the oxygen released by plants.)

So?

So this natural breathing cycle of the earth's plant life is a major factor in one of the major ecological problems facing the planet: the greenhouse effect.

It is the atmosphere that keeps us warm; outer space is a very cold place, and it is the layers of gases that wrap the planet that protect us from freezing. In this sense, the Earth's gases are like the glass walls of a greenhouse.

The gases which have the highest volume in the atmosphere are not the gases that are having the most powerful greenhouse effect. Nitrogen and oxygen - which constitute 99% of the atmosphere - have almost no greenhouse effect at all. The three gases that DO have a major effect are water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone.

Like nitrogen and oxygen, these three gases are almost perfectly transparent to the sunlight that streams to the Earth from the Sun. However, water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone are partially opaque to the infrared heat radiation that rises from the sun-baked ground.

When this infrared radiation strikes the water vapor, carbon dioxide or ozone molecules, the molecules give off energy in the form of more infrared rays. In a sense, every carbon dioxide molecule in the atmosphere is like a dark star shining in all directions - up, down, and sideways. In this way, invisible rays of energy get passed back and forth many times between the atmosphere and the layers of the planet before the energy finally migrates to the top of the atmosphere and escapes into the vacuum of outer space.

That is the greenhouse effect in a nutshell: the dark rays bounce around inside the atmosphere many times before they finally manage to leak out into space. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone - rare though they are - turn the world's air into a giant heat trap. And for billions of years, life on Earth has been dependent on this peculiar property of these three gases (and a few others that are even rarer) to keep the planet livable.

The carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is a vital ingredient in the natural life cycle of the planet and the life forms it contains; if the amount of carbon dioxide varies by too much, the results on the planet could be disastrous. A minute drop, the scientists discovered, could chill the entire planet, and may have been the force behind the last Ice Age.

But what are the effects of a rise in the carbon dioxide count? As early as the 1890s, scientists predicted that this change could very well heat the planet to heights outside all human experience. It became increasing clear that the problem lay not in a possible drop in the carbon dioxide levels, but in a rise - based on new technology that introduced tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - that would change the atmosphere itself. Any change in the atmosphere would, of necessity, change the life cycles themselves.

Beyond the daily photosynthesis/respiration cycle is a larger cycle. To understand it, we need to enlarge our vision to include the whole pageantry of the seasons, the annual passage of foliage from green to red and yellow to brown and black, in terms of invisible effects. Plants take up carbon dioxide mainly in the spring and summer, their green and busy season. They drop their leaves in the fall. The leaves wither and decay, and the carbon that the plants had borrowed from the air that summer returns to the air.

Here again, photosynthesis and respiration march to different drummers. Photosynthesis is mostly a thing of summer. It begins in April, peaks in June, and drops near zero in October, when there is too little sunlight. In other words, it runs hard during the light part of the year and all but quits during the dark part of the year.

Respiration peaks in June, too, but unlike photosynthesis it never stops (except where the ground is frozen) - it keeps on going, throughout the winter and all year round. The life forms that decompose the fallen leaves include fungi, bacteria, worms, termites, slugs, and leaf molds. They compete to eat the dead leaves, to rot the fallen branches, and together they return most of life's borrowed carbon to the air.

Every year, when green things inhale carbon to put out buds, shoots, leaves and stems, the biosphere inhales. When the leaves fall and molder on the ground, the biosphere exhales. In the most beautiful, regular and global cycles in nature, the planet itself takes one breath a year. It is that breathing pattern that has been put at risk by the rise in carbon dioxide levels.

The atmospheric counts for the years since the 1950s show a definitive pattern: each fall, there is a rise in the record. Each summer, there is a dip in the record. Each winter, the high is higher than it was the winter before. The impact is clear.

The breath of life on this planet is changing. Since the 1970s, the breathing of the biosphere is no longer regular. The Earth's inhalations and exhalations seem to be getting bigger and bigger. We know it's happening, but we're not sure why, and we're not sure what the long-term effect will be. We do know that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is rising.

The rise in carbon levels was not - contrary to popular opinion - a recent event, although our ever-increasing technology has made the situation worse with each passing decade. The internal combustion engine was invented in the 1860s - the days of our great grandparents. It was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and in 1860, we released about 93 million tons of carbon into the air.

Between 1860 and 1958, industry burned fossil fuels at a rate that doubled every two decades or so, injecting a total of more than 76 billion tons of carbon into the air. Almost 80 billion tons of carbon went into the air between 1860 and 1960. Since 1960, another 80 billion tons have been added. It took one hundred years to release the first half of the fossil carbon found in the atmosphere today; it took less than thirty years to release as much again. Human beings are now releasing more than 5 billion tons of carbon into the air each year.

The Industrial Revolution threw the human sphere into high gear; people began burning more coal and charcoal to fuel the engines and to smelt steel to make more engines. They kilned clamshells and limestone to make lime for concrete for more and more factories, cities, roads between cities. They built better engines that did more work and they fed them more coal, oil, and natural gas, in a crescendo of carbon dioxide that is still building today. In effect, every human being on the planet is now shoveling one ton of carbon into the air each year.

The temperature of the planet may be rising as well. These two changes in the atmosphere are presumed to have triggered the change in life's breathing cycle; it makes sense that the changes that are taking place on the planet would show up first in the breathing of the planet itself, which is the grand summation of all of the action of life on Earth.

With every year that passes, geochemists are discovering more and more changes in the workings of the planet, and trying - desperately - to figure out what it all means. Without disentangling cause and effect, they can't all agree that the changes are alarming. With the breathing of the world, these are a few of the perspectives being offered:

GROWTH. The green plants of the biosphere LIKE the extra carbon dioxide we are putting into the air. It gives them more raw material for photosynthesis. Each year the biosphere gets bigger; because it is bigger it takes in more carbon dioxide. It inhales more and more deeply.

DECAY: The biosphere is decaying faster than before. There is more and more respiration each winter. Each year it inhales a little more. More and more of the "stuff of life" is unraveling and returning to the air.

GROWTH AND DECAY: Both may be accelerating. A bigger biosphere would be expected to inhale and exhale more deeply. Each summer there are more plants to inhale gas; each winter there may be more plants and animals to devour and de- compose the summer's fruits.

TIMING: Some say the change can't be explained with either growth or decay. The breathing of the world is changing too fast for that. Something else is going on; some suggest that the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may be altering the timing of either photosynthesis or respiration or both. If their work schedules are changing positions on the calendar, that would also change the breathing of the world.

Technological optimists tend to feel that the Earth is breathing more deeply. The biosphere LIKES the extra carbon dioxide. To this perspective, life on the planet Earth is flourishing.

Technological pessimists tend to feel that life's breath is labored - each year more labored than the year before. The biosphere is running out of breath; the Earth is gasping.

Were we to chart the carbon dioxide levels on the planet as they are now, and as they would have been without the Industrial Revolution, we would have a clear picture of what we have done in the name of progress. One line would show the balance of nature; the other would show our species in the act of unbalancing nature. Here, the sum of life on Earth; there, the sum of our impact upon life on Earth. These two lines would bring the present human predicament, in all it's diversity, into the sharpest possible focus.

It is, after all, a matter of life and breath.

Lois Grant-Holland is a Life Path Focus Counselor offering Life Path Focus Sessions, Karmic Astrology Charts, Channeled Guidance, Intuitive Readings and Classes and Workshops to spiritual seekers on all positive paths, and is the site facilitator at The A.N.S.W.E.R. - (The Seeker's Resource Guide to Alternative, New Thought, Spiritual Growth, Wellness and Enlightenment Resources.) You can visit her website at [http://www.loisgrantholland.com]

biograpy Galileo Galilei

2011-11-01T03:09:00.000-07:00

Galileo is perhaps one of just four scientists in history ever to have become household names in the English speaking world. The other three, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein can probably be bracketed together as pure scientists. Galileo, on the other hand, was an inventor, as well as a scientist.

Born on 15 February 1564, at Pisa in Italy, his father was Vincenzo Galilei. Although now remembered primarily as a musician, the latter was also no mean physicist himself, and made lasting contributions in the field of physics.

It might seem odd to some today, the Galilei family, including Galileo himself, were all devoutly religious people. Admittedly, that did not prevent Galileo fathering three illegitimate children by a woman he met in Venice and who subsequently lived with him in Padua. As was common at the time, his two illegitimate daughters were sent to a convent to become nuns; there being no real prospect of marriage for them, and life as nuns being the only respectable alternative. It should not, however, be thought that his daughters resented the life to which they had been committed. The evidence tells against that, and Galileo had warm relations with at least one of them right up until the time of his death.

Early on in life Galileo had considered training for the Catholic priesthood, but he instead entered Pisa's university in 1581 to take a medical degree. Then, having second thoughts, he instead turned his attention towards philosophy and mathematics. In the other role for which he is noted, as an inventor, Galileo was responsible for a crude thermometer, a greatly improved military compass, and, without too much exaggeration, it can be said that he was also the inventor of the telescope. Although an earlier telescope had been constructed, it had only proven capable of three times magnification, compared with the twenty times magnification Galileo's telescope achieved. It was this latter invention which provided the initial impetus for the dispute that eventually led to his downfall, and condemnation for heresy.

Through the use of his telescope, in 1610 Galileo was enabled to discover the three moons which orbit Jupiter. This discovery implanted in his mind the idea that there could be celestial bodies which did not orbit the earth, and subsequently he became receptive to the heliocentric ideas of Copernicus and Johannes Kepler. This was a view which was generally dismissed as at best eccentric, by the scientific community of the time. It has to be said that Galileo's support for it was partly based upon a scientifically erroneous theory of his. Decades prior to the publication of Newton's three laws of motion, Galileo had come up with the idea that the tides were caused when the seas tried to remain motionless (in accordance with Newton's third law of motion), whilst the earth rotated beneath them. Kepler's (correct) view that the tides were caused by the gravitational pull of the moon had been dismissed by him as fanciful.

The view of the Bible held by Galileo was similar to that of St Augustine: Namely that whilst it was the supreme authority in matters relating to theology and Christian orthodoxy, it could not be relied upon as a source of scientific knowledge, and that it would be foolish to try and use it in that way. But in the early seventeenth century, that was not how everybody in the Catholic Church viewed the matter. In 1614 Galileo heard of a priest, by the name of Father Tommaso Caccini, who had denounced him and his ideas from the pulpit, and who had used passages from the Bible as the grounds for his denunciation. So intemperate was Caccini's attack that Galileo even received a letter of apology from the head of the priest's Dominican Order. In response, Galileo published an open letter in which he made plain his opinion that the Bible was no source of scientific information, and that it was not the business of theologians to pronounce upon scientific truth.

The following year one Cardinal Bellarmine wrote that he did not think that the heliocentric view could be accepted without real physical evidence becoming available. Galileo thought that his theory about the cause of the tides provided that evidence, and said so. Then in 1616, the same Venetian priest, who had attacked Galileo in such intemperate terms, came back on the scene and denounced him to the Inquisition. On the orders of the Pope, Galileo was warned by Cardinal Bellarmine to desist from promoting the heliocentric theory. Galileo promised to remain silent on the subject, and there the matter rested for the next few years.

Then, for a time it looked as though the fortunes of Galileo, and other supporters of the heliocentric theory, might change. In 1623 Galileo's friend Cardinal Maffeo Barberini became Pope Urban VIII. With much broader sympathies than his predecessor, the new Pope had many private discussions with Galileo about the merits of the heliocentric theory, and seemed genuinely open to debate about new ideas in the areas of science, philosophy and elsewhere, whilst he nevertheless made it clear that he personally remained committed to the geocentric view of the world. Encouraged by this new openness, Galileo wrote his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, and he had the Pope's explicit permission to do so. The only requirement placed upon him was that he should present arguments both for and against the heliocentric theory, and refrain from expressing his own opinion. Unfortunately Galileo was not wholly successful in complying with that request.

The arguments of those who favoured a geocentric view of the world were put, by Galileo, into the mouth of a character he christened Simplicius - so called after a sixth century Aristotelian philosopher by that name. Galileo was suspected of a deliberate double entendre, because the similarly sounding Italian word "Semplice" can roughly be translated as "Simpleton". Whether the insult was intentional or not, the Pope took it as a personal affront, and Galileo lost by far his most powerful ally. His position was further not helped by the fact that the Pope had been under attack from conservatives within the Church, who thought he had been far too lenient with the people they regarded as heretics.

In 1633 Galileo was called to Rome to stand trial for heresy. Having been found guilty, he was required to "abjure, curse and detest" the opinions he had spent the previous twenty years trying to defend, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment; later commuted to life under house arrest. Following his trial Galileo continued to write until he went blind in 1638. He died of natural causes on 8 January 1642.

You can read more articles like this one at Famous Names in History

Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion in Motion

2011-11-01T03:07:00.000-07:00

I'm not exactly the staunchest believer in UFO's - although I won't swear they don't exist just because I've never seen one and have a hard time believing they do - but I respect and value greatly what is actually within our grasp due to mathematics and physics. I have to admit, and let's face it folks, space is damn intriguing!

Johannes Kepler was one bloke - smart bloke, mind you - who had a respect for this kind of thing as well. He came up with what's known as "Kepler's laws of planetary motion", and together with Newton's pertinent theories and laws, are part of the basis of modern astronomy and physics. So here are the 3 laws:

1. The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci.

2. A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.

3. The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.

So let's break that down a bit. First of all, up until Copernicus, Kepler and a century later, Newton, proved that the orbits of planets were elliptical, everyone thought they were circular! Not only that, but the ancient Greeks and Chinese believed in a "geocentric model" with the Earth as the center of the universe, and everything else orbiting around it.

What's an Ellipse?

Well, think of an ellipse as a flattened circle of sorts. It's defined as "a plane curve such that the sums of the distances of each point in its periphery from two fixed points, the foci, are equal." This means that if you were to draw 2 straight lines from any point on the orbit periphery to the 2 foci, in most cases forming a "V", the consequent sum of both line segments would always be equal.

As the 2 foci in an ellipse move further apart, the ellipse is said to become more eccentric, and as the 2 foci move closer together, it begins resembling the shape of a circle. This explains why an orbit may look like a circle - because the 2 foci are so close together. This does not however, mean that it is a circle, for all planetary orbits are ellipses - NOT circles.

Ok, we know what an ellipse is, and due to Kepler's first law, we also know that the Sun is one of the 2 foci. The second law is a bit easier to understand. This law is saying that as a planet orbits the Sun, an imaginary line between it and the Sun will sweep out the same exact area regardless of where on the orbit periphery it happens to be, in the same amount of time.

Huh? How's that possible - what happens when the planet is on the opposite end of the orbit? Well, as you might have guessed, they speed up as they near the Sun, and slow down as they get further from it - thus preserving Kepler's second law. Now the third law is yet another law rife with technical jargon and may need some deciphering.

What's a Semi-major Axis?

A semi-major axis is simply half - or the radius - of the longest diameter of an ellipse - also known as the "major axis". Obviously, you can't just say radius, as depending on where in the ellipse you measure the diameter, the length will change. So the third law can be stated mathematically as R^3/T^2 = K.

Where R is the semi-major axis and T is the period of time needed for one revolution, K is the constant, and has the same value for any planet or object orbiting the Sun, and equals roughly 2.5m^3/day^2. So as with any equation, you can use this to calculate related problems - in this case you can find out the average orbit radius of a planet if you knew the orbit period.

If you liked my article please visit my website at Free and Handy for more, thanks!

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Who Was the First Scientist?

2011-11-01T03:04:00.001-07:00

We live in a scientific age. Millions of young people study science, thousands of universities teach it, and hundreds of publications chronicle it. We even have a cable channel devoted exclusively to its wonders. We are immersed in technology rooted in its discoveries. But what is science, and who was its first practitioner?

Science is the study of the physical world, but it is not just a topic, a subject, a field of interest. It is a discipline--a system of inquiry that adheres to a specific methodology--the scientific method. In its basic form, the scientific method consists of seven steps:

1) observation;

2) statement of a problem or question;

3) formulation of a hypothesis, or a possible answer to the problem or question;

4) testing of the hypothesis with an experiment;

5) analysis of the experiment's results;

6) interpretation of the data and formulation of a conclusion;

7) publication of the findings.

One can study phenomena without adhering to the scientific method, of course. The result, however, is not science. It is pseudoscience or junk science.

Throughout history, many people in many parts of the world have studied nature without using the scientific method. Some of the earliest people to do so were the ancient Greeks. Scholars such as Aristotle made many observations about natural phenomena, but they did not test their ideas with experiments. Instead they relied on logic to support their findings. As a result, they often arrived at erroneous conclusions. Centuries later the errors of the Greeks were exposed by scholars using the scientific method.

Perhaps the most famous debunking of Greek beliefs occurred in 1589 when Galileo Galilei challenged Aristotle's notions about falling bodies. Aristotle had asserted that heavy bodies fall at a faster rate than light bodies do. His contention was logical but unproven. Galileo decided to test Aristotle's hypothesis, legend says, by dropping cannon balls of different weights from a balcony of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He released the balls simultaneously and found that neither ball raced ahead of the other. Rather, they sped earthward together and hit the ground at the same time. Galileo also conducted experiments in which he rolled balls of different weights down inclines in an attempt to discover the truth about falling bodies. For these and other experiments, Galileo is considered by many to be the first scientist.

Galileo was not the first person to conduct experiments or to follow the scientific method, however. European scholars had been conducting experiments for three hundred years, ever since a British-born Franciscan monk named Roger Bacon advocated experimentation in the thirteenth century. One of Bacon's books, Perspectiva (Optics) challenges ancient Greek ideas about vision and includes several experiments with light that include all seven steps of the scientific method.

Bacon's Perspectiva is not an original work, however. It is a summary of a much longer work entitled De aspectibus (The Optics). Perspectiva follows the organization of De aspectibus and repeats its experiments step by step, sometimes even word for word. But De aspectibus is not an original work, either. It is the translation of a book written in Arabic entitled KitÄb al-ManÄzir (Book of Optics). Written around 1021, KitÄb al-ManÄzir predates Roger Bacon's summary of it by 250 years. The author of this groundbreaking book was a Muslim scholar named AbÅ« 'AlÄ« al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham.

Born in Basra (located in what is now Iraq) in 965, Ibn al-Haytham --known in the West as Alhazen or Alhacen--wrote more than 200 books and treatises on a wide range of subjects. He was the first person to apply algebra to geometry, founding the branch mathematics known as analytic geometry.

Ibn al-Haytham's use of experimentation was an outgrowth of his skeptical nature and his Muslim faith. He believed that human beings are flawed and only God is perfect. To discover the truth about nature, he reasoned, one had to allow the universe to speak for itself. "The seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them," Ibn al-Haytham wrote in Doubts Concerning Ptolemy, "but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration."

To test his hypothesis that "lights and colors do not blend in the air," for example, Ibn al-Haytham devised the world's first camera obscura, observed what happened when light rays intersected at its aperture, and recorded the results. This is just one of dozens of "true demonstrations," or experiments, contained in KitÄb al-ManÄzir.

By insisting on the use of verifiable experiments to test hypotheses, Ibn al-Haytham established a new system of inquiry--the scientific method--and earned a place in history as the first scientist.

Bradley Steffens is the author of twenty-one books, coauthor of seven, and editor of the 2004 anthology, The Free Speech Movement. His Censorship was included in the 1997 edition of Best Books for Young Adult Readers and his Giants won the 2005 San Diego Book Award for Best Young Adult & Children's Nonfiction. His latest book is Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, the world's first biography of the eleventh-century Arab scholar known in the West as Alhazen.

Bars may kill spiral galaxies

2011-11-01T02:59:00.000-07:00

Helped by an army of citizen volunteers, scientists have concluded that bar-like structures found in many spiral galaxies—including our own—could be helping to destroy their graceful, twisty forms.

Most stars are part of galaxies, vast groupings of stars containing from a few hundred million to a quadrillion of the fiery balls. Galaxies themselves come in many shapes, including elliptical (watermellon-shaped) and irregular. Others are majestic spirals in which spiral “arms” formed by stars and other material wind out in a disk from a central bulge.

A barred spiral galaxy, NGC 3351. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSC )
About half of these spirals also have a bar, a straight structure crossing the center. Our own Milky Way galaxy is a spiral with a small bar.

Bars are believed to strongly influence the evolution of galaxies as they provide a way to move material in and out in the disk and possibly help to spark star formation in the central regions. They may even help feed the central massive black hole that seems to be present in almost all galaxies.

But scientists don’t understand why some galaxies have bars and others don’t.

In the new study, scientists drew on the work of volunteers for Galaxy Zoo 2, an online project in which members of the public are asked to carefully classify galaxies shown in photos.

With these data — which they called the largest ever sample of galaxies with visual bar identifications — the researchers, led by cosmologist Karen Masters at the University of Portsmouth in the U.K., determined that reddish spirals are about twice as likely to host bars as bluish spirals. This matters because color is a clue to galaxy age. “Blue” galaxies get their hue from the hot young stars they contain, implying that they are forming many stars and are young. In “red” galaxies, this star formation has stopped, leaving behind the cooler, long-lived stars, which are redder.

The astronomers conclude that bars might help to kill spiral galaxies, although how they do it remains a mystery. But the Milky Way has a bar too, so the finding may be telling us something about its future.

In a statement issued as the findings were revealed this week, Masters wasn’t focusing on any dismay she might feel for the possible aesthetic demise of our home galaxy. Instead, she said it was “wonderful” to have “so many people involved in this research.”

“I feel a great weight of responsibility to make sure good science comes out of all the hard work they put into classifying galaxies,” she added. Data hinting at the new result has existed for “some time,” she went on, but “with such a large number of bar classifications we’re much more confident about our results. And all of this is thanks to the dedication of the volunteers who provide the raw ‘clicks’.

“It’s not yet clear whether the bars are some side effect of an external process that turns spiral galaxies red, or if they alone can cause this transformation. We should get closer to answering that question with more work on the Galaxy Zoo dataset.”

Number of Facebook friends linked to brain structure

2011-11-01T02:57:00.001-07:00

There’s a link between the number of “Facebook friends” a person has and the size of certain brain regions, as well as their number of real-world friends, scientists have found. But it’s unknown, they say, whether having more Facebook friends makes those brain regions larger, or whether it works the other way around.

The social networking website Facebook, designed to let people stay in touch with networks of friends online, has more than 800 million active users worldwide. Some have only a handful of online friends, others over a thousand. “Online social networks are massively influential, yet we understand very little about the impact they have on our brains. This has led to a lot of unsupported speculation the Internet is somehow bad for us,” said researcher Geraint Rees of University College London.

Rees and colleagues studied brain scans of 125 university students who were active Facebook users and compared them to the size of the students’ network of friends, both online and in real life. Their findings, which they replicated in a further group of 40 students, are published Oct. 18 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The investigators reported a strong link between number of Facebook friends and amount of “grey matter”— the brain tissue where mental processing is believed to take place—in several brain areas. One is the amygdala, which is associated with processing memory and emotional responses. Other research has found that there is more grey matter in this area in people with more real-world friends, so the Facebook work showed the same goes for online pals, Rees’ group reported.

The size of three other regions – the right superior temporal sulcus, the left middle temporal gyrus and the right entorhinal cortex – also correlated with online social networks, but not with real-world networks, the study found. The superior temporal sulcus plays a role in our ability to perceive a moving object as biological; structural defects in this region have been identified in some children with autism. The entorhinal cortex, meanwhile, has been linked to memory and navigation – including navigating through online social networks. Finally, the middle temporal gyrus has been shown to activate in response to the gaze of others and so is implicated in perception of social cues.

“The exciting question now is whether these structures change over time,” which should help reveal “whether the Internet is changing our brains,” said Ryota Kanai, one of the researchers.

To learn the relationship between the size of a person’s online network of friends and their real-world network, the researchers asked their volunteers questions such as “How many people would you send a text message to marking a celebratory event (e.g. birthday, new job, etc.)?”, “What is the total number of friends in your phonebook?” and “How many friends have you kept from school and university that you could have a friendly conversation with now?”

“Our findings support the idea that most Facebook users use the site to support their existing social relationships, maintaining or reinforcing these friendships, rather than just creating networks of entirely new, virtual friends,” said Rees.

“We cannot escape the ubiquity of the Internet and its impact on our lives, yet we understand little of its impact on the brain, which we know is plastic [flexible] and can change over time,” said John Williams, head of neuroscience and mental health at the London-based Wellcome Trust, which funded the research. “This new study illustrates how well-designed investigations can help us begin to understand whether or not our brains are evolving as they adapt to the challenges posed by social media.”

Encyclopedia of World Scientists

2011-11-01T02:46:00.001-07:00

Elizabeth H. Oakes. Pages : 960. Format : PDF.
"Encyclopedia of World Scientists, Revised Edition" is a diverse and comprehensive two-volume collection of biographies of scientists. This essential work contains fascinating stories of nearly 1,000 scientists - almost half of whom are female - who have contributed significantly to their fields. All scientific disciplines are represented, as well as all periods of history as far back as 400 BCE.
With more than 100 new entries and more than 200 photographs and illustrations, this revised edition highlights how scientists have overcome formidable obstacles while in pursuit of great achievements that have forever altered our understanding of the world. While this set brings together an array of well-known and lesser known scientists, providing the basic biographical details of their lives, the focus is on their work, with their scientific achievements presented in everyday language that makes even the most complex concepts accessible. The well-known scientific "greats" of history are featured, along with contemporary scientists whose work is just verging on greatness. Among these are many minority scientists who have often been excluded from similar books. Entries are organized by field, by country of birth, by country of major scientific activity, and by year of birth. Entries include: Charles Babbage; Clara Barton; George Washington Carver; Anders Celsius; Johannes Kepler; Eleanora Bliss Knopf; Mathilde Krim; Antoni van Leeuwenhoek; Rita Levi-Montalcini; Carl Linnaeus; Barbara McClintock; Margaret Mead; Louis Pasteur; Kate Olivia Sessions; Mary Edwards Walker; and, Karl Ziegler.

Ibnu Ismail Al Jazari

2011-11-01T02:32:00.000-07:00

Robotic Theory
Al Jazari develop the principles of hydraulics to move the machine later known as the engine robot.

"It was impossible to ignore the work of Al-Jazari so important. In his book, he describes so detailed instructions to design, assemble, and to make a machine "(Donald Hill).

The sentence above is the comment Donald Hill, an engineer from England who are interested in the history of technology, on a book by a prominent Muslim engineers, Al-Jazari. Al Jazari is a major figure in the field of mekani and industry. Born dai Al Jazira, which is located between the northern Iraq and northeastern Syria, exactly between the Tigris River and Efrat.Al-Jazari an extraordinary engineers of his time. His full name was Badi Al-Zaman Abullezz Alrazz Ibn al-Jazari. He lived in Diyar Bakir, Turkey, during the twelfth century. Ibn Ismail Ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari earned the nickname the "Father of Modern Engineering thanks to its findings that influenced the design of modern machines now, including combustion engine, crankshaft, suction pump, programmable automation, and more.

clock from al-Jazari

He called Al-Jazari as born in Al-Jazira, a region that lies between the Tigris and Euphrates, Iraq. Like his father he served on the kings Urtuq or Artuqid in Diyar Bakir from 1174 to 1200 as an engineer.

Donald Routledge in his book Studies in Medieval Islamic Technology, says that until modern times, none of a culture that can rival the complete instructions for designing, producing and preparing a variety of machines as compiled by Al-Jazari. In 1206 he completed a work in book form relating to the world teknik.Beliau documented more than 50 works of its findings, complete with details of the pictures in the book, "al-Jami Bain al-Ilm Wal 'AML al-Nafi Fi rays' at al-hiyal "(The Book of Knowledge of ingenious Mechanical Devices). This book contains the theory and practice of mechanics. His work is very different from the work of other scientists, because the Al-Jazari piawainya reveal in detail the matters related to the mechanics. And represents a valuable contribution in the history of engineering.

Advantages of the book click amazed invited British engineer, Donald Hill (1974). Donald commented that in history, so the importance of the work of Al-Jazari. The reason, he said, in the book Al-Jazari, there are instructions to design, assemble, and to make the machine.

In the same year was also 1206, al-Jazari make elephant clock that works with water power and weight of the object to automatically move the mechanical system, which in a certain interval will give the cymbals and the sound of birds chirping. The principle of automation is what inspired humanoid robot development today. Now a replica of the elephant clock was reconstructed by the London Science Museum, as a form of appreciation for his great work.

On the occasion of World of Islam Festival held in England in 1976, many people who chuckle impressed with the work of Al-Jazari. Because the Science Museum reconstruct brilliant work of Al-Jazari, the water clock.

Donald Hill's interest in the works of Al-Jazari compelled him to translate the works of Al-Jazari in 1974, or six centuries and sixty-eight years after the author completed his work.

by al jazari

Al-Jazari paper also considered unique because it gives a very detailed and clear. For other technical experts to know more just theory or they hide knowledge from others. In fact he describes the method of reconstruction of equipment that he had found.

His work is also regarded as a world-famous manuscript, which is considered as an important text for studying the history of technology. Its contents are illustrated with stunning miniature. The results of this work often attract attention even from the Western world.

With the work gemilangnya, Muslim scientists and engineers have brought about an Islamic society in the 12th century in triumph. He lived and worked in Mesopotamia for 25 years. He served in the palace Artuqid, at that time under the auspices of Sultan Nasir al-Din Mahmoud.

Al-Jazari a critically important contribution to science and society. Water pumping machine described in his book, became one of the inspiring work. Especially for engineering graduates from the country of the Western hemisphere.

If you view the history, the supply of water for drinking, domestic use, irrigation and industrial interests are vital in Muslim countries. However, what is often a problem is associated with an effective tool to pump water from the water source.

Ancient society has indeed been utilizing a number of tools to get water. Namely, Shaduf and Saqiya. Shaduf known in ancient times, both in Egypt and Assyria. This device consists of a long beam suspended between two pillars with horizontal wooden beams.

While Saqiya an animal-powered machines. The central mechanism consists of two teeth. Animal power was used donkeys and camels and Saqiya famous in the days of Rome.

Muslim scientists to explore the equipment to obtain more satisfactory results. Al-Jazari paved the road to get there with elaborate machine capable of producing quantities of water more than the machine that never existed before.

Al-Jazari, at the time, take responsibility for designing the five machines in the thirteenth century. Two first machine is a modification of Shaduf, all three machines is the development of Saqiya where water power replaced animal power.

A similar machine with Saqiya placed in the river Yazid in Damascus and is expected to be able to supply the water needs in the hospital near river.

The fourth machine is a machine that uses energy beams and animals. Beam driven up and down by a mechanism involving the tooth serration and a crank.

The engine note is the first machine that uses a crank as part of a machine. In Europe it is only happening in the 15th century. And it was considered a remarkable achievement.

Because the crank engine represents an important mechanical equipment after the wheel. He produces continuous rotary motion. In the past it has been found crank the engine, but driven by hand. However, the crank rod connected to the system on a machine that spins a different story.

The discovery of a type of engine crank it by historians of technology are considered as the most important mechanical equipment for the European people who lived in the early fifteenth century. Bertrand Gille stated that the system was previously unknown and very limited use.

In 1206 the engine crank rod connected to the system is fully developed in the engine water pumps are made of Al-Jazari. This was done three centuries prior to the Giorgio Martini Francesco do it.

While the fifth machine, is the engine-driven water pump which is the equipment that shows the progress of more radical. Movement of the existing water wheel in the machine moving the pistons which are interconnected.

Then, the cylinder piston is connected with a suction pipe. And subsequent vacuum tube to suck water from water sources and to distribute to the water supply system. This pump is an early example of the double-acting principle. Taqi al-Din and then turning it back in his fifth engine in the sixteenth century.

Mathematician

2011-11-01T02:28:00.000-07:00

Biography of Al-Khwarizmi

Original name of al-Khwarizmi was Muhammad ibn Musa al-khawarizmi. In addition, he identified as Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Yusoff. Al-Khwarizmi in the West known as al-Khwarizmi, al-Cowarizmi, al-Ahawizmi, al-Karismi, al-Goritmi, al-Gorismi and some way of spelling again. He was born in Bukhara.Tahun 780-850M is the glory days of al-Khwarizmi. al-Khwarizmi had died between the years 220 and 230m. Some say al-Khwarizmi lived around the beginning of the mid-9M. Other sources confirm he is alive Khawarism, Uzbekistan in 194H/780M and died in 266H/850M in Baghdad.
In education has been proven that free al-Khwarizmi was a prominent Islamic knowledgeable. Knowledge and expertise not only in the field of Shari'a but in the field of philosophy, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, arithmetic, history of Islam and chemistry.
Al-Khwarizmi as an algebra teacher in Europe
He has created and Tangen Secans use in the investigation trigonometry and astronomy. In young age he worked under the rule of Caliph al-Ma'mun, working in the Bayt al-Hikmah in Baghdad. He worked in an observatory is a place to study mathematics and astronomy. Al-Khwarizmi also be trusted to lead the library of the caliph. He has introduced the figures of India and Indian ways of calculating the Islamic world. He is also an author of the Encyclopedia in a variety of disciplines. Al-Khwarizmi was a figure who first introduced algebra and computation. Many other science that he learned in the field of mathematics and produce mathematical concepts that are so popular are still in use today.
ROLE AND CONTRIBUTION AL-Khwarizmi
Contribution in the form of the work of which is:
1. Al-Jabr wa'l Muqabalah: he has created and tangens secans use in the investigation trigonometry and astronomy.
2.Hisab al-Jabr wa al-Muqabalah: He has submitted examples of math problems and suggests 800 problems most of which are issues raised by Neo. Babylian in the form of allegations that have been proven to be true by al-Khwarizmi.
3.Sistem Number: He has introduced the concept of nature and he was important in the systems number today. His work on this one contains Cos, Sin and Tan in solving trigonometric equations, theorems and calculations isosceles triangle area of the triangle, square and circle in geometry.
Many other concepts in mathematics that have been introduced al-khawarizmi. The field of astronomy also made famous al-Khwarizmi. Astronomy can be interpreted as a science Falaq [the knowledge of the stars, which involves the study of the position, movement, and the thoughts and commentaries related to the star].
Person al-Khwarizmi
Al-Khwarizmi's personality has been recognized by the Islamic and Western world. This can be proved that unlicensed G. Sarton said that "the highest achievements have been obtained by the Eastern people ...." In this case Al-Khwarizmi. Another character, Wiedmann said .... "Al-Khwarizmi has personality and a firm who devotes his life to the world of science."
Some branches of science in Mathematics which was introduced by al-Khwarizmi such as: geometry, algebra, arithmetic and others. Geometry is the second branch of mathematics. The contents of the compounds discussed in this second branch is the origin of geometry and its main reference is the Kitab al-Ustugusat [The Elements] Euklid works: geometry derived in terms of language than the Greek words namely 'geo' which means earth and 'metri' means the measurement . In terms of science, geometry is the science that examines matters related to the magnitude and the properties of space. Geometry was studied since the time of the pharaohs [2000SM]. Then Thales of Miletus introduced the Egyptian geometry to Greece as a science in the period of the 6th century BC. Onwards the Islamic scholars have perfected the rules of science education is primarily on ke9M century.
Algebra / algebra is a mathematical pulse. The work of Al-Khwarizmi was translated by Gerhard of Gremano and Robert of Chaster into European languages in the 12th century. before the appearance of the work entitled 'al-Jibra Hisab wa al Muqabalah written by al-Khwarizmi in 820M. Before this there was no term algebra.

Ibnu Sina

2011-11-01T02:26:00.000-07:00

Biography Of Ibnu Sina

Syeikhur Rais, Abu Ali Husein bin Abdillah bin Hasan bin Ali bin Sina, known as Ibn Sina or Aviciena born in 370 in a village called Isalmic Calendar Khormeisan near Bukhara. Since childhood, from Ibn Sina Ismailiyah bermadzhab families are already familiar with the scientific discussion, particularly that presented by his father. A very high intelligence makes it stand out so that one of his teachers advised her father to Ibn Sina did not jump into anything other than work study and acquire knowledge.
Thus, Ibn Sina in full to give its attention to scientific activities. Kejeniusannya make it quickly mastered many sciences, and although still young, he was skilled in medicine. He became famous, so the King of Bukhara Nuh bin Mansur, who ruled between the years 366 to 387 Isalmic Calendar now illness called Ibn Sina to treat and to treat it.

Thanks to this, Ibn Sina to freely enter the palace library Samani great. Ibn Sina on the library it says so;

"All the books I want are there. In fact, I find many books that most people never even know his name. I myself have never been seen and will never see again. So I diligently read the scriptures, and as much as possible to use it ... When stepped on my age 18 years, I have managed to complete all fields. "Avicenna the various sciences, such as wisdom, mantiq, and the various branches of mathematics.

Busy on the political stage at the palace Mansur Samani dynasty kings, as well as its position as a minister in the government of Abu Tahir Syamsud Serra Deilami and political conflicts that occur due to a power struggle between the aristocratic group, does not reduce the activity of science Avicenna. Even long safari to various places and detention for several months in jail Tajul Muk, the ruler of Hamedan, not hinder him to produce hundreds of volumes of scientific papers and pamphlets.

While in the palace and lived a quiet and can easily obtain the desired book, Ibn Sina busied himself by writing a book Qanun in medical science or philosophy of writing encyclopedia dibeni name of the book Al-Syifa '. But when he should've written a small book called the pamphlet. While in prison, Ibn Sina concern themselves with the bytes composing a poem, or write using the religious contemplation of beauty.

Among the books and pamphlets written by Ibn Sina, al-Syifa 'in philosophy and Al-Qanun in medical science are known throughout the mass. Al-Syifa 'written in 18 volumes dealing with the philosophy of science, mantiq, mathematics, natural sciences and ilahiyyat. Mantiq al-Syifa 'now known as the most authentic books of Islamic mantiq sciences, natural sciences, and while the discussion of al-ilahiyyat Syifa' till now is still the subject of review.

In medical science, the book Al-Qanun Ibn Sina's writings over several centuries to be the main reference books and the most authentic. Book is stripping the general rules of medical science, medicine and many diseases. Along with the rise of the translation movement in the 12th century AD, the book Al-Qanun Ibn Sina's works translated into Latin. Now the book has also been translated into English, French and German. Al-Qanun is the book of the ancient methods of treatment and methods of treatment of Islam. This Book has become the curriculum of medical education in European universities.

Ibnu also have a major role in developing various areas of science. He translated works Aqlides run observatory for science and astronomy. Ibn Sina on the issue of energy research results to the problem of empty space, light and heat to the wealth of knowledge of the world.

It was said that Ibn Sina has a paper in Latin entitled De Conglutineation Lagibum. In one chapter of this paper, Ibn Sina discusses the origin of the name of the mountains. The discussion was very interesting. There Ibn Sina says, "The possibility of a mountain created because of two causes. First menggelembungnya outer skin of the earth, and this happens because the great earthquake shaking. Due to the water to find a way to flow. The process resulted in the emergence of the valleys together and create markup on the surface of the earth. Because some hard ground and some software. Winds also blew the play with some and leaving some in place. This is the cause of the appearance of bumps on the outer skin of the earth. "

Ibn Sina to the power of logic, so in many ways following the mathematical theory and even in medicine and the treatment process, also known as a philosopher unrivaled. According to him, a newly recognized as a scholar, where he was master of philosophy perfectly. Ibn Sina was very careful in studying the views of Aristotle in the field of philosophy. When told his experience studying thought of Aristotle, Avicenna claimed that he read the works of Aristotle Metaphysics Book by 40 times. He dominated the purposes of this book is perfect after reading lectures or explanations 'metaphysics of Aristotle', written by Farabi, Muslim philosophers before.

In philosophy, the life of Abu Ali Ibn Sina had two crucial periods. The first period is the period when he was involved in understand the philosophy paripatetik. In this period, Ibn Sina is known as a translator of Aristotle thought. Second period is the period when Ibn Sina withdraw from paripatetik understand that Peter and tend to mind their own illumination.

Thanks to the study and the study of philosophy that made the earlier philosophers such as Al-Kindi and Farabi, Ibn Sina successfully develop a coordinated system of Islamic philosophy of care. Done a great job Avicenna philosophy is to answer several questions previously unanswered.

Ibn Sina's influence philosophical thinking such thoughts and telaahnya work in the field of medicine is not just focused on reaching the Muslim world but also Europe. Albertos Magnus, German scientists from the life of Dominique flow between 1200-1280 BC was the first European to write a complete explanation of the philosophy of Aristotle. It is known as a major pioneering Christian Aristotelian thought. He is a Christian world mate with Aristotelian thought. He knows big views and the Greek philosophers thought that the books of Ibn Sina. Metaphysics of Ibn Sina's philosophy is a summary of the philosophical themes of truth are two centuries later by Western thinkers.

Ibn Sina died in 428 at age 58 years Isalmic Calendar. He went after a lot of things contributed to the wealth of knowledge of mankind and his name will always be remembered throughout history. Ibn Sina is an example of the great civilizations of Iran at the time.

Thomas Edison

2011-11-01T02:23:00.000-07:00

Biography of Thomas Edison
Childhood

He was born in Milan, Ohio, United States on February 11, 1847. In his childhood in the United States, Edison always get a bad grade in school. Therefore, his mother taught him from school and at home. At home with small Edison freely to read scientific books mature and begin to conduct various scientific experiments alone. At the age of 12 he began working as a newspaper seller, fruit and sweets on the train. Then he became a telegraph operator, he moved from one city to another. In New York he was asked to become head of the telegraph machine that matters. The machines that send business news to all the leading companies in New York.

Early life

In 1870 he found a better telegraph machine. The machines can print the messages on a long paper tape. The money generated from its discovery was enough to establish his own company. In 1874 he moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey. There he made a major scientific workshop and the first in the world. After that he did a lot of important discoveries. In 1877 he discovered gramophone. In 1879 he managed to find the electric light and then he also found a projector for small films. In 1882 he installed electric lights in the streets and houses as far as one kilometer in the city of New York. This is the first time in the world of electric lights in use on the streets. In 1890, he founded the General Electric company.
Thomas Edison was a young age

Light as one Invention of Thomas Edison

Edison is seen as one of the most prolific creators of his time, holding a record 1,093 patents in his name. He also helps a lot in the field of defense the United States government. Some of his research include: detection of the aircraft, destroying the periscope with machine guns, submarine detection, stop the torpedo with nets, increased the strength in torpedo, ship camouflage, and many more.

Albert Einstein

2011-11-01T02:18:00.000-07:00

Biography of Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein, photographed by Oren J. Turner in 1947.

Early life and university

Einstein was born in Ulm in Württemberg, Germany, about 100 km east of Stuttgart. His father named Hermann Einstein, a salesman feather bed which then undergo electrochemical work, and his mother was Pauline. They were married in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt. Their family was Jewish; Albert schooled in Catholic school and the wishes of his mother he was given violin lessons.

At age five, his father showed him a pocket compass, and Einstein realized that something in space that "empty" acted upon the needle; he later described this experience as one of the most evocative moment in his life. Although he made models and mechanical devices as a hobby, he is considered a slow learner, possibly caused by dyslexia, shyness, or because the structure of the rare and unusual in his brain (examined after his death). He later credited his theory of relativity to this slowness, saying that by pondering space and time than other children, he was able to develop a more developed intelligence. Another opinion, in the news lately, about his mental development is that he suffered from Asperger's Syndrome, a condition associated with autism.

Einstein began to study mathematics at the age of twelve. There are rumors that he failed in mathematics in his education, but this is not true; replacement in the assessment to be confused in the following year. Two of his uncles helped develop interest in the intellectual world during the last part of his childhood and early adolescence by providing suggestions and books on science and mathematics.

In 1894, due to the failure of his father's electrochemical business, Einstein moved from Munich to Pavia, Italy (near Milan). Albert stayed behind to finish school, finish a semester before rejoining his family in Pavia.

Failure in the liberal arts in the entrance test Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Zurich) in the next year is a step backwards by his family sent him to Aarau, Switzerland, to finish high school, where he received a diploma in 1896, Einstein several times to register at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule. The following year he took off Württemberg citizenship, and become not bekewarganegaraan.
'Einsteinhaus' in Bern where Einstein and Mileva lived (on the 1st floor) on the Annus Mirabilis

In 1898, Einstein met and fell in love with Mileva Maric, a Serb who is a classmate (also a friend of Nikola Tesla). In 1900, he was awarded a degree to teach by the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule and was accepted as a Swiss citizen in 1901. During this time Einstein discussed his interest in science to his close friends, including Mileva. He and Mileva had a daughter named Lieserl, born in January 1902. Lieserl Einstein, at that time, deemed illegal because the parents are not married.

Work and Doctoral Degree
Albert Einstein, 1905

At the time of graduation Einstein could not find a teaching job, keterburuannya as a young man who easily made angry professornya. Father of a classmate helped him obtain a job as a technical assistant examiner at the Swiss Patent Office in 1902. There, Einstein assess the inventor patent applications for devices that require knowledge of physics. He also learned to recognize the importance of application compared with a poor explanation, and learning from the director how "to explain himself properly." He is sometimes correct their design and also evaluate the practicality of their work.

Einstein married Mileva on 6 January 1903. Einstein's marriage to Mileva, a mathematician. On May 14, 1904, the couple's first child, Hans Albert Einstein, was born. In 1904, Einstein's position at the Swiss Patent Office to be fixed. He earned his doctorate after submitting the thesis "Neue Bestimmung der eine Moleküldimensionen" ("On a new determination of molecular dimensions") in 1905 from the University of Zürich.

In the same year he wrote four articles that provide the foundation of modern physics, without much scientific literature that he can appoint or many colleagues in science that he can discuss about the theory. Most physicists agree that three of those papers (on Brownian motion), the photoelectric effect and special relativity) deserved Nobel Prizes. Only the paper on the photoelectric effect would win one. This is ironic, not only because Einstein is far better known for relativity, but also because the photoelectric effect is a quantum phenomenon, and Einstein became free from the street in quantum theory. What makes these papers remarkable is that, in each case, Einstein boldly took an idea from theoretical physics to its logical consequences and managed to explain experimental results that had baffled scientists for decades.

He submitted a thesis-thesis to the "Annalen der Physik". They are usually addressed to "Annus Mirabilis Papers" (from Latin: In excellent). Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) plans to celebrate 100 years of the publication of Einstein's work in 1905 as the Year of Physics, 2005.
[Edit] Brownian Motion
Albert Einstein, 1951 (during the anniversary of the 72, taken by Arthur Sasse, photographer)

In the first article in 1905 called "On the Motion-Required by the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat-of Small particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid", includes research on Brownian motion. Using the kinetic theory of fluids at the time was controversial, he determined that the phenomenon, which still lack a satisfactory explanation after a few decades after he first observed, provided empirical evidence (based on observation and experimentation) the reality of atoms. And also lend confidence in statistical mechanics, which at that time also controversial.

Prior to this thesis, the atom is known as a useful concept, but physicists and chemists hotly debated whether atoms really a tangible object. Einstein's statistical discussion of atomic behavior gave players a way to calculate the experimental atom just by looking through the ordinary microscope. Wilhelm Ostwald, a leader of the anti-atom school, later told Arnold Sommerfeld that he had converted to complete Einstein's explanation of Brownian motion.

Isaac Newton

2011-11-01T02:16:00.000-07:00

Biography Of Isaac Newton
Newton in 1702
Early Times

Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643 [KJ: December 25, 1642] at Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, a hamlet (village) in the county of Lincolnshire. At the time of his birth, England was still adopted the Julian calendar, until the day of his birth was recorded as 25 December 1642 on Christmas Day. His father was also named Isaac Newton died three months before the birth of Newton. Newton was born prematurely, was reported to her mother, Hannah Ayscough, once said that he could fit into a cup (≈ 1.1 liters). When Newton was three years old, his mother remarried and left Newton in the nursery with her grandmother, Margery Ayscough. Newton did not like his stepfather young and keep the feeling of hatred towards his mother for marrying the man, as revealed in the recognition of sin: "Threatening my father and mother Smith to burn the house over Them and Them."

Newton in 1702
Isaac Newton (Bolton, Sarah K. Famous Men of Science. NY: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.., 1889)

Based on E.T. Bell (1937, Simon and Schuster) and H. Eves:
"Newton started school while living with his grandmother in the village and then sent to a local language school in Grantham where he eventually became the smartest children in school. When attending school in Grantham, he lived in a boarding house owned by a local pharmacist named William Clarke. Before proceeding to lecture at Cambridge University at the age of 19, Newton had established thanks to the adopted brother of William Clarke, Anne Storer. Newton currently focusing on education, her love story with a more uncertain and the end Storer married someone else. Many menegatakan that he, Newton, always remembering the story of his love even more is never mentioned Newton has a lover and even been married. "

Since the age of 12 to 17 years, Newton studied at the School The King's School, located in Grantham (his signature is still there in the school library). Newton family out of school on the grounds that he might be just the farmers, however, Newton did not like his new job [5]. King's School headmaster then convinces her mother to send Newton to return to school so he can finish his education. Newton to finish school at the age of 18 years with a satisfactory value.

In June 1661, Newton received at Trinity College, University of Cambridge as a Sizar (students who are studying while working). [6] At the time, university teaching is based on the teachings of Aristotle, but Newton preferred to read the ideas of modern philosophers of the more advanced such as Descartes and astronomers such as Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. In 1665, he found the general binomial theorem and began to develop a mathematical theory that eventually develops into calculus. Soon after Newton to get his title in August 1665, Cambridge University was closed because of the Great Plague. Although his studies at Cambridge in mediocrity, a private study done at his home in Woolsthorpe pushing for two years to develop the theory of calculus, optics, and the law of gravity. In 1667, he returned to Cambridge as a lecturer at Trinity.

Time Adult

Mathematics

Most historians believe that Newton and Leibniz developed calculus independently. Both are using a different mathematical notation. According to close friends of Newton, Newton had completed his work for years before Leibniz, but did not publish it until 1693. It is a new fully explained in 1704, while in 1684, Leibniz had begun to publish a full explanation of his work. Notation and "differential method" Leibniz is universally adopted in Continental Europe, while the new British Government adopt after 1820. In the record books Leibniz, to reveal any systematic ideas that show how Leibniz kalkulusnya develop from beginning to end, while the Newton can be found only record the final result only. Newton claimed that he refused to publish because of fear kalkulusnya ridiculed. Newton also has a close relationship with the Swiss mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier. In 1691, Duillie mempersiapaan plan for a new version of the book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica Newton, but never finish it. In the year 1693 will be no relationship between the previous close. At the same time, Duillier exchanging letters with Leibniz.

In 1699, the members of the Royal Society accused Leibniz plagiarized from the work of Newton. This dispute culminated in the year 1711. Royal Society and in a study determined that the actual inventor and stigmatize Newtonlah Leibniz as a plagiarist. This study was undoubtedly due later found that Newton himself who wrote the report said the final conclusions of this study. Since then bermulainya fierce dispute between Newton to Leibniz. This dispute ended after the death of Leibniz in 1716.

Newton is generally recognized as the inventor of the general binomial theorem is valid for all exponents. He also discovered the identity of Newton, Newton's method, classifying the area of cubic curves, a substantial contribution to the theory of finite difference, and is the first to use the rank berpecahan geometric coordinates and implements solutions to reduce the equation Diophantus.

It was chosen for the position of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1669. At that time, the tutors of Cambridge or Oxford to be a teacher who has been ordained Anglican priest. However, the Lucasian professor requires his office was not active in the church. Therefore, Newton argues that it seharusnyalah exempt from ordination. King Charles II accept this argument and give consent, so that the conflict between Newton's religious views to the Anglican church can be avoided.

optical
Replica of Newton's second reflecting telescope which he presented to the Royal Society in 1672 [11]

From 1670 to 1672, Newton teach optics. During this period, he investigated the light refraction, indicating that the glass prism to split white light into different color spectrum, as well as lenses and prisms will incorporate them back into the light-emitting white light.

Sign the work of Newton

* Method of Fluxions (1671)
* Corporum De Motu (1684)
* Naturalis Principia Mathematica Philosophiæ (1687)
* Opticks (1704)
* Reports as Master of the Mint (1701-1725)
* Universalist Arithmetica (1707)
* An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (1754)

The replica of the reflecting telescope Newton

Dr Abdul Qadeer (AQ) Khan

2011-11-01T02:14:00.000-07:00

Biography of Dr Abdul Qadeer (AQ) Khan: Pakistan Scientist's Most Feared U.S.

AS and western countries call the threat caused by Dr Abdul Qadeer (AQ) Khan, can be the equivalent of Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin, for his ability in the nuclear field.
Western intelligence never underestimate the ability of Abdul Qadeer Khan. But after thirty years of building Pakistan to have nuclear capability, the west and the U.S. feared. Khan later referred to as a broker of technology that could endanger the world. Scientists are called have been selling nuclear technology secrets to Iran, North Korea, Libya and possibly to other countries. Diplomatic pressure eventually forced the president of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf made Khan under house arrest.

The Nuclear Jihadists Khan travel writing in detail. Frantz and Collins husband and wife who wrote the report spent four years traveling around the world, and former intelligence officials interviewed friends and colleagues Khan.
When the bloody war of 1947, young Khan left his family in Bhopal India into the Muslim state of Pakistan. The violence seen during the journey and the suffering experienced, caused outrage in India.
After tasting education in Germany and married a Dutch woman, Khan got work in Dutch companies related to uranium enrichment. A process to produce nuclear energy, which easily can be converted into nuclear weapons.
Frantz and Collins described the forces that failed Pakistan's independence from India in 1965 to make hatred Khan soared. Khan determined to change the politics of Pakistan as written in his biography that wants to make Pakistan a very strong and will not experience the trauma ruled India.
Fortunately the return time Khan from Holland to Pakistan along with India's nuclear development. While India has a nuclear capability in 1974, there is no reason to ban Pakistan have similar capabilities, the bomb should be with a bomb.
But when Khan tida in Pakistan, the country's nuclear future is being threatened. Canada has suspended the supply of spare parts for a nuclear reactor in Karachi and French international pressure to cancel the proposed sale of the processing plant to Pakistan. It opens up opportunities Khan and make it as heroes.
With the knowledge of his colleagues, he brought blueprints, photographs and a list of suppliers. Then with his wife and daughter back to Pakistan to build Pakistan's nuclear bomb capability.
He then managed to make a nuclear bomb in late 1980 in outer western experts estimate. The experts described the Pakistan at that time to make sewing needles or good-quality bike course is considered not capable, let alone make a high-technology for uranium enrichment.
Jihadists calling Khan black market network to sell nuclear technology secrets to countries such Pakistan Iran, Libya, North Korea is also a country not known. Jihadists also mentions this Pakistani nuclear scientists met with Osama bin Laden to make a bomb.

Inventor Steam Engine

2011-10-31T06:34:00.001-07:00

Biography of James Watt

James Watt was born January 19, 1736 died August 19, 1819, Scottish, a mathematician, inventor of the steam engine engineer who became the momentum of development of the Industrial Revolution in England. He was born in Greenock, Scotland, lives and works in Birmingham, England. Documentation of his work is now being stored in the library of Birmingham.
Watt centrifugal central adopted to regulate the speed of the steam engine. (This is used to adjust the wind and watermills.) He finds a parallel motion linkage (mechanical engineering) | link to convert circular motion to estimate straight-line movement and vapor indicator diagram for measuring vapor pressure in the cylinder during the engine cycle, thereby indicating the efficiency.
Watt was instrumental in developing the steam engine so that it becomes an economical means of power generation. Watt developed a separate condenser chamber that significantly improve efficiency. He also made further improvements to the steam cylinder, double-acting machine, counters, indicators, and the throttle valve steam engine that makes more effective.
Watt opposed the use of high pressure steam, which made some of the steam engine technicians and other experts until its patent expires in 1800. With his partner Matthew Boulton he struggled against rival engineers such as Jonathan Hornblower who tried to develop a similar machine. He introduced a unit called the horsepower to compare the power output of the steam engine, the version of the unit which is equivalent to 550 pounds feet per second (about 745.7 watts).
James Watt steam engine model of many converted since become the most efficient machine that is very supportive in the development of industry in the UK. Steam engine also supports the advancement of transportation in the future, such as steamships and locomotives. To appreciate the services here are a few preservation namnya:

   1. Unit of electrical quantities using the name (watts)
   2. His name is also immortalized the name of the university (University of Edinburgh Heriot-Watt)
   3. He is also remembered by the Lunar Society moonstones with perpetuating in a sculpture.
   4. A reputable school in Birmingham is also using its name
   5. There are 4 universities in Scotland that use his name James Watt College in Kilwinning (North Ayrshire Campus) and Greenock (2 in Greenock, Finnart Campus and the Waterfront Campus)

Biography of Nikolai Tesla

2011-10-31T06:33:00.000-07:00

Biography of Nikolai Tesla

On the post time in we will present one of the inventors in the field of electromechanical named Nikolai tesla. he's one of Engineering and the inventor. He was Nikolai Tesla. The discovery of the invention are many and have been patented. Tesla is regarded as one of the most important inventors in history and was one of the largest engineering in the late 19th century and 20th century. Tesla was a pioneer electromechanical, without wires, and electrical power. One of the inventions that are useful to date is the current invention Alternate Current (AC).
Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia on July 10, 1856. He became a U.S. citizen in 1891 while working in the country. Tesla was a genius. He was able to visualize the mind with detail without the aid of a blueprint and calculation. Tesla studied at the Technical University of Graz, Austria, and the University of Prague. In addition, he is a man full of ideas, even for mewujudkanya he rarely stayed up late, until old age when Tesla rata2 sleep only about 2-3 hours, and the majority of her sleeping on the couch.
Alternate Current
He sees the program operated power plant as a generator when this principle is reversed, it will be a principle of electric motors, and from this observation he was thinking how to use an alternating current or alternating current (AC). Thanks to the discovery that we can enjoy the power that is used every time and every time. AC current has advantages when compared with DC current.
To get the power supply of AC current source, the Tesla also makes power from Niagara Falls. Expensive project is funded by many people tajir at the time. When November 16, 1896, the Niagara plant is able to turn on the electricity from Buffalo until the street lights in New York.
Tesla Coil He got the idea of High Frequency Electricity, he began experimenting with light bulbs. which he thought could be more bright and reliable than the cuman edison lamp uses 5 percent of energy supplied reply. Experiments to produce what we know as the Tesla Coil. Lights Photorontgent He also found Photorontgent lights, lights used for X-Ray. and he took pictures of himself with a lamp for the experiments. Inventors Who Actually Radio? The discovery of the Tesla coil, a result that the electrical signals on the same frequency can be captured and multiplied. and delivery of electrical signals through the resonance can be done. In early 1895, Tesla managed to transmit a radio signal up to a distance of 50 miles. but now are studying further the potential for laboratory accidents makes his laboratory burned and temuanya. In the UK A study of the Italian Guglielmo Marconi Wireless Telegraphy. Invention patented in London in 1896. Tools that only use two circuits with transmission distance is very close. Very much when compared with temaun Tesla. After that he perfected penemuanya wear Tesla oscillator, to send signals across the strait Channel. Tesla himself penemuanya finish in 1897, and recently received the patent in 1900. and patent Marconi signed on November 10, 1900 and rejected by the U.S. side. U.S. patent office states are finding Marconi radio. When Marconi received the Nobel in 1911, Tesla was angry and demanding Marconi. But lack of money makes this case won by Marconi. But Marconi then sue the U.S. government for use without the permission of Radio during World War 1. USA government and then prioritize the Tesla invention of radio, and declare Marconi plagiarism. unfortunately this happens in 1943, 4 months after Tesla died. Remote Control 1898, at Madison Square Garden, Tesla demonstrated Penemuanya. A boat that floats above a large aquarium that he says is moved using a radio signal through a remote control from the timber. This is the basis of Robotics, remote control and missile control. Many people are amazed at his discovery. Moreover, he controlled without using cables. Tesla Cosmos In Colorado Springs the evening, Tesla found that the transmission in the transmitter. He said it seemed from Outer space and he sent a reply that is directed to the planet Mars. In 1899 the scientists do not believe it, but the frequency of the received tesla approximately 1610.6 Mega Hertz. is the frequency emitted by all cosmic material temperature above -459 degrees Fahrenheit. ***** That he was scientist, engineer and inventor of my favorite. There are so many other inventions. What do you think?

Biography of Al-Haytam

2011-10-31T06:31:00.001-07:00

Optic Theory from Al-Haytam
In this post we will discuss about the biographies of Islamic scholars in the field of physics with the discovery of the theory of optimism. He is ibn Haytam. Here's his explanation. Through the Book of Al Manadhir, optical theory was first described. Until 500 years later, al-Haytham's theory was quoted many scientists.
Not many people know that the first person to explain about the mechanisms of vision in humans - which became the basis of modern optical theory - is the origin of the Iraqi Muslim scientist. His name is Ibn al-Haitam or in the West is known as Alhazen. Through his scientific work, Kitab al Manadhir or Book of Optics, he explains the various kinds of light phenomena including the human visual system.
For more than 500 years, the Book of Al Madahir continue to survive as the most important book in the science of optics. In 1572, his works translated into Latin under the title Opticae Thesaurus.
Chapter three examines the first volume of his ideas about light. In the book, Haytham believes that the rays of light out of the straight line from any point on a luminous surface.
He made a very careful experiment on the path of light through various media and discovered the theory of refraction of light. He, too, who did the first experiments on the spread of light on a variety of colors.
In the same book, he describes the range of light that appears at sunset, and also theories about various physical phenomena like shadows, eclipses, and also the rainbow. He also attempted to explain binocular vision and provide the correct explanation of the increased size of the sun and the moon when near horizon.
Haytham listed his name as the first to describe all the details of the human senses of vision. He gave a scientific explanation of how the man can see. One popular theory is that when he broke the vision put forward the theory of two Greek scientists, Ptolemy and Euclid.
Both of these scientists claim that humans can see because there is light coming out of eyes on the object. In contrast to both, Ibn Haytham correcting this theory by stating that it dilihatlah objects that emit light which is then captured the eye so that it can be seen.
In this book, he explains how the eye can see objects. He explained that the visual system ranging from performance nerves in the brain until the performance of the eye itself. He also explains in detail the parts and functions of the eye such as the conjunctiva, iris, cornea, lens, and explain the role of each of the human vision.
One of his most menomental is when Haytham with his student, Kamal ad-Din, for the first time investigate and record the phenomenon obsecura camera. This is the underlying performance of the camera currently used human race. By Webster's dictionary, this phenomenon literally interpreted as "dark room". Usually the shape of cardboard with small holes for entry of light.
While in his book Mizan al-Hikmah, he discussed the density of the atmosphere and build a correlation between them by a factor of altitude. He also studied atmospheric refraction and find the fact that the twilight only appears when the Sun is 19 degrees below horizon. With this basis, he tried to measure the height of the atmosphere. In his book, he also discusses the theory of mass appeal, a fact which shows that she realized the correlation with the acceleration of gravity.
In addition to the field of physics, Ibn Haytham also make an important contribution to the science of mathematics. In this science, he developed analytical geometry by establishing the relationship between algebra and geometry.
Haytham also create a book on cosmology that was translated into Latin and Hebrew in the Middle Ages. Another masterpiece is a book about evolution, which until now remains a concern of scientists the world.
Unfortunately, from so many of his works - his book is estimated at approximately 200 more - just a few terisa. Even his monumental work, The Book of Al Manadhir, no longer known rimbanya. One can only learn the translation, written in Latin.
Ibn al-Haytham (965-1039) Full Name: Abu Ali Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham Alias Name (West): Alhazen Origin: Basra, Iraq. The theory developed by: optics, refraction of light Scientific works: Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics).
Facts Optics Theory Registered: Isaac Newton in the 17th century developed a theory about lenses, light and prisms forms the basis for the modern theory of optics Fact: In the 11th century al-Haytham has developed a theory of optics. Not tertututp possibility, Newton's theory is affected by it, because in the Middle Ages, the theory is very famous. His work is widely cited European scientist. During the 16th century to 17, Newton and Galileo combined the theory with their findings.
Recorded: Isaac Newton, in the 17th century, the convergence theory of light, discovered that white light consists of various colors of light.
Fact: Al Haytham (XI century) and Kamal ad Din (XIV century) had expressed the same thing. Newton was not the only scientist who claimed that theory.
Recorded: British scientist Roger Bacon (1292) proposed the first time about the utility of glass lenses to aid vision. The lens is a simplified form of the work of al-Haytham. At the same time, the glass eye was made and used in China and Europe.
Fact: Ibn Firnas from Spain has been making glass eyes in the 9th century. He makes and sells to all of Spain two centuries earlier.

Max Weber Biography

2011-10-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

Max Weber and His Wife
In this post we will try to discuss about the biography of the characters in the field of physics that is max waber. The following screenshot. Max Weber was born in Erfurt, Germany, April 21, 1864, came from middle-class family. An important difference between both parents have a big impact on intellectual and psychological development orientation Weber. His father was a bureaucrat who is relatively important political position, and become part of an established political power and as a result, distanced himself from any activity and and idealism that require personal sacrifice, or who may pose a threat to his position in the system. Besides the father is a man who likes worldly pleasures and in this case, also in many other respects, it contradicts with his wife.
Marx Weber's mother was a devout Calvinist, women who attempt to live a life concerned (asetic) without pleasure like a very into her husband's dream. His attention focused mostly on aspects of the life hereafter; he is troubled by the imperfections are considered a sign that he is troubled by the imperfections are considered a sign that he was not destined to get salvation in the afterlife. Profound differences between the two couples of their marriage is causing tensions and these tensions have a major impact on the Weber.
Because not possible to equate themselves to the carriage opposite her parents, the small Weber then faced with a clear choice (Marianne Weber, 1975:62). At first he chose the orientation of his father's life, but then more and more interested in living close to the orientation of the mother. Whatever the choice, the tension generated by the need to choose between the opposite pattern was negatively affecting psychiatric Weber. When Weber's 18-year-old ran away from home, studying at the University Heildelberg. Weber has demonstrated intellectual maturity, but when he entered the university is still relatively underdeveloped and shy in the mix.
This property is quickly changed when he was leaning on his father's lifestyle and join a rival student groups student groups father first. Socially, she begins to develop, in part because used to drink beer with his friends. Moreover, he proudly exhibited grater from a fight that became stamped such student fraternity. In this case, Weber did not just show his true identity with his father's view of life but also at that time chose a career in law like his father.
After a three-semester college Weber left Heidelberg for military service and in 1884 he returned to Berlin, to his parents' house, and studied at the University of Berlin. He remained there nearly 8 years to complete up to receive his Ph.D. studies, and became a lawyer and began teaching at the University of Berlin. In the process his interest shifted to the economy, history and sociology of the targeted attention for the rest of his life. Over the past 8 years in Berlin, his life still depends on her father, a situation which immediately did not like. At the same time he switched closer to her mother's values and antipathy toward increased. He then took the lives concerned (ascetic) and focus entirely to the study.
For example, during one semester as a student, his work habits are described as follows: "He kept practicing the rigid work discipline, set his life on the division of the hours of daily routine activities into the appropriate sections for different things. Frugality by the way, the dinner itself dikamarnya with 1 pound of beef and 4 pieces of fried eggs "(Mitzman, 1969/1971: 48; Marianne Weber, 1975:105). So, by following his mother, Weber undergo austerity, diligent, eager to work, high in modern terms is called Workaholic (workaholic). This high morale led Weber became a professor of economics at the University of Heidelberg in 1896.
In 1897, when Weber developing an academic career, his father died after a bitter quarrel between them. Soon Weber began to show symptoms that culminated in safaf disorders. Often can not sleep or work, and the next six or seven years passes in a state of near total destruction. After a blank period of time, some of his strength began to recover in 1903, but new in 1904, when he gave his first lecture (in America) which then lasted for 6.5 years, Weber began to be able to re-active in academic life in 1904 and 1905 he publish one of his best. The Protestant ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In this work the influence of religion Weber announced his mother at an academic level. Weber spent much time to study religion in private even though he was not religious.
Despite continuously plagued by psychological problems, after the 1904 Weber capable of producing some very important work. He published the results of his study of world religions in a historical perspective of the world (eg China, India, and ancient Judaism). By his death (June 14, 1920) he wrote a very important work, Economy and Society. Although the book was published, and has been translated into several languages, but in fact this work was not completed. Besides writing volumes of books in this period, Weber also made a number of other activities. He helped found Germany Sociological Society in 1910.
His house was used as the center of an expert meeting of the various branches of science including sociology, such as Georg Simmel, Alfred, and the philosopher and literary critic Georg Lukacs (Scaff, 1989:186:222). Weberpun active in political activity were the days. There was tension in Weber's life and, more importantly, in his work, between bureaucratic thinking as reflected by his father and his mother's religious sentiments. This unresolved tension permeates the work of Weber and his personal life.

Optic Fenomena by Al Kindi

2011-10-31T06:28:00.000-07:00

In this post we will try to discuss about one of the world's scientists in the field of physics in the 19th century AD expert work of physics is that the optical phenomenon that is translated into the Latin language which gives greater influence to Roger Bacon. following his biography notes.
Al Kindi (born: 801 - died: 873), can be said is the first philosopher who was born from among the Muslims. During his life, but can speak Arabic, he is fluent in Greek as well. Many of the works of Greek philosophers, translated in Arabic, among other works of Aristotle and Plotinus. Unfortunately there is a work that translated Plotinus as essays by Aristotle and berjudulkan Theology of Aristotle, so that in future there is little confusion.
Al-Kindi came from the nobility, from Iraq. He came from Kindah tribe, living in Basra and died in Baghdad in the year 873. He was a major figure from the Arabs who became a follower of Aristotle, which has affected the concept of al-Kindi in various doctrines of thought in science and psychology.
Al Kindi wrote many works in various fields, geometry, astronomy, astrology, arithmetic, music (which is built from various principle arithmetic), physics, medicine, psychology, meteorology, and politics.
He distinguishes between the active intellect with intellect passive intellect be actual of the form itself. Discursive argument and demonstrative action he saw as the influence of the third and fourth intellect. In ontology he tried to retrieve the parameters of existing categories, which he introduced in five parts: a substance (material), shape, motion, place, time, which he calls a primary substance.
Al Kindi collect various encyclopedic works of philosophy, which is then solved by Ibn Sina (Avicenna), a century later. He is also the first character is faced with a variety of cruel acts and torture carried out by the nobles of the various religious-orthodox thinking is considered heresy, and in such tragic circumstances (of the great thinkers of Islam), al-Kindi to liberate themselves from the ruthless efforts that orthodox nobles.

The Greenhouse Effect Helps Keeps Us Warm

2011-10-21T09:00:00.001-07:00

The Greenhouse effect actually helps to maintain the temperature of the surface of the earth.

The energy from the sun comes to the earth and is some of it is converted to heat. Much of this radiation is absorbed by atmospheric gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane along with water vapour. As this energy travels through the earth's atmosphere, only about 51% of the Sun's radiation reaches the surface. This energy is then used in a number of processes, that will include the heating of the earth's surface, the melting of ice and snow and the process in which vegetation converts energy called photosynthesis.

The earth surface radiates energy known as infrared energy because of the wavelength which is approximately 750 nanometres. A nanometre is one-billionth of a meter. This energy emitted is generally directed to space, however, only a small portion of this energy actually makes it back to space as much of it is absorbed by the greenhouse gases

Absorption of the infrared radiation by the atmosphere causes additional heat energy to be added to the Earth's atmosphere. The greenhouse gases, now warmer, with more energy, begin radiating long wave energy in all directions. Over 90% of this emission of long wave or infrared energy is directed back to the Earth's surface where it once again is absorbed by the surface. The cycle is repeated until all the long wave energy is absorbed.

The increased amount of heat from the greenhouse effect is controlled by the concentration of the greenhouse gases. The concentration of greenhouse gases appears to have increased since the Industrial revolution.

The Industrial Revolution has brought multiple benefits to our planet, but there are now more people as global population increases and more people imply higher consumption. With the increased energy consumption, emissions have increased and the prediction and modelling indicates that the greenhouse effect is contributing to global warming. The computer model of the greenhouse effect suggests that the emission of the major greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide may cause the earth's temperature to increase by 1 to 3º Celsius.

A number of gases produced or associated with our energy consumption, in addition to carbon dioxide that seem to enhance the greenhouse effect, include very strong gases, known as Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), that are released from aerosol sprays, refrigerants, methane, nitrous oxide and tropospheric ozone.

Scientists and researchers predict that by the middle of the next century, the temperature of the earth may be 1 to 3° Celsius higher than today, which can have devastating effect on the planet. It may be in our best in interest, to curtail production and release of greenhouse gases

The Greenhouse effect may keep us warmer, but it may be causing serious damage to the planet as hotter climates have a dramatic effect on both plant and animal life. The Greenhouse effect may also be responsible for an increased number of diseases where the human body is forced to function at higher temperatures.

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