Thunder and Early Scientific Theory
It lends its name to one of the most common weather phenomenon on
Earth -- the thunderstorm -- and its associated elements: the
thunderhead, thunder cloud, thunder bolt, thundershower and thunder
clap. Early humans believed thunder came from the deities -- the voice and
expression of their god(s). The roster of thunder gods includes: Thor
of the Scandinavians, Donar of the Germans, Zeus of the Greeks,
Jupiter of the Romans, Taranis of the Celts, Perkunis of the Slavs,
Indra of the Indians and Shango of the Nigerian Yoruba. Each is know
to throw thunderbolts or bundles of lightning at the earth while their
voices reverberates across the heavens.
Many early cultures believed thunder was an omen. For example, the
Greeks thought thunder on the right was a good omen; however, the
Romans regarded thunder on the left as favourable. Both agreed that
thunder in the east was more favourable than thunder in the west --
perhaps because, since weather generally moves from west to east,
thunder to the east means the tempest has passed.
Various other cultures recognize a thunderbird as responsible for
thunder and lightning. The power of the thunderbird is frequently
found in the legends of native American nations and African tribes.
For example, the Bantu of south Africa believed that thunder resulted
from the beating of the wings of Umpundulo as the bird dove toward the
earth.
Early Scientific Theory
Eventually, people began to realize that thunder (and lightning) had
natural causes that could be explained through observation and logical
deduction. The earliest know scientific theories of thunde...
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a very high temperature, and has its volume, moreover, considerably
increased. The column of gas thus suddenly heated and expanded is
sometimes several miles long, and as the duration of the flash is not
even a millionth of a second, it follows that the noise burst forth at
once from the whole column, though for a observer in any one place it
commences where the lightning is at the least distance....the
beginning of the thunderclap gives us the minimum distance of the
lightning, and the length of the thunder clap gives us the length of
the column."
Here at last we have a nearly complete answer to the thunder riddle
(although the duration of a lightning flash is longer than a millionth
of a second). Atmospheric studies in the twentieth century would
broaden Hirn's work into the true nature of thunder.
The movie “Tropic Thunder” is a comedy about five actors who set out to create a movie about a Vietnam veteran’s experience. The actors self-absorbed, attitudes caused them to look fake and over-dramatic. As a last minute last hope effort, the director sent these five actors to, what he believes, is where the war actually happened. Soon after arriving to this unknown land, the director is blown up by an old land mine. The actors then find themselves trapped in a real life situation where they have to use their newly learned skills to survive being stranded in the middle of a dangerous drug triangle. In the movie, Tugg Speedman was a fading action star that was going through a rough patch in his career after he failed badly in his bid for an Oscar. Prior to playing in the war movie, Tugg played a young man named Jack in a movie called Simple Jack. Simple Jack was the film within the film about a mentally challenged farm boy who was left behind by a traveling carnival and was force to like with a farmer, Chet Chetkinson, and his wife, Rebecca. Through out the movie, Jack dealing with the hardships of rejection, but through it all, he has the courage to overcome adversity a live a happy life with his momma and animal friends. After his movie, Simple Jack, was a bust, Tugg was in desperate need for a hit to restore his reputation. During one of the scenes in the movie, the two actors, Kirk Lazarus and Tugg Speedman, were having conversation on why Tugg’s movie, Simple Jack, turned out to be unsuccessful. (Tugg Speedman: There were times while I was playing Jack where I felt... [pause] retarded. Like, really retarded. Kirk Lazarus: Damn! Tugg Speedman: In a weird way I had to sort of just free myself...
In the short story, "A Sound of Thunder" a man named Eckels tests the delicacy of life while traveling back in time to hunt the most ferocious predator to ever walk the planet. Ray Bradbury develops the theme that every choice made has an effect so we must be cautious of our actions in times of confidence, fear and guilt. Eckels is a young man, determined to hunt for his biggest catch yet and he enters TIME SAFARI INC. hoping they can give him the thrill he's been looking for. He has hunted many things like tigers, wild boars and elephants but has never hunted something like this. In his excitement he, "waved a check for ten thousand dollars to the man behind the desk" and was ready for his safari (Bradbury 1). He showed confidence
Bradbury's "The Sound Of Thunder" and Skurzynski's "Nethergrave" are both fantastically written science fiction stories. Though very similar, the themes of these books have very different underlying themes. In "The Sound Of Thunder," the main character, Eckels, faces harsh consequences due to a mistake he makes while using new technologies to time traveling. In "Nethergrave," Jeremy, the main character, chooses a virtual world over the real world, where he has feeling of embarrassment and abandonment. While both stories take their own approach on the future and what their authors' think the new technologies might be, both stories end up circling around the idea that no matter how technologically advanced the world is, there are still consequences
On Earthquakes An earthquake is a shaking or trembling of the crust of the earth caused by underground volcanic action or by the breaking and shifting of rock beneath the surface. The volcanic action and shifting rocks create strain which continues to build to a sudden release of pressure resulting in a shock wave. The vibrations produced in the crust can vary from barely noticeable to enormously destructive. Shock waves can be classified into two broad categories. Waves that send particles oscillating back and forth in the same direction as the waves are traveling are called primary.
Adad had the power of “destructive forces of nature” as well as the thunderbolts of the skies (Stevens http://oracc). Summanus had the power of the thunder in the sky as well as everything doing with the nighttime. That would include comets, shooting stars, and galaxies (Allen http://www.godchecker). Perendis powers were quite unique. He had only the power of lighting; however, he shot arrows of lightning as opposed to a bolt ( “Albanian Mythology” https://albanian). Each god had the power of lighting and its booming thunder, however they each had unique add ons and responsibilities dependent on their
bolt. The whole man was dripping. He stood in a puddle on the bare oak
On September 8, 1900, the United States experienced the most devastating natural disaster in history, the 1900 storm. Originating as a tropical storm off the coast of Cuba, the 1900 storm didn’t reach hurricane status until passing Key West, Florida. While in the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, the storm took an unexpected turn heading towards the Texas coast. Because of the lack of technology during this era, the people were warned that a storm of moderate intensity was headed toward them. Unaware that the storm was forcefully gaining speed, the Galvestonians were in no way prepared for the extraordinary weather which was quietly approaching. Suddenly, the ruthless hurricane struck the shores of Galveston, Texas, one of the wealthiest cities in the United States, famous for its shipping port. The brutal winds of the storm shocked the city, as they desperately sought shelter.
Isaac Newton’s story of how an apple falling from a tree that hit his head inspired him to formulate a theory of gravitation is one that all school children grow up hearing about. Newton is arguably one of the most influential scientific minds in human history. He has published books such as Arithmetica Universalis, The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, Methods of Fluxions, Opticks, the Queries, and most famously, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia MathematicaHe formulated the three laws of gravitation, discovered the generalized binomial theorem, developed infinitesimal calculus (sharing credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz, who developed the theory independently), and worked extensively on optics and refraction of light. Newton changed the way that people look at the world they live in and how the universe works.
There were two main ways scientists learned about Earth’s interior. One way scientists learned about Earth’s interior was through rock samples. Scientists drilled rocks underneath Earth’s surface, and compared them to the ones on Earth’s surface. Another way scientists learned about Earth’s interior was through seismic waves. With seismic waves, scientists study how they traveled through Earth, and their speed and path. These are the two main ways how scientists learned about Earth’s interior.
Imagine going back millions of years just to hunt a dinosaur. Imagine trekking through the jungle and seeing a gigantic thirty-foot tall ten-ton beast. Shooting at it causes the dinosaur to run forward, and a little step off of the Path in fear causes a catastrophe. “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury proves that making mistakes can cost you more than you ever imagined. Looking into certain aspects of the story will help to define how mistakes came about, and how to solve them.
Have you ever read short stories by ray bradbury? In this essay i will be taking you through the similarities and differences i found while i was reading the three stories. I will also be discussing the characters and how they helped to give a better picture of the settings. Shall we begin.
Beno Gutenberg was the foremost observational seismologist of the twentieth century. He combined exquisite analysis of seismic records with powerful analytical, interpretive, and modeling skills to contribute many important discoveries of the structure of the solid Earth and its atmosphere. Perhaps his best known contribution was the precise location of the core of the Earth and the identification of its elastic properties. Other major contributions include the travel-time curves; the discovery of very long-period seismic waves with large amplitudes that circle the Earth; the identification of differences in crustal structure between continents and oceans, including the discovery of a significantly thin crust in the Pacific; the discovery of a low-velocity layer in the mantle (which he interpreted as the zone of decoupling of horizontal motions of the surficial parts from the deeper parts of the Earth); the creation of the magnitude scale for earthquakes; the relation between magnitudes and energies for earthquakes; the famous universal magnitude-frequency relation for earthquake distributions; the first density distribution for the mantle; the study of the temperature distribution in the Earth; the understanding of microseisms; and the structure of the atmosphere.
Nikola Tesla was born midnight on July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, Lika, which at that time was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, which is now known as Croatia. His father was named Milutin Tesla and he was a Serbian Orthodox Priest. Djuka Mandic was his mother and she invented household appliances. Tesla was the fourth child of five, having one older brother and three younger sisters. In 1873, Tesla studied at the the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria and the University of Prague. At first, he wanted to pursue in physics and mathematics, but shortly after he became extremely interested in electricity. He began studying alternating current their also. Supposedly he had a photographic memory being able to memorize complete books. In December 1878, he left Graz and his family. In 1881, he started his career as an electrical engineer working for a telephone company in Budapest. It was around that time that Tesla was able to discover the solution for the rotating magnetic field. He was able to describe the basics of the induction motor to his peers. Later his alternating current induction motor would be considered one of the ten greatest discoveries of all time. Before coming to America, Tesla joined the Continental Edison Company in Paris where he designed. In February 1882, Tesla discovered the rotating magnetic field, an important principle in physics and it was also the start to pretty much all devices that use alternating current. In 1883, he secretly built a prototype of the induction motor which he was able to run successfully. Nobody in Europe cared about promoting his unqualified device, Tesla then accepted an offer to work for Thomas Edison in New York. His childhood dream was to come to America and to be able to grasp ...
“Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible”, said Ray Bradbury, the author of the short story, “The Sound Of Thunder”. He used these principles of science fiction to create a story composed of a time machine’s and its passengers’ journey into prehistoric times. Once there, Eckels, along with his fellow hunters and guides, found what they were searching for. As they followed the metal path, their game approached, a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The group shot the monster down but not without consequence. The severe thrill of the hunt caused Eckels to step off the path, resulting in an altered history. After realizing what has become of their reality, the outraged safari guide shot Eckels, bringing an end to Eckels’s life and Ray Bradbury’s short story. In "The Sound Of Thunder", Ray Bradbury used the science fiction elements of the future time setting, importance of science, and problem.
Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Lika. His father, Milutin Tesla was a Serbian Orthodox Priest and his mother Djuka Mandic was an inventor in her own line of household appliances. Tesla studied at the Realschule, Karlstadt in 1873, the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria and the University of Prague. At first, he intended to specialize in physics and mathematics, but soon he became fascinated with electricity. He began his career as an electrical engineer with a telephone company in Budapest in 1881. It was there, as Tesla was walking with a friend through the city park that the elusive solution to the rotating magnetic field flashed through his mind. With a stick, he drew a diagram in the sand explaining to his friend the principle of the induction motor. Before going to America, Tesla joined Continental Edison Company in Paris where he designed dynamos. While in Strassbourg in 1883, he privately built a prototype of the induction motor and ran it successfully. Soon after Tesla accepted an offer to work for Thomas Edison in New York. One of his childhood dreams was to come to America to harness the power of Niagara Falls. Young Nikola Tesla came to the United States in 1884. He spent the next 59 years of his life living in New York. Tesla set about improving Edison’s line of dynamos while working in Edison’s lab in New Jersey. he introduced his motors and electrical systems in a classic paper, “A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers” which he delivered before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1888. One of the most impressed was the industrialist and inventor George Westinghouse. One day he visited Tesla’s laboratory and was amazed at what he saw. Tesla had constructed a model polyphase system consisting of an alternating current dynamo, step-up and step-down transformers and A.C. motor at the other end. The perfect partnership between Tesla and Westinghouse for the nationwide use of electricity in America had begun. In February 1882, Tesla discovered the rotating magnetic field, a fundamental principle in physics and the basis of nearly all devices that use alternating current. Tesla brilliantly adapted the principle of rotating magnetic field for the construction of alternating current induction motor and the polyphase system for the generation, transmission, distribution and use of electrical power. Tesla’s A.C. induction motor is widely used throughout the world in industry and household appliances.