Numbers

Learning about the origin of numbers was really cool! I found this part of the reading very interesting because I have always wondered how numbers started, and how people began to convey and express them. I didnt know that people werent able to tell the number in groups of objects (like 6 vs 7 apples) and I am curious to know why that is, aside from the fact that there wasnt counting. What would it have been like to live in a time without numbers?

QQC-Gauss

This week I read about Gauss and I was very interested in how he made some important discoveries. This quote went on to say that he went on discover the differential geometry of curved surfaces. It is interesting to think that if he hadn't been working on such a tedious/time wasting project, he wouldn't have made one of "the great ideas of science". Although I had never heard of Gauss, I do know about Einstien's theory of relativity and how important it is. I think everything is built upon something else, especially in math and science. My question is did he like doing this tedious task in the first place? and where did he begin to think about circles instead of triangles?, What triggered him to think outside the box and create a new idea?

QQC-Bernoulli

I found the part about Bernoulli very interesting. I thought it was pretty cool to learn that he and his brother worked a lot with infinite series. One of my questions was how did people even begin thinking about these complex ideas in the 1700's? What prompted the idea of adding fractions or figuring out infinite series? I can appreciate his work now because it relates to some of the work we do in calculus! I wonder when people will take on solving problems like 0/0!? WOAH

QQC-Leibniz

This portion of the reading struck me for several reasons. I think that one way to shape your beliefs is through if you are on the science side of things, or the philosophy side. My ideas of the world have changed back and forth over the years, but I think personally I have settled slightly more on the philosophy side. I think its pretty cool that since he was so fascinated by the sciences that he created his own theories about the world. That showed his true passion for science and showed me what may have distinguished him as one of the great minds of his/all time. My question is how did his work in math play into the role of science in his life?

Newton Reading

Throughout the reading, I noticed that Newton didnt show his ideas right away. Why was he so hesitant to show his work ? Did he have a fear about being wrong? I think that it's interesting that Newton is now known as one of the great minds, but at the time he didnt show his work. I wonder what he thought of his work when he first created it. This relates to my last QQC about how Thomas Jefferson didnt believe in dinosaurs because at the time an idea seemed like it wasnt feasble, but today both ideas are valid.

QQC Chapters 5 &6

This section of the text made me laugh a little bit. I thought it was funny to read about a great mind like Thomas Jefferson would doubt the existence of dinosaurs. Of course now this seems very trivial and silly, I can only imagine the controversy when the bones were first discovered. My question from this part of the text is; why hadn't people begun discovering bones from dinosaurs sooner? How did scientists first hypothesize about these new bones being from per-historic creatures?

Bryson Reading Chapter 4

"This was the suggestion that the Earth is not quite round. According to Newton's theory, the centrifugal force of the Earth's spin should result in a slight flatting at the poles and a bulging at the equator, which would make the planet slightly oblate. That meant that the length of a degree wouldn't be the same in Italy as it was in Scotland. Specifically, the length would shorten as you moved away from the poles. This was not good news for those people whose measurements of the Earth were based on the assumption that the Earth was a perfect sphere, which was everyone."

I thought that this quote from chapter 4 was very interesting. It is almost similar to my quote from last week because both talk about changing the publics belief. Its very interesting that people have been spending years just trying to figure out Earth's exact shape. What sort of things can we learn from the exact size and weight of our planet? Will those exact numbers relate to the creation of Earth and the Big Bang?