Index : H : History of Science

Structure Sub-topic of: Sci / Tech Interesting Questions, Facts and Information There are a total of 105 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display. Frequently Asked Questions & Answers There are 30 user-asked question matches ( goto ) Special Topics Roman Science and Invention Everything was Invented in China! Oh, That Hertz! Obsolete Science Terms Haber not Einstein - "Nature's" Choice Insect Physicians - Creepy Crawly Medicine

Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information

History of Science

You are looking at a cobol program and see "pic x(10)". What does that mean?

The History of Computing (denmarks)


It is describing the format of a field as 10 alphanumeric characters.. The pic statement showed the format of a field in a record or a storage variable. X represented alphanumeric and 9 represented numeric. A number in parenthesis was a repetition factor. S9(7)V99 would represent a signed numeric field with 7 digits before the decimal point and 2 after.



Who were the first to think of ideas relating to the definition of "substance"?

The History of Chemistry 1: Composition (scottycan)


Greeks. Around 600-400 B.C., early philosophers postulated that there was one primary matter that everything was composed of. Water, fire, and air were all candidates for this basic elemental matter.



Who was the first to publish an Affinity Table in 1718?

The History of Chemistry 1: Composition (scottycan)


E. F. Geoffroy. Georg Stahl used the notion of affinity to explain data that he produced. However, he never made a table from the data. Geoffroy put these data into his "Table des Rapports" consisting of 16 columns, each headed by the traditional symbol for the substance for which the column referred. Underneath were the symbols of substances with which that substance reacted, in order of affinity.



Who was in charge of the Manhattan project of WW2?

Modern Science History (Tristan.)


J. Robert Oppenheimer.



Who was first credited with the thorough classification of animals and plants?

Modern Science History (Tristan.)


Carl Linnaeus.



Who proposed the "plum pudding" model of the atom in 1897?

Modern Science History (Tristan.)


J.J Thomson.



Who postulated the theory that magnetic fields are produced both by changing electric fields and by electric currents?

Modern Science History (Tristan.)


James Maxwell.



While the Greek scientific community was perhaps the most collectively active of the 4th century B.C.E., it was not the only one making interesting astronomical observations. Astronomers from which ancient land were said to have first observed Jupiter's moons c. 365 B.C.E.?

History of Astronomy - Part 2 (thejazzkickazz)


China. In approximately 365 B.C.E., it is suggested that Chinese astromers discerned the existence of Jupiter's moons without the aid of any optical equipment. Though this claim is intellectually stimulating and rather romantic, it is highly unlikely to be true since Jupiter's moons cause only a tiny fluctuation in the planet's relative luminosity. More likely, the first actual observation of Jupiter's moons came in 1610, when Galileo first peered through his self-constructed telescope at the largest planet in our solar system.



Which of Einstein's theories was published first, the special, or general theory of relativity?

Modern Science History (Tristan.)


Special . His general theory of relativity was published in 1916, and his special theory was published in 1905.



Which ancient thinker from Tenedos is associated with bringing the solar calendar and the zodiac to the Greek world from Mesopotamia?

History of Astronomy - Part 1 (thejazzkickazz)


Cleostratus. Cleostratus is a lesser-known figure of ancient Greek science, possibly because he did not make innovations in any of the sciences, but was merely the transporter of knowledge from Babylonia. He was active around 520 B.C., another traveler to the Fertile Crescent (notice a trend here?)



Which ancient Greek philosopher is credited with describing the geocentric theory of the universe?

Modern Science History (Tristan.)


Ptolemy.



Which ancient civilization of Mesopotamia is credited with establishing the collection of star signs that we call the zodiac?

History of Astronomy - Part 1 (thejazzkickazz)


Chaldeans. The Chaldeans, who commanded Babylon for a period during ancient times, were some of the greatest ancient scientists. They advanced upon the Egyptian calendar system, establishing the current system which we use wherein 60 seconds equals a minute, and 60 minutes an hour. They also developed the zodiac (Gr., circle of animals) that we use today, though the names of the signs were different.



What was the title of Charles Darwin's work published in 1859?

Modern Science History (Tristan.)


On the origin of species.



We return to the story of particle physics in 1964, when the famous quark model was proposed independently by George Zweig and Murray Gell-Mann. They explained the Eightfold Way by suggesting that the hadrons (composite particles like protons, neutrons and mesons) were composed of even smaller particles, which Gell-Mann called "quarks." From what James Joyce novel did he take that name?

A Brief History of Particle Physics, Part II (CellarDoor)


Finnegans Wake. Gell-Mann, who won the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics in part for the quark model, and whom we met in Part I of this quiz, took the name "quarks" from the line "Three quarks for Muster Mark!" in Book 2, Episode 4 of the 1939 novel "Finnegans Wake." That he was able to get away with this playful name shows that the quark model was not yet taken seriously! There was plenty of indirect evidence for the quark model -- for example, the proton charge is concentrated in three tiny lumps -- but there was still the problem that nobody had ever isolated a quark. Gell-Mann and Zweig postulated that there were three quarks (up, down, and strange); the other three would be discovered in later decades. Gell-Mann later said that the "three quarks" seemed to match perfectly his three fundamental particles, which is part of what drew the Joyce line to mind. He is also very insistent that "quarks" should be pronounced to (sort of) rhyme with "quarts," rather than with "Mark."



We now turn to the Greeks, who began seriously inquiring about the nature of the cosmos during the 6th century B.C. Greek science was ushered in by Thales of Miletus, a philosopher/scientist who was said to have predicted a solar eclipse in which seminal year for astronomy?

History of Astronomy - Part 1 (thejazzkickazz)


585 B.C.. Thales traveled extensively to both Babylon and Egypt, and probably borrowed well-established methods of calculating solar eclipse events from those civilizations. His accurate prediction helped establish Thales as a well-respected man of science, and his pupils furthered his inquiry into mathematics, physics and the heavens.



Universities were founded around 1300 in places like Oxford, Paris and Bologna. Dental texts began to make their appearance and Guy de Chauliac wrote on dental pathology in 1386. Giovanni de Arcoli proposed fairly modern techniques in 1400. What were some of his "radical" ideas?

Open Wide - A Painless History of Early Dentistry (Nannanut)


All of these (Gold fillings, The avoidance of sweet stuffs, Good oral hygiene). De Arcoli also devised more modern instruments and it is claimed his root forceps could be used today. He advised patients to avoid contact with hot and cold substances and was the first to ever mention using gold as a filling for teeth. Guy de Chauliac first coined the word "dentator" and the English "dentist" derived from this.



Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, indirect theoretical evidence for Fermi's neutrino (see Question 8) continued to mount. But it's very difficult to detect a massless, neutral particle! So when American physicists Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan decided to try to detect it in 1955, they needed an extraordinarily intense source of neutrinos. Where did they set up their experiment?

A Brief History of Particle Physics, Part I (CellarDoor)


The Savannah River nuclear reactor in South Carolina. Nuclear reactors are intense sources of antineutrinos. Cowan and Reines placed a water tank at the reactor to look for recoil neutrons (much like Chadwick's experiment described in Question 4). An antineutrino collides with a proton in the water, resulting in a neutron and a positron -- inverse beta decay! Since antineutrinos are massless and electrically neutral, they don't often interact with matter and the odds of this reaction were extremely small. The Savannah River reactor produced a calculated flux of 50 million million antineutrinos per square centimeter per second at their location, but even with a 200-liter tank of water they only detected about three antineutrino events every hour! Reines and Cowan observed enough events to prove the existence of the neutrino and antineutrino by 1956, inaugurating a subfield of particle physics that's extremely active to this day. Reines won the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery in 1995, but unfortunately Cowan had died 21 years before.



Though the 5th century B.C.E. was a time of great theoretical development, some fanciful ideas remained regarding the nature of the earth and the universe. Take the example of Empedocles, poet and philosopher, who conjectured what about the nature of the universe?

History of Astronomy - Part 2 (thejazzkickazz)


That it was an ovate, crystal sphere. One of the great geniuses of the 5th century, Empedocles speculated in a number of scientific areas with an arrogant flair (it is said that Empedocles only dressed in royal purple). According to Empedocles, all matter was comprised of four key components: water, earth, air and fire, with attractions and/or repulsions between these elements dictated by two other elements, 'philia' (love) and 'neikos' (strife). His cosmological views were even more interesting. Empedocles imagined the universe to be crystalline in nature, divided between light and dark regions and rotating to bring us the 24-hour daily cycle. The sun and stars were mere reflections on the sphere, according to Mr. Empedocles.



Though Thales was a well-established man of science and philosophy, he did not understand the nature of the Earth, believing it to be a disk shaped object floating on water. Around 500 B.C. the Earth was first proposed to be spherical in nature. This assertion is associated with which Greek philosopher/mathematician (or his followers)?

History of Astronomy - Part 1 (thejazzkickazz)


Pythagoras. The Pythagoreans are typically awarded the distinction of being the first thinkers to have accepted the idea that Earth is spherical in nature, and everything that this idea entails. However, the Pythagoreans did not suggest that the Earth revolved around the sun; this would have to wait for a later date.



This philosopher's idea was that change in matter could be explained by the motion of the particles in a void. Who was he?

The History of Chemistry 1: Composition (scottycan)


Democritus. Born in 460 B.C., Democritus said that the prime matter was composed of a large number of indivisible atoms and that change could be explained through the particles' motion in a void.



This ancient Pythagorean was perhaps the first person in history to suggest that the Earth was not at the center of the universe, and he developed interesting ideas about a 'central fire' and a 'counter-earth'. Who was this great 5th-century intellectual?

History of Astronomy - Part 2 (thejazzkickazz)


Philolaus. Philolaus was a disciple of Pythagoras, and lived from c. 480 to c. 405 B.C.E. He provides a link between Pythagoras, his probable teacher, and Democritus, his probable pupil. Philolaus posited that the sun and planets were all spherical, and that each of these bodies rotated around a central fire (or 'estia', named after the goddess Hestia), thus departing from the Earth-centured universal scheme. Along with the six known planets at the time (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), the sun, moon and stars (which were emblazoned upon a sphere) all rotated around the central fire, and were joined by a 'counter-earth' (or 'antichthon'), which helped bring the total number of rotating objects to the magical Pythagorean number of ten. Like Anaxagoras, Philolaus posited correctly the nature of eclipses and the phases of the moon (derived from the sun's light).



There was a big problem with the quark model: the Pauli exclusion principle. Quarks are fermions and can never occupy the same quantum state, but some hadrons can only be constructed out of three quarks with identical quantum numbers. Later in 1964, Oscar Greenberg solved the problem by introducing what additional quantum number that can never be observed in the laboratory?

A Brief History of Particle Physics, Part II (CellarDoor)


color. Greenberg suggested that every quark comes in three "colors", conventionally called red, green and blue. These aren't real colors in the way that we understand color, of course; red, green and blue are just convenient labels for the different "charges" of the strong force, just as positive and negative electrical charges don't indicate that protons are optimistic and electrons pessimistic. In a baryon made of three quarks, each quark must have a different color, so that they're all in different quantum states; in a meson made of a quark and an antiquark, the quark will have some color and the antiquark will have the corresponding anticolor. This makes all particles colorless (with the optics analogy red + green + blue = white). This principle (later explained much more rigorously by the theory of quantum chromodynamics) is why you can't isolate a quark; they must always appear in colorless groups.



Theorists working with the strong and weak forces using the quark model soon found that they could make use of a clever type of diagram first introduced for quantum electrodynamics. They draw straight lines for fundamental particles (quarks and leptons), using arrows to indicate the forward time direction (antiparticle arrows are drawn backwards). Force-carrying bosons can be drawn using dashed or squiggly lines, and it is easy to calculate the cross section of a reaction by multiplying the contributions of the various lines and corners of the diagram. These useful diagrams are named after what famous American physicist, notorious for his practical jokes?

A Brief History of Particle Physics, Part II (CellarDoor)


Richard Feynman. Feynman, who shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga for their development of quantum electrodynamics in the 1940s, is a bit of a folk hero to physicists. He was called the Great Explainer for his clear introductory physics lectures (which are still published in three volumes as a hot commodity for physics students today); he used to claim that if a physical concept couldn't be explained in a freshman-level lecture, then it wasn't fully understood yet by anyone. (I wonder what he would have thought about FunTrivia quizzes!) His two autobiographical books, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" are well worth reading. Quantum electrodynamics is, to date, the most accurate theory as compared to experimental results that humanity has ever devised, and Feynman diagrams make complicated particle physics problems easy to understand.



Theoretical physicists were examining antimatter and neutrinos at about the same time. The antiparticles of charged particles have the opposite charge, but the situation for neutral particles is not so clear! The neutron has a distinct antiparticle, but the photon is its own antiparticle. So debate raged over antineutrinos. Are neutrinos their own antiparticles?

A Brief History of Particle Physics, Part I (CellarDoor)


No. Neutrinos and antineutrinos are distinct. This was first theoretically predicted in 1953 by Konopinski and Mahmoud, who came up with a conservation law of lepton number to explain why some reactions didn't seem to occur. Electrons, muons and neutrinos had L=1, positrons, antimuons, and antineutrinos would have L=-1, and all other particles had L=0. L would have to be the same on both sides of the reaction equation (this is why Fermi's neutrino in Question 8 actually had to be an antineutrino). Thus the neutrino and antineutrino quantum numbers are distinct: they're different particles. In 1959, Raymond Davis (who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics for subsequent work on solar neutrinos) and Daniel Harmer proved this experimentally. It was already known that the reaction neutrino + neutron -> proton + electron was possible; Davis and Harmer looked for the same reaction, but with an antineutrino. When they didn't see the reaction, they knew that the particles weren't interchangeable.



The quark model was not fully accepted until the autumn of 1974, when a pair of papers gave rise to the November Revolution. Groups at Brookhaven (in New York) and the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC, in California) had independently discovered a new particle, now called the J/Psi, that provided evidence for what new flavor of quark?

A Brief History of Particle Physics, Part II (CellarDoor)


charm. Samuel Ting's group at Brookhaven was the first to discover what they called the J, in the summer of 1974, but they kept it a secret for several months while they checked and double-checked their experimental apparatus. Then, while Ting was visiting Stanford in November, he learned that Burton Richter's SLAC group was probing the same energy range and was sure to find it. Ting and Richter rushed to publish (Richter called the particle a Psi), their papers came out simultaneously, and they shared the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics. The particle is now called the J/Psi in recognition of both groups. Ten years earlier, Sheldon Glashow (1979 Nobel Prize in Physics) and John Bjorken had suggested that there ought to be a fourth quark, for symmetry with the four leptons (electron, muon, and electron and muon neutrinos). The J/Psi, which is a bound state of a charm and an anticharm, ushered in an era of discovery of other charmed particles (the D mesons) and led at last to the acceptance of the quark model.



The obscure ancient Greek astronomer Oenopides is associated with the first calculation of Earth's obliquity, and he also first calculated what is now known as a 'Great Year'. How long is a great year, according to Oenopides' calculations?

History of Astronomy - Part 2 (thejazzkickazz)


59 years. Another traveller from the colonial outskirts (Chios) to Athens, Oenopides is a nebulous figure in the annals of history. Two major scientific breakthroughs are attributed to his hand however, and his presence in any intelligent discussion of the history of ancient Greek astronomy is required. Oenopides is said to have calculated the obliquity (or slanting) of the Earth rather accurately to 24 degrees (the actual value is closer to 23.5 degrees), and he developed the notion of a 'Great Year', wherein the various bodies of the solar system repeat their cycles of motion. Lunar calendars are referenced to the cycle of a Great Year.



The IBM 360-67 was a virtual computer. What did that mean it was capable of doing?

The History of Computing (denmarks)


All of these (It could run its own operating system as a separate virtual computer., Users phone in to be connected to the computer., It could be time shared as multiple computers.). The IBM 360-67 was used for testing programs since everything could be run within a virtual computer and could not effect other users.



The greatest champion of Aristarchus' theoretical ideas was this man, who is also known for his theories on the nature of the Earth's tidal cycle. What was his name?

History of Astronomy - Part 3 (thejazzkickazz)


Seleucis. Seleucis of Seleucia, who flourished around 150 B.C.E., was the greatest champion of Aristarchus' sun-centered theory in the ancient Greek world. Unfortunately, he failed to win over a still skeptical public, including most scientists of the time that continued to dream of an Earth-centered cosmological scheme. Seleucis' greatest contribution to astronomy was his correct prediction that the tidal cycle was related to the relative position of the moon and the Earth. Thank you for having tried this quiz. I hope you enjoyed it and will try the others in this series (not to mention some of my other quizzes).



The Dresden Codex is a record of another civilization's early attempts to make sense of the sky above us. With which ancient civilization is this document associated?

History of Astronomy - Part 1 (thejazzkickazz)


Mayan. There is some archaeological evidence to suggest that the Mayans were the first people to seriously examine the night sky. The Dresden Codex includes solar eclipse tables, and observations of comets, the planets and other night sky events. In addition, it sets out the Mayan calendar.



The balance was used accurately for chemical processes during the 17th century. But who was the man who used the balance accurately for the first time?

The History of Chemistry 1: Composition (scottycan)


Joseph Black. Black was a very influential chemist. Although his work and achievements were many, there were 2 important reasons that came out of his work. The first was the accurate use of the balance, as mentioned previously, and second was his demonstration for the first time of properties of a chemically distinct "air". I do hope all who play have enjoyed this quiz and learned something from it. I get some flack for how dry my quizzes can be but I hope if you are a chemist enthusiast, you will like them. Feel free to email me and let me know what you think, or how I can improve them for players, or if you'd like to see more of them. Thanks again!



The ancient Greeks also wrote of dental practices. From 500 - 300 BC, Hippocrates and Aristotle wrote about many aspects of dentistry including the eruption pattern of teeth. What other areas did they also address?

Open Wide - A Painless History of Early Dentistry (Nannanut)


All of these (Tooth extraction, Treatment of gum disease, The wiring of loose teeth and jaws). Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) wrote "On Different Parts of Animals". In it he has a chapter on the study of teeth. Hippocrates of Cos lived from approximately 460 B.C. to 377 B.C. One of the most famous physicians in history, his extensive writings included many different dental topics. Both writers describe in detail the use of forceps in extractions. In later Roman writings Celsus (100 BC) also commented on oral hygiene, dental treatments, pain, and jaw fractures.

• What is the name for the science and history of manned flight? ( goto )



• What is the longest-running science fiction series in TV history? ( goto )



• What is known as the 'Gay Science'? ( goto )



• What is the science of measuring time? ( goto )



• Who is the father of computer science? ( goto )



• Who founded the journal "Science" in 1883? ( goto )



• Who said "Science is mankind's brother"? ( goto )



• What is the difference between science and pseudoscience? ( goto )



• What word describes the science of fruit growing? ( goto )



• Why is the science fiction award called a 'Hugo'? ( goto )



• With which branch of science do you associate Copernicus? ( goto )



• What university hosts the "Australasian Schools Science Competition"? ( goto )



• In science, do neutrons have a negative charge or no charge at all? ( goto )



• Outside science fiction, who in the 19th century were Uranians? ( goto )



• More correctly, who attended More Science High School? ( goto )



• Which is the only play by William Shakespeare to be made into a science fiction movie? ( goto )



• What is the branch of science which deals with the study of roots and seeds called? ( goto )



• The name of what science is derived from the Greek word 'tribein' meaning 'to rub?' ( goto )



• What has Stephen Hawking ACTUALLY contributed to Cosmology and modern science in general ? ( goto )



• I was told this was a trivia question. What is the no-man's land between science and theology? ( goto )



• Who was the "Man with the Golden Nose" and how did his works contribute to science? ( goto )



• Does anyone know about the Governor's School for Science and Math of South Carolina? ( goto )



• What do you call the kind of science project that is displayed in a sideways box? ( goto )



• What science fiction story was about an elevator that traveled through time? ( goto )



• What is the derivation of the term "Heretic?" Why was it applied to people who practice unexplainable science? ( goto )



• Which science fiction legend was the star of a film which was produced in Esperanto and what was the name of the film? ( goto )



• Given the anticipated effect of advances in medical science, what is the life expectancy of someone born this year? ( goto )



• One third of these come from Maine (something to do with potatoes and science projects) and are not batteries. What are they? ( goto )



• What is the history of Rice Krispies? ( goto )



• What is the history of the bubblegum machine? ( goto )