Class presentation slides for the History of Science (second quarter) for Spring Semester 2009

1. The Golden Age of Greece
 Marathon 490 BC
 Peloponnesian War
 Rise of Macedon

2. The Sophists
Socrates and Reason

3. Plato
(429 - 347 BC)
 “Let none but geometers
enter here”
 The Republic
 Real vs. Ideal
changing/constant
senses/soul -> Truth

4. Platonic bodies

5. Plato‟s Challenge
 Explain the motion
of the planetary
bodies
Heraclides - heliocentrism
Earth rotates on
axis

6. Eudoxus
 Concentric spheres

7. Alexander the Great
(356 - 323 BC)

8. Aristotle
(384 - 322 BC)
 Son of Nicomachus
 Student of Plato
 “Eudaimonia”

9. Aristotle
 Homunculus
“Man the seed,
woman the incubator”
 Preformationism
vs.
epigenesis

10. Embryology

11. Aristotle as Biologist
 Categorized 500+ animals
Blooded Non-blooded
Live young egg bearing insects sea
animals
Also DUALIZERS (whales, bats, sponges)

12. Dissection
 Dog shark

13. Aristotelian Motion
 Celestial vs. Terrestrial
 Matter has: Material Cause
Shape
Efficient Cause
First Cause

14. Matter
 Material Cause
(wood)
 Shape (carpentry)
 Efficient Cause (builder)
 First Cause (slumber)

15. Elements & Opposites
 How things present
to the senses
 Interchangeable
 Ether

16. Natural Motion
 Things move according
to their nature
 Intrinsically at rest
 Need a MOVER
 Heavy things fall faster

17. Aristotelian Universe
 Central spherical Earth
 Circle = perfect shape
 Stars = finite boundary

18. Crystal Spheres
 55
spheres
 buffers

19. Meterologica
 Earthquakes
 Tornadoes
 Lightning
 Milky Way

20. Legacy
 Tradition of writing
 Lyceum
 Library

21. Greek Technology
 Anacharses
 Glaucus
 Theodorus

22. Archimedes
(287 - 212 BC)
 Golden Crown
 Heat Ray?
 Lever
 Water screw

23. Archimedes
 Archimedes‟ principle
displacement volume

24. Archimedes
 “Give me a place to
stand and I will
move the Earth”

25. Water Screw
 Buoyant force

26. Burning Mirror
 Siege of
Syracuse

27. Archimedean solids

28. Aristarchus
(310 - 230 BC)
 Sun centered solar system
with a rotating, tilted Earth

29. Distance to the Sun

30. Size & Distance of the moon
 Aristarchus: Moon = 1/3 Earth
Distance = 40 x Earth‟s Diameter

31. Eratosthenes
(276 - 195 BC)
 Map of the world
 Calculated the tilt of the Earth (11/83 of 180°)

32. Circumference of the Earth
7.1° 800 km
360° = x
X = 40, 560 km
= 25, 000 mi

33. Euclid
(325 - 270 BC)
 Geometry
Squaring the circle

34. Golden Ratio
 Phidias

35. Parthenon

36. Hipparchus
(190 - 120 BC)
 Star catalog
Movement of equinoxes

37. Precession

38. Length of the Seasons

39. Ptolemy
 Almagest
(The Greatest Compilation)

40. Ptolemaic Model
Deferents
And
epicycles

41. Rise of Rome
 Greek colony
 ~ 31 BC

42. Roman engineering
 Aqueducts
 Roads

43. Roman medicine
 Celsus (25 BC - 50 AD)
(Aulus Cornelius Celsus)
 Physician or editor
 Introduced terms:
calor, dolor, rubor, tumor

44. Galen
(129 - 200 AD)
 Aristotelian & Hippocratic
 Experimentalist
(anatomy demos)
 Equilibrium
via bloodletting & therapy

45. Roman surgery
 Bone hooks
 Bloodletting cups
 scalpels

46. Decline of Rome
 Overextension
 Crime/corruption
 “barbarians”
 East/West split

47. Rise of Islam
 Muhammed
(570 - 632)
 Qu‟ran
 Unified Arab tribes

48. The Age of Islam

49. Scientific Tradition in Islam
 Decline of Rome/Byzantium
Rise of Christianity
 Military Success
 Translation programs

50. Arabic schools
 Caliph patronage
 Many disciplines
 Writing/publishing
 “Seek learning”

51. Arithmetic
 Arabic (Indian)
numerals
Unlimited with place values

52. Roman Numerals
MCMLXXXVIII = 1988

53. Al-Kharizmi
(~680 - 750)
 Algorithm
 Book of Calculations
algebra = jabr
“transformation”
 Quadratic solutions
ax2 + bx + c = 0

54. Omar Khayyam
 Rubai‟yat

55. Omar Khayyam
(1048 - 1122)
 Cubic equations
x3 + a = bx
 Binomial expansion
(1 + x)n =>

56. The Noblest Science
 Tradition of observation
 Establishing time of day
muwaqqit
 When is the new moon?
 Navigation, Mecca

57. Navigation
 Direction of Mecca

58. Astrolabe

59. Astrolabe

60. Prayer Times
 Sunset
 Late evening
 Dawn
 Midday
 Late afternoon
„Ilm al-miqat

61. Islamic Calendar
 Starts Sept 622 AD
 Lunar
 Alternating 30/29d
 Leap years:
2, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16,
18, 21, 24, 26, 29
in 32 years

63. Al-Tusi
(1201- 1274)
 Tusi couple
 Earth‟s Rotation
 Comets

64. Alchemy
 Al Razi (Rhazes)
(850 - 925)
 Experimentation
 New classification of
Elements

65. Elements
 Stones
 Vitriols
 Borax
 Salts
 Al-qili = Alkali
 “Secret of Secrets”

66. Al iksir
 Elixir
 Philosopher‟s
stone

67. Jabir
(721 - 815)
 “Geber”
 Spirits, Metals,
Powders & Stones

68. Al Biruni
(973 - 1048)
 “Book of Drugs”
 Translated Indian
works

69. Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
(981- 1037)
 The Canon
 Psychologist?
 Disease distribution
 TB, Smallpox

70. Persian Galen
 Pharmacy
 760 drugs

71. Pharmacopia

72. Islamic hospitals

73. The Central Kingdom

74. Dynasties of China
Shang 1600 - 1066 BC
Han 206 BC - 220 AD
Tang 618 - 907 AD
Sung 960 - 1279
Ming 1368 - 1636
Qing 1636 - 1911

75. Geographical Advantages
 Head Start
 Isolation
 Climate
 East-west rivers

76. Medicine
 Blood circulation
 Ch‟I
 Heart as Pump
 Circadian rhythm

77. Diagnosis and Treatment
 Deficiency diseases
scurvy, beriberi
 Diabetes
 Goiter

78. Variolation
 Szechwan province
 “Chung mao”

79. Tradition of Herbal Medicine
 Chao Yung-Fung
“Golden remedies”
 Mu Piao

80. Chinese Astronomy
 Eclipse prediction
 Sunspots?

81. 1054 Supernova
 “Guest star”

82. Cartography
 Surveying
 Sailing charts
 compass

83. Circumnavigation?
 Zheng He
(1371 - 1433)
Muslim
Admiral of Chinese Navy

84. Zheng He expeditions
 World Map?

85. Evidence?
 Pate folklore

86. Did Zheng He Discover America?

87. What happened to the Navy?
 Little competition
 Less incentive
 Political power
struggle
 Canal building
infrastructure

88. Technology in China
 Paper/printing
 Silk
 Guns/gunpowder
 porcelain

89. Paper
 Mulberry bark -> pulp
 ~100 AD
 Wrapping paper

90. Printing
 Wood blocks
then metal/ceramic
 Pi Sheng
moveable type

91. Printed Books
 First book 868 AD
Diamond Sutra
 Gutenberg 1453 AD

92. Paper Money
 1380 AD
 “Precious Note of
Great Ming”

93. Playing Cards
 ~1000 AD
 “stimulate thinking,
convenient,
without meditation”
 Gambling

94. Silk
 Bombyx Mori
 Boil cocoon
 Single Thread
300 - 900 m long

95. Uses of Silk

96. Chinese Weapons
 “Gung pao”
 1044: Wu Ching
Tsung Yao
 Saltpeter/C/sulfur

97. Shock & Awe
 Added metals
for color, sound
effects

98. Firearrows & Cannons
 Firearrows
dipped in
flammables
with poison on tips
 Cannon 1368
 Smoke screen

99. Ceramics
 Still known as “china”
 Kaolin (white clay)
+
 Petuntse (white brick)

100. Seladon
 Sung dynasty
960 - 1279
Stoneware with
colored glazes

101. Porcelain (tz‟u)
 Whiteness
smoothness
nonporous
hardness
translucent

102. Legacies
 Silk Road
 Spice Trade
 Perfume/incense

103. The Science of India
 Central Location
 Tradition of outside
influence of and
tolerance for
different schools of
thought
 Shintoism,
Buddhism, Jainism
 Caste system

104. Indian Astronomy
 Surya Siddhanta
~ 600 AD
 Imported Greek texts

105. Brahmagupta
(598 - 668)
 Sun = star
 Spherical moving
Earth
 Gravity?
“Bodies fall towards the earth as it
is in the nature of the earth to
attract bodies, just as it is in the
nature of water to flow”

106. Timekeeping
 Hindu:
Lunar day (tithi)
12 months of 30 tithi
360 day year

107. 27 wives of Moon
 Nakshatras
27 n x 4 phases = 108
 Moment = 1/30 day
30 m x 360 d = 10,800

108. Great Year
 360 d x 12,000
divine years
= 4,320,000
COSMIC CYCLE

109. Precession

110. Indian Medicine
 Ayurveda
“Science and Wisdom
of life”
Dynamic Balance

111. Indian Mathematics
 “Arabic” numerals
 Sunya

112. Technology
 Textiles/weaving
 Weapons
 Shipbuilding

113. Southeast Asian climate
 Monsoon civilizations

114. Khmer empire
 800 - 1431
 Highly centralized
 Angkor

115. Angkor Wat
 Suryavarman II (1130)
 Hindu
large stone
monument
 Rediscovered 1866

116. Mount Meru

117. Angkor Wat
 Cardinal directions

118. Angkor Wat
 “Day of the Gods”

119. Why was it Abandoned?
 1430 - 1445
 Rise of Thai and
Vietnamese societies