Archytas: The Invention Of The Flying Pigeon

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In 400 BC, an ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and strategist named Archytas created the first-ever self propelled flying device known as the Flying Pigeon. Archytas was born and raised in Tarentum, Magna Graecia, which is modern day Southern Italy. He amazed the citizens of the city with a wooden pigeon that uses steam to propel itself several hundred meters. This invention was tied to Newton’s Third Law, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” given that the action of the steam shooting out of the posterior of the bird propelled it forward as a reaction. The Flying Pigeon was considered to be an advanced invention in 400 BC and the start of rocket creations. Although Archytas was the first to create a rocket like device, the Chinese are the first to have created a ‘true’ rocket. The rocket was originally used by the Chinese as fire arrows in the war …show more content…

Sir Isaac Newton published his book Principia, which contains three laws of motion and lays the scientific foundation for modern rocketry. The second law states that acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass of the object being accelerated, the greater the amount of force needed to accelerate the object. For an object with constant mass, the second law states that the force is the product of an object's mass and its acceleration. A launch involves a propulsive (vigorous) force. The rocket can be made to move more rapidly by either increasing the propulsive force and/or decreasing the rocket’s mass. How rapidly a rocket increases speed off the launch pad is called acceleration. Rocket acceleration equals the force applied, divided by the mass of the rocket (a=f/m), as the law mentions. As force is increased, acceleration increases. As mass is increased, the acceleration decreases. With the scientific approach of, Newton's second law, people understood the mechanics of how rockets

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