Who do you think out of the 6 (Newton, Curie, Archimedes, Galileo, Einstein, Da Vinchi) division “Founders” has inspired the most people or has made the most significant advancement in modern society. And why?
i personally think Archimedes, where would we be with out the screw. Sure we have adhesives and such but those haven’t come around until relatively recently. how many things has there been that have changed the world with the assistance of the screw. Things that even may have helped start the modern industrial revolution.
He was THE renaissance man. He did it all, not only was he an inventing genuis but he also had the appreciation for the arts and other aspects of life making him a multi-dimensional role model. We should all strive to be as well rounded.
da Vinci had ideas centuries ahead of his time. One of personal favorite episodes from any science fiction show was the one where Leonardo was brought into the 24th Century.
Einstien would be my second. Some of his theories are not likely to ever be tested.
Oh come one guys, you are missing the man … THE MAN!
GALI … LEO!
• a.k.a. “father of modern astronomy”, “father of modern physics”, and “father of science”
• pioneering use of quantitative experiments with results analyzed mathematically (compared to this guy Francis Bacon was a chump)
• law of acceleration of falling bodies, for instance, required accurate measurements of time
• was one of the first people to use the telescope to observe the sky
• discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons
• observed sunspots
• observed the Milky Way
• determined the correct mathematical law for acceleration
• concluded that objects retain their velocity unless a force – often friction – acts upon them (uhhh inertia anyone?)
• noted that a pendulum’s swings always take the same amount of time, independently of the amplitude
• tried to measure the speed of light
• made a thermometer
Don’t be led astray the tall buildings of science with their fancy glass windows, look to the man who made the framework and concrete base.
Also… Galileo was imprisoned for believing and proving that Copernicus was right in regard that the Earth rotated around the Sun. For writing about this, he was tried before the Inquisition.
Oh, you want some pre-American version of the language?
Try this:
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
418 is rocking with Galileo but I voted for Marie Curie.
All of these scientists faced challenges that we have little grasp of now unless we take the time. The labs that she had to work in or contrive in order to work in. That she was a woman and a woman who understood the power of team work and family. That she embraced advancement for everyone and lived with courage.
Jane
He is famous for his laws of motion. Very important. After all, how would we determine the trajectory of a ball released from a spinning wheel without Newton? Also we can thank Newton for the wonderful world of calculus.
You’re asking two different questions here, not one.
For Inspiring people: daVinci. He was like a science fiction mastermind, and it’s probably his artistic side that allowed his logical side to come up with all those crazy ideas. Face it, science fiction writers stole his ideas for centuries, before they started becoming realities.
Your second question “most significant advancement in modern society” would be answered by someone not on the list, namely Joseph Lister.
Capitalizing on Pasteur’s work, Lister developed the antiseptic method. Why is this a significant advancement in modern society? Because before this method, it was common practice for 50% of patients who underwent surgery to die due to infection afterwards. If the antiseptic method had never been developed, many of our forefathers would not have survived long enough to ensure our existence.
I also picked Newton, but the fact that he characterized some physical phenomena and expressed them mathematically (Newton’s Laws) has no impact upon our ability to do these things.
Understand them, however - YES.
On my choice of Newton: I know I struggled to master The Calculus, and that’s with someone explaining it to me – this guy invented it from nothing. I mean, how smart did he have to be to do that? Holy Cow!
All the others are admirable, too - that’s why we know their names, even after how many years (for some)? All brilliant. My personal favorite is Michael Faraday, who did so many practical and theoretical things.
DaVinci was actually the inspiration for a robotic “shoulder” mechanism that inspired a design of mine that I wanted to stick on this years bot. The game this year didn’t need it but DaVinci is still who I vote for
