WILLIAM QIU ZHANG

WILLIAM QIU ZHANG

MR. ROBERT RODRIGUEZ NOHLE


INVESTIGATION OF SOCIAL STUDIES







2014-2015


WILLIAM QIU ZHANG
INVESTIGATION

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
The scientific revolution was the emergence of modern science during the early modern
period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human
anatomy) and chemistry transformed views of society and nature. According to traditional
accounts, the scientific revolution began in Europe towards the end of the Renaissance
era and continued through the late 18th century, influencing the intellectual social
movement known as the Enlightenment. While its dates are disputed, the publication in
1543 of Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of
the Heavenly Spheres) and Andreas Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of
the Human body) is often cited as marking the beginning of the scientific revolution. By
the end of the 18th century, the scientific revolution had given way to the "Age of
Reflection".
The concept of a scientific revolution taking place over an extended period emerged in the
eighteenth century, before the French Revolution, in the work of Bailly, who saw a two-
stage process of sweeping away the old and establishing the new.



WILLIAM QIU ZHANG
GREATEST INVENTIONS
WHEEL: The wheel is another invention so ancient that we have no way of knowing
who first developed it. The oldest wheel and axle mechanism we've found was near
Ljubljana, Slovenia, and dates to roughly 3100 B.C.



PRINTING PRESS: The printing press allowed enormous quantities of information to
be recorded and spread throughout the world. Books had previously been items only the
extremely rich could afford, but mass production brought the price down tremendously.

WILLIAM QIU ZHANG
COMMUNICATIONS: Maybe it's cheating to lump the telegraph, telephone, radio
and television into one 'invention,' but the development of communication technology
has been a continuum of increased utility and flexibility since Samuel Morse invented the
electric telegraph in 1836 (building on the prior work of others, of course). The telephone
simply refined the idea by allowing actual voice communications to be sent over copper
wires, instead of just beeps that spelled out the plain text in Morse code. These
communication methods were point-to-point, and required an extensive infrastructure of
wires to function.


STEAM ENGINE: Prior to the invention of the steam engine, most products were
made by hand. Water wheels and draft animals provided the only 'industrial' power
available, which clearly had its limits.

WILLIAM QIU ZHANG
LIGHTBULB: You might think the light bulb changed the world by allowing people to
work at night or in dark places (it did, to some extent), but we already had relatively cheap
and efficient gas lamps and other light sources at the time.

COMPUTER: A computer is a machine that takes information in, is able to manipulate
it in some way, and outputs new information. There is no single inventor of the modern
computer, although the ideas of British mathematician Alan Turing are considered
eminently influential in the field of computing.

INTERNET: The Internet, a network of computers covering the entire planet, allows
people to access almost any information located anywhere in the world at any time. Its
effects on business, communication, economy, entertainment and even politics are
profound. The Internet may not have changed the world as much as the plow, but it's
probably on par with the steam engine or automobile.

WILLIAM QIU ZHANG
Penicillin: Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928. Andrew Moyer
patented the first method of industrial production of penicillin in 1948.


The steam turbine: Invented by Charles Parsons in 1884 and commercially
introduced over the next 10 years. A huge improvement in powering ships, the more far-
reaching use of this invention was to drive generators that produced electricity.

The airplane: For the Realization of an age-long dream he gave the laurels of
success to the Wright brothers, but apart from its military use reserved judgment on the
utility of the invention: It presents the least commercial utility of all the inventions
considered.

WILLIAM QIU ZHANG
Paper: Because we see it all around us now, we dont realize the importance of paper.
Paper was invented by the Han Dynasty in China in the 2
nd
century. Paper spread from
China to Middle East and then to Europe. The first known use of paper in China was to
wrap and protect mirrors and things like poisonous medicines.

Nuclear technology: Only two nuclear weapons have been used in history. USA
dropped two atom bombs on Japan towards the end of World War II. The first one was
dropped on 6
th
August 1945 on Hiroshima and the second three days later on Nagasaki.

The nail: Without nails, civilization would surely crumble. This key invention dates back
more than 2,000 years to the Ancient Roman period, and became possible only after
humans developed the ability to cast and shape metal. Previously, wood structures had to
be built by interlocking adjacent boards geometrically a much more arduous construction
process.

WILLIAM QIU ZHANG
The compass: Ancient mariners navigated by the stars, but that method didn't work
during the day or on cloudy nights, and so it was unsafe to voyage far from land.

Immunization / Antibiotics: Three centuries ago, almost everyone died of
infectious diseases. When the plague broke out in 1347, it killed nearly half of Europein
about two years. When diseases such as smallpox reached North America, they reduced
the indigenous population by about 90 percent within a century.



WILLIAM QIU ZHANG
PHONOGRAPH: The phonograph recorded and reproduced audible sounds first using
paraffin paper and then metallic foil on a cylinder. Edison created multiple versions over
the years, improving on each model.



The Microwave: Percy Spencer, an engineer at Raytheon after his WWI stint in the
Navy, was known as an electronics genius. In 1945, Spencer was fiddling with a
microwave-emitting magnetron used in the guts of radar arrays when he felt a
strange sensation in his pants. A sizzling, even.

WILLIAM QIU ZHANG
New ideas
The scientific revolution was not marked by any single change. The following new
ideas contributed to what is called the scientific revolution, many of which were
called revolutions in their own fields:
The replacement of the Earth as center of the universe by heliocentric.
Depreciation of the Aristotelian theory that matter was continuous and made
up of the elements earth, water, air, and fire because its classic rival, atomism,
better lent itself to a 'mechanical philosophy' of matter.
[13][14]

The replacement of the Aristotelian idea that heavy bodies, by their nature,
moved straight down toward their natural places; that light bodies, by their
nature, moved straight up toward their natural place; and that ethereal bodies,
by their nature, moved in unchanging circular motions
[15]
with the idea that all
bodies are heavy and move according to the same physical laws.
Inertia replaced the medieval impetus theory, that unnatural motion ("forced"
or "violent" rectilinear motion) is caused by continuous action of the original
force imparted by a mover into that which is moved.
[16][17]

The replacement of Galen's treatment of the venous and arterial systems as
two separate systems with William Harvey's concept that blood circulated from
the arteries to the veins "impelled in a circle, and is in a state of ceaseless
motion".

WILLIAM QIU ZHANG
Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_revolution
http://inventors.about.com/od/famousinventions/tp/topteninvention.htm
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38870091/ns/technology_and_science-
innovation/t/greatest-accidental-inventions-all-time/
http://listverse.com/2007/09/13/top-10-greatest-inventions/
http://techland.time.com/the-25-best-inventions-of-the-year-2013/
http://www.livescience.com/33749-top-10-inventions-changed-world.html