What I've Learned

Paul Chafart 8/12/10
History of Science Dr. Lansang

Galileo Galilei :
Galileo is well thought to be known as the” inventor “of the telescope. Galileo did in fact work with the telescope and contributed information for evidence on the heliocentric view, however he did not invent the telescope as many people believe rather than just improved it which made an advance telescope for its time. With the help of his telescope Galileo did in fact gather enough information to disprove the churches’ and Ptolemy’s idea of the geocentric view. This was a great advance in astronomy at that time however went against the church which was almost fatal for Galileo. The church ordered Galileo to publicly recant his belief and then was put on house arrest rather than death because of his friendship with the pope at that time. Galileo then took advantage of his house arrest by taking in students and taught them about this ideas which later on became too much for the church and eventually change their idea of the geocentric view.

Sir Isaac Newton:
Sir Isaac Newton is one of the greatest scientists in history with great advancements. Newton was born 1642 a couple months after his own father’s death. In 1653 he went to grammar school and even though we consider him a genius, as a child was consider idle in school which now a day’s people would call lazy and probably did poor in school. However it was in his uncle’s college, Trinity College Cambridge, where his intelligence appeared. In 1664 his interested in mathematics began and by 1668 earn his masters. He then began to teach full time at Cambridge when he was just 27 years old and already had a developed anew from of math that we still use today which is calculus. His laws of motion which became universal were published in his book Principia one of the best scientific books written. Even with all this success and knowledge this man was still suffering from stress and in 1679 suffered his first nervous breakdown. At the end of his research he published a famous book in 1704 called the Opticks where he discusses much of his experiments and discoveries including his law of gravity and the concept of light. Finally in 1705 was knighted and became the first scientist to be honored.

Steam Engine:
The steam engine was probably one of the best things that could have been invented by man. It began what we now know as the Industrial Revolution. It started with just a couple of ancient Greeks like Hero who is considered to first have the earliest form of the steam engine called novelties. It was around the 1600s when again the steam engine was looked upon for production in human life. During that time in Europe there were a lot of mining and because of the mining there were a lot of exposed water which was needed to be pumped out. The only way to do that back then was by human muscle power or animal draft. However these both were becoming less and less efficient. This drove people to find a better way and which lead to the invention of the steam engine which began as water pump by Thomas Savery and now is used as a method to power and mechanical object for example a car or a train by Trevithick. These where we use in our daily life and without, humans would still be either on a horse or walking to their destinations.