Post #3: NiA =]

I never knew how the terms Celsius and Fahrenheit came about. Nor did I even know how the invention on the thermometer came to be. It's interesting how an upside down glass bottle in a bowl of water brought about the idea of the mercury thermometer. If it weren't for innovative thinkers like Galileo, our lives would absolutely nothing like they are today. Pretty much everything in this world came about because of someone thinking outside the box. iPods, cell phones, cars, planes, sports equipment, school supplies: none of that would be available to us. We wouldn't even be writing on this blog site. Those unconventional, independent thinkers are what make the world what it is today, scientists included. If everyone thought the same way, there would be no way for you to stand out from the crowd to show others what you can do. Keep up the good thoughts =]

Briana Post#3

Throughout this book the author took to the time to explain what events were taking place during the scientists'/mathematicians' lives. The different historical aspects described in the book made it more interesting to read. For example, Guillen mentioned the civil war that was going on in England during the first years of Newton's life. He mentioned the Black Plague and the that nearly 13,000 people a week were dying. Even before the time of these mathematicians the author talked about Aristotle and his teachings. All of the different historical aspects helped me to have a better understanding of what was really going on at that time period and the many ways people were thinking until the five scientists came along and changed the world with their equations.

Glenn's 3rd Post

Surprisingly, I actually found the introduction to be very interesting and educational. I had never thought about math as a universal language throughout the world. It's funny how no matter where you go, 2+2 will always be 4. Everything else in the world is usually so volatile that you can barely keep an accurate account of it all. This shows how important and powerful mathematics are in our world. No other language has had the success that math has had in uniting people to agree on one way of doing things. The fact that math can explain just about anything in the world on paper, makes it so incredible.

Briana's Post #2

While i was reading about Bernoulli in "Between a Rock and a Life" it stated that he came from a line of dominating mathematicians who to my surprise were very competitive with one another. When young Bernoulli won the French Academy's competition both he and his father had entered, his father was enraged with jealousy and felt betrayed. My first thought was that he'd be proud of his son and the product of his teachings but instead he confused and angry. This gave me a different outlook on the world of science and the competitiveness that exists within it. While some may think that all scientists study their field for the sake of science, that is not always true. Johann Bernoulli (Daniel Bernoulli's father) wanted to be the best and not beaten by his very own students let alone, flesh and blood.

Response to The Second Law of Thermodynamics (4th post by Wen Jiang)

The second major discovery made by Clausius was the Law of Entropy Conservation (which would only exist in a perfect and theoretical universe) and the Law of Entropy Nonconservation (which exists in our imperfect universe). Entropy is a term coined by Clausius to mean all the variations of energy forms and temperature. The equation of Entropy Nonconservation is such: ΔS_Universe> 0. Defined simply, it means that the total entropy is always greater than zero. Positive Entropy refers to the product of natural energy transformation and irreversible processes, such as the natural flow of energy to the end product of heat energy. Negative Entropy is directed to the unnatural energy transformations and the defiance of irreversible processes (e.g. cold flowing to hot). An example of negative entropy is a refrigerator, which removes hotness from coldness, making the lower temperature place colder and making the warmer temperature place hotter. According to Clausius, when the natural Entropy production cease to continue, the universe would die; and it's to the universe's propensity that it should come to an end. What I'm skeptical about is if heat is truly irreversible through natural processes. I'm not convinced that the universe is dying through energy transformation; it's just seems to me that the universe is more complex than that. I believe there's a more complex natural law that governs the behavior and life of the universe. What was your response to the Second Law of Thermodynamics?

Post #2: NiA =]

Earlier, I wrote about how in life there are people who try to take credit for the work of someone else. But sometimes, it just takes the work of someone else to help lead you to discoveries of your own. Michael Faraday's discovery is a good example of this. While examining Hans Ørsted's experiment regarding the relationship between electricity and magnetism, Faraday noticed something odd, so he conducted his own test. This proved to be a worth while idea. Eventually, Faraday was able to bring us the Law of Electromagnetic Induction, explaining how electricity and magnetism are linked to one another. Oftentimes you can find inspiration in the work of others. Whether it come from trying to be like that person, trying to be better than that person, or trying to make better what that person has done for you're own satisfaction, you can learn from the successes of others, or even their downfalls. In the end, you might even make a name for yourself and end up in a book like those people you read about while doing, say, summer AP assignments for Calculus x]

Glenn's 2nd Post

In "Class Act", I was amazed by the opportunity Michael Faraday was given through his hard work and determination. All of his experimenting and note taking had gotten him tickets to lectures of the famous Humphry Davy, who would later become his employer. This new occupation allowed him to do what he loved and evolved into him discovering an equation that related electricity with magnetism. Seeing someone like Faraday go from regular to world famous, makes you wonder how many other scientific findings have been looked over or gone to waste because of the scientist's bad circumstances. Not many people get such a big break like Faraday did, therefore there's a high chance that over the years we've missed out on hundreds of discoveries because of the scientist's lack of resources. If scientific experimenting resources were made more readily available to everyone, I'm sure there would be an increase on the discoveries that we come to know.

Glenn's 1st Post

After reading "Apples and Oranges", I found it quite extraordinary that something as simple as an apple falling from a tree, could strike the motivation of Newton to wonder why it happened to the apple, but not to the moon. Something even more extraordinary was the fact that after progressing into adulthood, he still was determined to figure out the true reason why this phenomenon occured in this manner. Through his old equation for this occurrence, Newton was able to develop a new equation that would become one of the most well known and celebrated equations in the world. It's funny how Newton's perspective from when he was younger and when he was older both contributed to this significant finding. It was almost as if two different people had a stake in coming up with the equation, but in reality it was the effects of time on a person's mind that lead to the discovery.

Michael Faraday's Discovery (Wen Jiang's 3rd post)

I've more than once wondered how turbines, whether rotated by water, steam, or wind, generate electricity. Understanding (somewhat) about Faraday's discovery on how magnetism can be transformed into electricity gave me a comprehensive explanation for turbine electricity generation phenomenon. Faraday discovered that magnetism can be transformed into electricity by increasing or decreasing the supply of magnetism to a metallic receiver; and there's a direct relationship between the amount of electricity generated and the speed at which the magnetism is altered. In another words, the faster the magnet in a dynamo, a device that employs magnetism to generate electricity, rotates, the more electricity is generated. Since I don't think the chapter about electromagnetism mentioned any information on the requirement or limitation of the size of the magnet that's used to generate electricity, does that mean the size of the magnet doesn't matter? Or in another words, does this suggest that a smaller magnet and lager magnet spinning at the same rate (and with all other conditions same for both) generate the same amount of electricity? Even the equation itself doesn't suggest that the size of the magnet of dynamo matters. What do you think?

Einstein and WWII

While doing the chart and filling out the section for Albert Einstein and how he changed the world, I was so surprised to learn that he helped the Allies during World War II. It was shocking to see the impact that he had in the creation of the atomic bomb and I wondered about the effects that the bomb had during that time and how it has affected us today. Although the intentions behind the atomic bomb were to help the Allies and cause the war to end early-- preventing further blood shed-- the affects that it had on Japan was astounding and incredible. Later on, scientist tested another bomb that proved to be even more destructive than the atomic bomb.

Blood Circulation

When I got to the chapter "Between a Rock and a Hard Life" I was excited to read about something that I had heard of before. Like stated in this chapter, up until the fifth century B.C. doctors were practicing bloodletting which is where doctors would deliberately cut the veins of patients, thinking that get ride of any harmful things in the bloodstream. the problem that doctors were facing during Daniel Bernoulli's time is how much blood should be drained? they needed  a way to measure a patients blood pressure so they could determine how much they should bleed their patients. Since I'm interested in persuing a career in medicine it was so cool to find out that Bernoulli studied the circulation of the body in order to come up with his equation. Studying medicine lead to his discovery of how to measure the speed and pressure of moving water.

Kaneez's 3rd post

I can honestly say that even though I knew of Einstein, just like the rest of the world, I knew little of his past and all the little things that him become such an icon. I was surprised to find that he was not some super genius at birth but rather slow...at whatever he did. He wasn't stupid at all, but instead was constantly distracted by the world around him, something I can completly relate to but which is unfortunatly misinterpreted by society as a whole. I admired how even though there weren't any expectations of greatness from him (because of the way he was) and even though nearly everyone who knew him put him down, he persevered and showed them all wrong...without conforming to their ideals. All the discouragement he got from people I think was important, because he didn't think anything of it...simply just paying them no mind and continuing to go about his business. That's boss. He stayed himself throughout it all.

Kaneez's 2nd reflection

Bernoulli and his father certainly had an interesting, but difficult, relationship that would struggle throughout their lives because of math and science but in the end they had made the science breakthrough that would enable humans to fly (in a sense, it WAS flying) together. Neither one realized how heavily they influenced each other, their pride got in the way because they wanted individual credit. It was sad that the father wouldn't admit that his son surpassed him and instead competed for his glory, even though his glory days were long gone. Any normal father would have been proud of this son.

Question about Fluid Pressure ( Wen Jiang's second post)

From Daniel Bernoulli's research and reasoning, the Law of Vis Viva conservation was related to fluid pressure and speed. The way I understood the Law of Vis Viva Conservation is this: the total amount of energy in a solid is equal to its height relative to the ground (what we commonly refer to gravitational potential energy) and the mass of the solid multiply by the velocity squared of the solid. And the way I understood Bernoulli's equation is this: the total amount of energy in a body of fluid is equal to its pressure and its speed (which is derived from the fluid's density multiplied by 1/2 velocity squared). I intuitively connected pressure and gravitational potential energy together as stored energy. While I understood how gravitational potential energy was derived from an object's vertical distance from Earth's center, but I can't understand how pressure is created in the first place. Anyone care to give some thoughts?

Kaneez's 1st reflection

Isaac Netwon was a man of God. Funny how the most scientific men are the most religious because people always percieve them as coming from two opposite poles, always science vs. religion. Either you belive in God as the cause of it all or you believe solely that science is the source of it all (not God). Newton was an intelligent man who saw, as implied in the book, that though "God was the cause of it all" science explained, for our human minds, God's creations. He strongly believed in God, and didn't think He was some faroff entity than remained in some other world bur rather resided in His creations. I think that because he was a religious man, he had high morale, thus remaining humble his entire life (he had the oppertunity to rule Israel!). I was fascinated at how religion, politics, and science go together, which is another example that proves in reality, that everything is relative.

Priscilla's 4th Post

So, after finishing this book, I came to the realization that I always had the idea that scientists never had much of a life. Reading about their childhoods, marriages, and schooling makes me realize that like a young child who believes that their teacher lives inside of the classroom, I believed that scientists lived inside of a building only conducting experiments and coming up with equations or ideas that have lived on for many years. Crazy idea, huh? Well, until this book and this class I never had the need to actually read about the lives of any scientists, so to me they were not real people. Thank you Michael Guillen for opening new doors for me.

Priscilla's 3rd Post

In An Unprofitable Experience, I thought it was interesting how scientists took a real interest in heat, when now-a-days many of us take heat/fire for granted. The way that science has evolved through the ages has truly amazed me. Clausius found it amazing how heat could be used for so many things ran off of heat, things that still are being powered by heat but no longer seem as important as they once did. Thanks to this chapter, I will be paying more attention to things that are run off of heat and fire! :)

Priscilla's 2nd Post

After reading Between Rock and a Hard Life, I thought it was pretty cool how young Bernoulli fed off of his fathers equation to come up with one of his own. Even though, it seemed that his father never praised him for all his hard work, Bernoulli never gave up and continued to work hard and did not shy away from math, which was also pretty amazing because I know that if I were in his position I would run from math as quick as I possibly could. Also, in the Epilogue, I found it interesting how Borelli stated that the we would need pectorals twenty times stronger than normal to be able to fly. This theory makes me want to test it out and see if there is any way to actually achieve this goal and be the first human to fly!

Priscilla's 1st Post

I was out of town for all of last week and an just now getting around to posting all my reflections. Reading about Newton and how he was made fun of because he would rather stay in his room constructing things than go out and play outside and he wasn't the smartest kid in class. It made me realize that most great scientist were ostracized by society because they were "different" or a tad crazy. It makes me wonder if all people that have been considered weird or different by society destined to do great things. In a way it brings truth to the cliche "Be nice to nerds, you will be working for one someday." Also, his triumph over not getting the best grades and then working hard to better himself as a student. His childhood was truly inspiring that all things are possible.

Teddy 4th Post

The story "An Unprofitable Experience" to my surprise was relatively boring. It could have been that I read pass my limit or maybe it was that scientists kept failing at finding the mysteries of heat. However, Rudolf Clausius's discovery of the Law of Energy Conservation and the Law of Entropy Nonconservation in a mathematical equation was unprecented; I enjoyed this part. Entropy, as I recalled from a class I took in DC is change. Furthermore, my friend made a comment that surprised me because it it unorthodox, but creative; he said: with emtropy we can gradually or spontaneously change/turn into fish! Wow!

Teddy 3rd Post

I just finished reading "Class Act", a really great story because of Michael Faraday's humbleness throughout his twisting life. His discovery of electricity and magnetism being similar was outstanding because I thought that they were totally seperate forces avting without the consent of the other; I was wrong. I was also shocked that he did not comprehend mathematics enough to translate his law into the language every person around the world spoke and understood. However, future minds did his favor.

Teddy 2nd Post

I have finished reading "Between a Rock and a Hard Life" and I thought of the upseting relationship between father and son the Bernoulli's had. However, the science and mathematics involved in airplanes is outstanding! I did not realize the similarities between water (liquids) and air. Both have different degrees of pressure and dynamics. Also it was very interesting how the use of "the calculus" helped Daniel Bernoulli define these mysteries and enable future minds to take "flight".

Sciene vs Religion

As I read chapter one, "Apples and Oranges", I was intrigued with the way Michael Guillen described the relationship between science and religion. I was interesting to realized that people were struggling with the two topics in the past as well as in the present. Scientist and religious leaders were attempting to come up with theories and ideas that satisfied both religion and science. To make the reader understand the conflict concerning religion and science, the author used personification and made it seem like the two ideas were  couple, struggling to get a long. Some had to demand that their ideas about science were wrong in fear of being punished by the Church for their ideas.

Very interesting comments so far and I see that some of you have mastered the way to post a comment on a classmate's comment. We still have not heard from quite a few members of the class; if anyone tells you they can't post, have them email me. For those who are reading the blog and trying to post comments, only invited authors (classmembers) can write and I need to invite you with your email address. You need to then sign in using that address for the blog to recognize you. School starts officially on Wednesday, Sept. 1 and Calculus meets period 3,4,5 on B days, so we will only meet Thursday as a class the first week. If you want help with summer packet review problems (first due first class) am scheduling "Pizza and Problem Solving" on Monday Aug 30 1:30 --3:30 PM and Tuesday Aug 31 1:30 --3:30 in Room 316. These are your first Focused Tutoring opportunities of the year--you can work together and ask me for help if you are stuck. Yippee--AP season is almost here!!

Tim #3

I just finished “An Unprofitable Experience” when I remembered Rudolf Clausius’ education. He started his education in a school room taught by his father who was a strict Protestant minister. By having a minister as a teacher Rudolf received a very bias education that favored religion. When Rudolf attended high school in Stettin did he receive a education based on science and facts. Due to his education, Rudolf later tries and succeeds to combine both religion and science to make his Law of Energy Conservation. If Clausius didn’t have an education based partly on religion and partly on science, he may have never discovered everything that he did.

Tim #2

Michael Faraday was fortunate enough to study under Humphry Davy, president of the Royal Society. Davy seems like one of the smartest people in the world. After the establishment of the Royal Society, Davy built the world’s largest and most powerful Voltaic piles. Using just the Voltaic piles he discovered sodium, potassium, boron, barium, calcium, and magnesium. Faraday would soon wage war with Davy and overthrow him. By studying under Davy, Faraday was challenged to always prove himself to the world and Davy.

Michael #3

Blog 3- E = mc^2 Energy of an object equals the mass of the object multiplied by the speed of light squared. Matter can be turned into a lot of energy. Why can't we use the energy? If we could such small amounts of matter could power such a large number of things. nuclear energy does use this concept but it still uses that intermediary of steam heated nuclear energy. If a more efficient way was found of turning all to the matter into energy and harnessing that directly would solve all forms of energy crisis.

Michael's #2

Blog 2- Heat Death ΔSuniverse > 0 This is a mind blowing concept. This suggests that life is a scientifically unsound concept. The universe itself is achieving more entropy, or randomness of the microscopic parts of a thermodynamic system. It means the universe is attaining a state in which all matter has uniform temperature- a life stopping concept. I don't understand how this can be measured or proven. It if it is true then what would that mean? Eventually the universe will destroy all life, achieve heat death and there will be no more movement? Post a comment, I'd like to discuss this one.

Michael via email

Blog 1 from Michael Corolla Mathematical Poetry A concept I find fascinating. Dr, Michael Gullen originates his book with the Tower of Babel and compares the universal language, which was, in that case, is ultimately destroyed for its ability counter god, to that of mathematics. It's a realization that puts into view the true ability of mathematics to cross any and all boundaries of the tongue universally as well as its ability to create its own "Tower of Babel". As examplified by the further descriptions in this chapter, math has gone on to allow humans to dwarf the Tower of Babel, though never finished, as an accomplishment. It has given us the power to understand the, not only the world, but the universe as well and the power to utilize that knowledge to go much farther than a tower ever could, every day- to the skies in a flying machine, the moon on a space rocket or even prove life logically unsound. Sorry if I get a little, uh, abstract- but that's my reflection on the chapter. =)

The Universl Law of Gravity & Newton's Third Law of Motion (by Wen #1)

Hey guys, I came across the following problem while reading about Newton: Accroding to Newton's third law of motion, when two objects collide, each object will feel the same and opposite force equal to the total amount of force created by the collision. Now consider this: two astronauts, both weighing 90kg, are afloat in space (vaccum). They're close to each other (lets say 5m). But will they eventually float towards eachother due to gravity? My thought is this: since there are no net force in either direction, because both astronauts weigh 90kg, the two astronauts will stay stationary. According to Newton's third law of motion, with whatever force the astronauts are pulling eachother in towards the center spot between both of them, there exists the same amount of force that separates them. So do and will astronauts move at all if all the conditions stay consistent. NOTE: Granted that they're in a total vaccum, in which nothing else exist besides those two astronauts.

Tim #1

I don't know if I'm doing this right but here it goes. David Bernoulli had a conflicting relationship with his father Johann. No matter how much David proved himself in mathematics, his father refused to allow him to become a mathematician even though Johann and his brother were both world famous mathematician at the time. To me the father never wanted his son to be considered an equal which is proven when both Johann and David win the contest hosted by the French Academy of Sciences and Johann flips out.

As I read about Newton and his journey to the discovery of Earth's Gravitational Force, I remembered the time I discovered gravity, so to speak, during my sophomore year in biology class. The teacher asked which would fall faster, a crumbled piece of paper or a pen. Most of the students guessed the pen would hit the ground first. To my surprise, both objects fell at the same rate. After this experience and reading "Apples and Oranges," I can relate to Newton's curiosity and thoughts as he studied the undeniable force that constantly pulls objects towards the Earth.

Post #1: NiA =]

It seems as though in the world of philosophy, or the world in general, there is always someone there to take credit for someone else's idea(s). This happened for both Newton(Leibniz saying he was the actual inventor of calculus) and Bernoulli(his father taking credit for the idea of hydrodynamics, or hydraulics). I can't imagine what it must feel like if someone else were to put their name on something I worked so hard and tirelessly to perfect, something I put countless hours of time and energy into. Despite these unforseen misfortunes, both men moved on and presented everyone with their beliefs and findings to enlighten us and change our world forever. Without the work of these two men, we would not have been able to put man on the moon or understand exactly why airplanes are able to soar through the sky like birds. Their discoveries were truely remarkable and, because of this, are still being implemented into our everyday lives.

Teodoro Garcia's posting #1

(via email from Teddy to Mr. Wight) Post #1: I have read "Apples to Oanges", which I enjoyed because I learned more of Newton's unknown life and discoveries. I kept thinking to myself poor guy and how unfortunate his life was, however his logic of gravity made sense to me. I am amazed on how religion collaborated with science and politics, but after Newton's discoveries they were to be separated, till this day! --Teddy

I read more and i wanted to share what i read. So far and found interesting things such as science already was to be known that mass and energy were indistinguisable and interechangeable. According ot Einstein people would not necessarily reckon distance and time in exactly the same way.

BOOK RESPONSE

Hey guys I am almost done with the book and i am reading about Rudolpf Clausius and i have learned something interesting which is that his equation dealing with the univerese means that " The net charge in the total entropy of the universe is always greater tahn zero." I also learned that Clausius'sd law of EntropyNonconservation meant that the universe existed at the expense of its engines.

Hi all--I have just added Briana to the blog contributor list and discovered that only 11 of you are listed as "team members/contributors". If you cannot post to the blog, email me (andy.wight@new-haven.k12.ct.us) and I will reinvite you to the blog team. A few of you never gave me your emails, so you cannot post until I register you as members. Read the book and make a comment! So far Anmol is the only one to post a book response!