The Phunny Farm: Great Ideas of Science

Great Ideas of Science
The Men and the Thinking Behind Them
by
Isaac Asimov

Please choose the Section You would like to Read:
Thales and Science Itself Pythagoras and Number
Archimedes and Applied Mathematics Galileo and Experimentation
Democritus and Atoms Lavoisier and Gases
Newton and Inertia Faraday and Fields
Rumford and Heat Joule and Energy
Planck and Quanta Hippocrates and Medicine
Wohler and Organic Chemistry Linnaeus and Classification
Darwin and Evolution Russell and Stellar Evolution

Thales and Science Itself

The Materialist Animism of Thales (624 - 546 BC).
Recognized as one of the "seven sages," Thales was a polymath, gifted in geometry, astronomy and engineering as well as science. He was the first to measure the time between one solstice and the next. He calculated the height of the pyramids from the length of their shadows. He is reported to have diverted the river Halys so that the armies of the Lydian ruler Croesus could cross it without a bridge.
The story is told that Thales, while gazing at the stars, fell into a ditch. When he cried for help, an old women commented: " How can you expect to learn all about the heavens, when you cannot see what is just in front of your feet?" Thales died of heat exhaustion while watching a gymnastic contest, or, by another account, by falling over a cliff - once again while stargazing.

Thales thought that everything was full of gods. [Aristotle, On the Soul]
He said that the magnet has a soul because it moves iron. [Ibid]
Arguing from the magnet and amber he attributed soul or life even to inanimate objects. [Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers.]
He supposed that water was the primary substance of all things, and that the universe is ensouled and full of divinities. [Ibid.]
He said that death is no different from life. "Then why don't you die?" someone asked him. "Because it makes no difference," he replied. [Ibid.]
The above information from: The Greek Materialists

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Thales Thales of Miletus
Student Report on Thales Miletus, Cradle of Philosophy

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Pythagoras and Number

Pythagoras of Samos
Circles around Pythagorus: An Activity for applying the Pythagoreum Theory to Geometry

The science of acoustics began with the experimentation of Pythagoras, a scientist/philosopher of ancient Greece. He discovered that strings of different length, stretched between two points would produce sound; further experimentation yielded the realization that some of the stretched strings gave sounds that could be harmonized. Many instruments including the piano and the string family, produce musical sounds when a bow or a plucking mechanism is used on their strings. Today, people are experimenting still with Pythagoras' discovery.
Fractal Vibes.com
Compose Your own Fractal Music atMusinum: The Music in the Numbers.

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Archimedes and Applied Mathematics

Archimedes Extensive site. Greek Mathematics and Its Modern Heirs
Syracuse, Italy Map of Syracuse

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Galileo and Experimentation

The Galileo Project An extensive site. Astronomy & Physics: Galileo
The Art of Renaissance Science: Galileo and Perspective
Galileo and the Conflict with the Church
The Indictment against Galileo, 1633
View an Actual Manuscript

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Democritus and Atoms

Bio. from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Democritus of Abdera
History of Mathematics Monism
Map: Abdera History of Abdera
Leucippus (Internet Encycl. of Philosophy) Leucippus of Miletus
Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy Lucretius
Pierre Gassendi Robert Boyle
Joseph Louis Proust My brother, John (Dalton)
Dalton's Atomic Theory