Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19. 1473, in Royal Prussia, a part of Poland. Both of his parents were merchants. His sister was named Katharina. He was a mathematician and an astronomer that changed people’s views on space forever. Copernicus was one of the most important pieces in the Scientific Revolution.

In 1491, Copernicus entered the University of Cracow, where he studied painting and mathematics. Though he did not take astronomy classes at that time, he developed a growing interest in 

the cosmos, and started collecting books on the topic. After graduating, he went back to his home and assumed the position of canon and a cathedral. This position let him study in his free time, although he felt that that wasn’t enough time, so he looked for a different job.

In 1496, he traveled to Italy, where he enrolled in a religions law school called the University of Bologna. While he was there, He met an astronomer named Domenico Maria Novara. He was the only person he had ever met that challenged the views of Ptolemy. Ptolemy was one of the most important and influential people in the topic of astronomy, so this was a huge difference from what he was used to.

Copernicus had read a lot of books on astronomy, and he started to notice that something wasn’t right. He looked at Ptolemy’s geocentric model of the solar system, and he thought that it didn’t make sense. It was inconsistent with Aristotle’s view, stating that planets moved in a circular motion at different speeds around a fixed point, the earth. He took these in to note and created a new theory of the solar system, one with the sun at the center. Copernicus also believed that the size of each planet's orbit depended on its distance from the sun.

This theory raised lots of controversy, but Copernicus designed and applied a complex mathematical formula to further prove his point. It was then, in the 1500s, when people started to believe him. In 1513, he was prompted to build his own observatory so he could view the planets whenever he wanted.

In 1514, he wrote a book on astronomy called Commentariolus. After that, he wrote another book about astronomy called De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. Shortly after his death on May 24, 1543, the Catholic Church banned this book because it disproved the ways that they taught. Nicolaus Copernicus was a very important man who changed people’s views on space for the years to come.

The Invention and Early History of the Telescope

The first practical telescopes were made in 1608 by a Dutchman by the name of Hans Lippershey. Two other Dutchmen, Zacharias Janssen and Jacob Metius, claimed to make the discovery, and the three share credit for the marvelous invention.

In 1609, a scientist named Galileo Galilei heard of a device which would allow one to see things bigger than they were. After tinkering with it, he made a telescope that could magnify objects to thirty-three times their size. In 1610, Galileo used the improved telescope to see spots on the Sun, phases of Venus, four moons of Jupiter, and mountains and craters on the moon. He used these observations to support Copernicus’s theory that the Sun was the center of the Solar System.

The name telescope was coined in 1611 by Prince Frederico Cesi. It comes from the Greek word teleskopos, meaning far-seeing, and was first applied to the Galilean telescope.

In 1611, Kepler suggested an improvement to the telescope. If both lenses were convex, things would appear bigger, and the field of view would be greater. In 1655, an astronomer named Christiaan Huygens used a Keplerian telescope to discover Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. He later used the data from that telescope to prove that Saturn’s rings were made up of many chunks of dust and ice.

As you can see, the early telescopes contributed a lot to astronomy. Today’s telescopes are huge. The Hubble Space Telescope, which is in orbit around the Earth, weighs twelve tons! But it all started with a Dutch glasses-maker.

Works Cited

DeVorkin, David H., and Robert W. Smith. Hubble: Imaging Space and Time. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, 2008. Print.

"The First Telescopes (Cosmology: Tools)." The First Telescopes (Cosmology: Tools). N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2015.

"History of the Telescope." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2015.

"Online Etymology Dictionary." Online Etymology Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2015.

Image credit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Jupiter ,

http://www.geocities.ws/peterochocki/other/binocs/binocs.html ,

http://www.expertsmind.com/topic/optics/keplerian-refractor-95128.aspx

http://www.myschoolhouse.com/courses/O/1/36.asp

Electricity

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/49electric_universe/04images/Electricity/electricity.jpg

   Electricity, one of the most essential parts of civilization today, yet nobody knows who invented it. To be honest nobody invented electricity. Electricity is a natural force, but over millennium we have taken this forced and used it to our advantage. Lets dive a little deeper into the discovery of electricity.
   The earliest known knowledge of electricity, dates back to 2750 B.C. in Egypt. In ancient Egyptian text, we see reference to electric fish, like catfish, torpedo rays, and electric eels.  A millennium later in ancient Greece, Rome,  and Persia, reports of electrical fish were also found. In ancient Greece, they discovered that amber could me rubbed against pieces of cat fur to attract feathers, this is called static electricity. The Greeks also discovered naturally magnetic rock like magnetite. In ancient Persia we also started to see ancient batteries.
   By the 17th century we new a lot more about electricity and its properties, but it wasn't until this time period that humans started to use electricity to their advantage. In 1600s and English scientist by the name of William Gilbert started conducting experiments on electricity and magnetism. Gilbert also discovered the Lodestone effect, this is basically natural magnetism. It was those experiments that sparked the fire of electrical experimentation. In the 1800s Benjamin Franklin conducted  his kite experiment to prove that lightning and electricity were in fact the same thing. In 1791 Luigi Galvani discovered bio-electricity, and how electricity is used in the human body. In 1872 Micheal Faraday invented the electrical motor. In his invention he solved how to generate celerity in an ongoing and practical way. This invention also opened a window for Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison. Both of these inventors made their own version incandescent light bulb (Not the first light bulb, but the first to burn for an on going amount of time). Together they invented the first practical filament lamp, and using Thomas's direct current system, they light all of New York. But one of Thomas's associates Nikola Tesla didn't really see the benefits of the direct current system, so he invented Alternating current. For a long time scientist debated which system was better, this was called the war of the currents.
  By the 1900 electricity had become an essential part of life, we couldn't (and still can't) function without it. So the next time you flip a switch, send a text, or turn on the TV, think about all the time, effort, and dedication that allowed you to do that.

   http://www.wordle.net/create

Sources:

• http://www.universetoday.com/82402/who-discovered-electricity/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
• http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla 

The Feelings of Music

Music, what a wonderful thing. It can sooth us, it can calm us, it can bring us together, but most of all it shows who we are. If you were to listen to two different pieces of music and then see how you feel after you listen to them depending on the type of music it is do you think you would feel like how the music sounds? Click on these two pieces of music then see how you feel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiFJfjHosJ4                                                                                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ptfyhBjXj8
If music can make you feel that way imagine all the feelings and emotions there are for all the different types of music. Exactly how many emotions are there that come from music?

Links Used:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiFJfjHosJ4                                                                                     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ptfyhBjXj8
 https://www.google.com/search?  q=music&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=ECLcVOCpNsW4oQSdiYKIBQ&ved=  0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1600&bih=799

Musings of a 7th Grader Playing on Her Cellphone

   

In the early 1800’s, before telephones ☎️ were invented, there was the telegram 📠. The telegraph was a machine that sent messages to other people over wires using electric currents.  Morse code, a sequence of sounds 🔈 or lights 🔆 which correspond with letters in the alphabet 🔤, was a popular way to send telegrams.  It was the beginning of using technology to communicate without spoken or written words.  There wasn’t much personality in these messages I would guess.  Just a bunch of dots and dashes 💱, used to send messages long distances.  But the telegram was an important technology that helped people communicate in earlier days 👍, way before the Internet, cellphones 📱, and email 📩.

http://davies-linguistics.byu.edu/elang495/samples/lexical_topic.asp

     This past weekend I spent a lot of time in the car 🚘, driving around Oregon and Washington going to tournaments 🏀 and concerts 🎻.  Usually when I’m in the car, I’m pretty productive.  I bring along lots of homework and always have something to read for one class or another 📚.  When I’m bored of that, I usually do what most pre-teen girls like myself do these days, I grab my phone and check out my text messages 💬, check social media sites, or just play an addictive app.

     I have one post on my Instagram account.  I usually don't post anything, but I added the picture after our vacation to the beach during the holidays 🎉.   It was a perfect picture capturing the moment.  It was a picture of me, with my back to the camera 📷, on a beautiful sandy beach in the middle of the Pacific Ocean 🌊.  Because it had just rained earlier, I was standing under a majestic rainbow  🌈 floating over the ocean with a clear sunny sky in the background.  Anyways, I posted the picture to my Instagram account, and slowly the 'Likes ❤️ from my ‘Followers’ 👥 started coming in.  Some of my friends posted short comments, but I noticed after awhile that most of the comments weren't sentences or even words, but simply little pictures, or better known as emojis ☺️.

     Some older people still use emoticons, like ;-) which means I’m winking at you.  But why use three keystrokes, when you can send one of a million different emojis that express how you feel.  Here are some of the emojis people used on my post: 😍, which means they are looking at something that is cute or pretty; 👍, which is a classic sign for yes or approval; 😘, which means someone is giving you a kiss because they like you; and ❤️, which just means I like this a lot.  This was especially cool, because it meant that the people I knew liked my photo and thought it was nice as well.

http://bgr.com/2015/02/06/sms-vs-mms-emoji-costs/

     When playing a musical instrument 🎵, each musician develops their own style, their own interpretation of a piece using intonation and emotion.  If you listen over and over to a piece of music, you might be able to tell who was playing based on their style without looking 🙈.  This was also similar for telegraph operators.  Even though it was someone just pushing electrical dots and dashes into a small machine, they said you could sometimes tell who was writing the telegraph based on that person’s own unique manner of communicating, like did they type fast or slow, or use long-winded sentences or short simple ones.  In the movie Imitation Game, Alan Turing is a genius mathematician ✖️➕➖➗ who was selected by the British to help solve and crack messages the Nazi’s were sending using a machine called Enigma.  The Nazi code changed everyday.  Turing created a machine that could crack the setting of Enigma.  After months of trying without any luck, he figured out that some people always type with a certain pattern, or their own personality 🔓.  This clue helped him to calibrate the machine in a way that could decode the words, solve Enigma and help win the war.

     Today technology lets us use emojis as a form of nonverbal communication.  Emojis allow people to express their feelings without the need for words or to strengthen their statements with an illustrative symbol 💪.  It's modern day hieroglyphics, a new creative language.  It's a universal language that anyone in the world can understand.  How happy am I 😄?  How happy am I now 😃?  How awesomely happy am I now 😝?

     Nonverbal communication is prevalent in everybody’s life.  Your body language can reveal how you feel; your tone of voice can show enthusiasm or sarcasm 😜; your posture; your outfit 👗; the color of your lipstick 💄; your eye contact 👀.  Some people would say that emojis can explain things even better than words could ever describe.  While it was harder to show your personality through a telegram in the 1800's, emojis today make it easier than ever to show your true emotions.  Maybe an emoji really is worth a thousand words 👌.

Sources:

Telegraphy. Wikipedia, n.d. Web.
"Morse Code." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

Other Sites:

http://www.iemoji.com
http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos/most-creative-uses-emojis

Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571. He was born in Weil Der Stadt, Wurtemberg in Germany. Johannes Kepler went to the University of Tubingen. There he learned the ideas of Copernicus. In 1596 when he was a mathematician at Graz, he wrote the first defence of the copernican system. Johannes Kepler was outcast from the Lutheran church

Candy!

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? This is yet another mystery of candy, you see, candy is a very mysterious thing. Candy started off as a small homemade treat, but during the industrial revolution, this small unpopular delicacy, became a common treat, everywhere! 

Sports during the Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution in England changed sports forever. Man had always played games -- many ancient societies had forms of soccer and the ancient Greeks had the Olympic Games. However, sports were for the elite, upper classes, not the masses. The industrial revolution changed this. Everyone had more free time, including the new middle class, and sports activities were one popular choice. Sports became more organized as teams and organizations formed, especially in the sports of rugby and soccer. The growth in participation and organization led to the launch of the modern Olympic Games in 1896. Sports in the 21st century have their roots in the developments of the mid-to-late 1800s.

As technology developed new ways of manufacturing, workers moved from the manual labor of farms to factories. At first, the workers faced hours equal to or longer than those on the farm, but eventually labor laws limited those hours and this led to free time that most workers had never experienced before. To fill up this new-found free time, workers developed new pastimes and games and changed traditional games. 
The large number of participants required more structure in the forms of organizations, teams, and sets of rules.

Factory owners, who once did all they could to prevent their workers playing sports like soccer, which they considered dangerous and low class, now changed their views as sport was more likely to keep their employees healthy. In fact, many employers encouraged the formation of factory teams to try to foster feelings of solidarity among the workforce.

The industrial revolution brought several other important changes. For example, new sports like speed walking and running became spectator sports. Some speed walking events in the mid-1800s attracted crowds of more than 10,000 spectators. Walter George, a mile runner, was one of the most famous athletes of his day and held the world record in the mile from 1886 to 1912. Interestingly, the stars of these sports weren’t wealthy people from the upper classes, as was true for sports in the past, but from the middle class. George was an apprentice for a chemist who started walking and running on weekends, first for the exercise and later for the money.

Once sports emerged as an option for the middle class, newspapers began to cover them, generating more interest. In addition, fans began to bet on the outcome of the events, particularly the walking and running races, creating another sports-related industry. Finally, once participation increased and more money came into sports, both participants and fans demanded consistent rules and safety measures to reduce injuries and deaths.

The development of rules, organizations, and teams in England helped spread small, local games to the British colonial empire. This led to sports developing on a global scale as non-British countries adopted many of the sports that originated in England.

Before the Industrial Revolution, sports like soccer and variations of rugby were played, but only by the upper class. When the Industrial Revolution began, and many workers started moving to the factories, this changed. As the workers started having more free time, they subsequently started playing sports and pursuing other pastimes.

Soccer was one of those pastimes. Although before the Industrial Revolution it was a much different game than the one we know today, the basic concept was the same. As factory owners realized that sports were keeping the workers healthy, they let them play. Many factory teams were created and they started some of the first soccer tournaments as they played nearby factories. Some of these teams created back in the Industrial revolution and the period following, are the teams that are now known as Manchester United, Arsenal and West Ham, all teams in the England’s top division, the Premier League.

The workers played soccer and other games similar to it. Soccer spread to universities and schools across the nation. One of these schools was The Rugby School in Rugby, England. At this School in the early 19th century, rugby, a sport that would soon shock the nation, was born. One day, as pupils at the school were playing a soccer match, one of the players, William Webb Ellis, caught a ball, which at the time was allowed, but then ran with it, which was not. This marked the start of rugby, and when the word got out it spread quickly. Rugby was one of the rougher sports of the latter Industrial Revolution, with more than 71 deaths reported in a span of three years during the middle of the 19th century. Due to the fact that many people were getting hurt, many factory owners were complaining because their workforce was being rapidly affected by these injuries. The Rugby Union was formed in 1871, and along with it a set of rules which drastically cut down on the number of deaths were adopted. These rules also helped spread the sport internationally, turning rugby into one of the most played games by the start of the 20th century. American football traces its origins to rugby.

Following the Industrial Revolution, new or changed games and sports continued to spread around the world. People all over the world absorbed them into their own cultures, and sports quickly became one of the most popular pastimes, to play, watch, bet on, or cover for the newspaper. Following this huge popularity burst in sports, Pierre de Coubertin, a French historian, created the International Olympic Committee, and led the movement for a modern Olympic Games. This movement was successful, and in 1896 the first Modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, in a modern interpretation of stadiums used to host the ancient Olympic Games. These games were the biggest international sports tournament yet, attracting hundreds of athletes from 14 nations and hundreds of thousands of spectators. This first Olympic Games led to more Games each four years that quickly turned into one of the most watched sporting events in the world.

The Industrial Revolution brought a time of great innovation, not only in the means of technology used in manufacturing but in sports. Not only wealthy people were able to play sports and other games, but poor people were able to play sports with the coming of the Industrial Revolution and their new-found free time. Factory workers and university students created new games as well as changed old ones. Along with the creation of these games came the importation creation of organizations and the subsequent rules that followed. These organizations and more structured games helped spread them all over the world, leading to a new found interest in sports, resulting in the Modern Olympic Games and other sports extravaganzas we know today.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/sport_01.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1896_Summer_Olympics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_George_(athlete)

http://angelpig.net/victorian/football.html

http://www.studymode.com/essays/Sports-In-Victorian-England-63687610.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution

http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution

http://prezi.com/51nwr0m74pua/victorian-england-sports-and-hobbies/

John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie: Industrialists Who Paved the Way

Andrew Carnegie

http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/

carnegie/peopleevents/images/carnegie.jpg

When you hear Carnegie and Rockefeller, you think of New York. Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Center. But who are they named after?

They are named after John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, titans of industry in the late 19 century. John D. Rockefeller owned Standard Oil, Carnegie owned Carnegie Steel.

Early Automobiles

Henry Ford was by far one of the largest inventors of the Industrial Revolution. His most important invention, the automobile, changed life as we know it. It enabled people to go wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. The automobile modernize the transportation industry entirely. Today people don’t often think of how things used to be. One man changed the world as we know it, that one man is Henry Ford.

               Henry Ford was born on July 30th on his parent’s farm in Dearborn Michigan. Henry always had an interest in working with machines. He eventually gained a job in a Detroit machine shop, which gave him many opportunities to research. He was later employed as a part time worker for the Westinghouse Engine Company. This gave him the early experience that played a key role in his life and what he was to become and the things he would create.

At the age of 19, Henry became a certified machinist. Later, he met his wife, and settled down on a piece of land on the family farm in Dearborn. His wife, Clara Bryant, him in every way to keep moving forward with his ideas. Henry eventually began work on his first engine; when his design was satisfactory, he moved his shop into a shed and began to work on his first Quadricycle. The Quadricycle was one of Henry’s first car like creations; it was an open top contraption ran by a small engine and steered by a horizontal lever. When it was finally complete he proudly drove it out of the shed. Henry tried twice and to make a automobile company and failed. On the third time he succeeded as the Ford automobile company invented in 1908 came out with the first automobile. The model T. The model T cost $450. Even with this low price Ford managed to profit.

The silent languge

When I was 8 I started riding.  I remeber going to my first lesson and falling in love. Before I even started riding I had a love for horses.  I guess I never grew out of the I love horses phase. I started riding at french hill farms then later moved to crossroads training.

Many people tell me that riding isn't Many people say that they have ridden a horsae before, that they have been on trail rides, that they have ridden a horse at the countery fair and it was the easiest thing they have ever done. I hate to brake it to you, but thats not what I  do. I jump a 2000 pound anamail that as a mind of its own, over things hoping that it will let me. Hoping that my legs are stong enough to tell him to jump the object. Knowing that at any moment my horse could diside that they dont want me  to jumo them and stop bunk me off and run over me. And you say its not a sport. I pracice weekly, just like any football player would do, I have "games" just like any baseball player would have.

You start out as the little girl standing on your tippy toes to look over the gate to watch the older girl jump over huge jumps that one day you dream about doing. Till one day your the girl in the arena jumping the jumps, looking over at the gate at the little girls withthe big bows and braids in there hair wishing that one day, they would be doing the same thing that you are. This cycle never ends, Theres always going to be someone better out there, therees always going to be the girls who have the 35 thousand jumper ponies. Theres always going to be those girls who get to ride 7 times a week. Just lie any other sport, practice makes perfect.

You always have to start somewhere. There is no way your going to get on a horse and in a week be jumping. Everything takes time. Just like if you were starting soccer for the 1st day, changes arenyour not going to make the club team.

Riding teaches you many things, like to not take things for rantet. That no matter what happens to be thankful. Because I don't care if your trip was a shoe-in for champion, or you got disqualified at your first fence. You walk out of that ring, pet your horse. And thank him for not killing you. Because you know damn well he could have.
 You have to start from the bottom and move up. You have to find the trust. Build the stangth and relize that one day , if you dont give up, you will get there. You will have the 100 blue ribbions pinned to your walls. You will looked at by the little girls at the gate,

Not everyone can hear the silent languge between a horse and its rider, not everyone can trust there life with a 2000 pound animal, and not everyone has the guts, blood, sweat, tears and dedication needed to be part of this world. But equestrains are no ordinary people and horses are no ordianry  animals. The only one who truly understand this world are the ones who are part of it.

Iron Clads

Ironclads

The Manassas was the very first Ironclad It would tear through ships like they were made out of confetti. The Manassas could ram boats without being hurt and get shot by other boats without getting a dent. The Manassas was a confederate built ship and it was very successful because it did not sink on it’s first voyage as the Monitor did. After the confederates sunk the U.S.S Merrimac they turned it into a second ironclad called the C.S.S Virginia and that is when the Union had to make something big. 

The Union had to hire a Swedish inventor named John Ericsson who produced 3 other Ironclads but the first one was the U.S.S Monitor .The U.S.S Monitor was the third armored boat in the civil war. The Monitor was made by the Union to destroy the blockades that stopped their boats from getting out to give supplies to their people in all the forts. The only thing was that in the middle of the night the Union had a abandon ship order because the ship was to heavy and sunk. Just recently the Monitor was found. It was found in 1973 and it had sunk in 1862. After the Monitor sunk there was another ironclad that sunk but it was a confederate ship again it was to heavy and sunk off the coast of Virginia.

   

ballet

I love to dance, I take ballet classes at The Portland Ballet. I have taken classes since I was nine, which is a little late to start but I still enjoy it very much. When I finish my class I sit outside the door to the level six classes, level six is the highest level, and I watch the ballerinas spin and jump across the floor. I watch them balance on the tip of their pointe shoes.

When I was in fourth grade my mom signed me up for an audition at The Portland Ballet. Two weeks after the audition I got a yellow card that said I got in and would be starting classes in September. I didn’t like the first few classes, but after a while I started to like them and soon I was practicing everywhere I went.

People don’t understand that ballet is a sport, a lot of people think it’s dainty and fragile and doesn’t take any physical demand. But the people who say that don’t have a clue about how hard ballet is. Ballet isn’t something you can fake, you can’t make it look like you know how to do something without actually doing right. If you don’t use correct form you can get a serious injury.

Earlier this year I broke my foot during the ballet audition to get into a different level. I had to spend three weeks in a cast and a month in a walking boot. When People asked me how I broke it I would tell them that I broke it doing ballet. They would give me a look of disbelief as if I was lying, some would just ask how can u get hurt in ballet also with the tone indicating they didn’t believe it.

Many people don’t think ballet is a real sport or hard but they don’t know how many hours most dancers put into practice. They also aren’t aware of the fact that many of the boy ballerinas were football players and soccer players who gave up their previous sport to do ballet.