Physical Science - Online Assignment

                           

 

    ASSIGNMENT

                                              TOPIC: DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE

 

 

 

 

                                                                    SUBMITTED BY

                                                                       MIDHUN M.L.

                                                                       ROLL NO :12

                                                                 PHYSICAL SCIENCE

                                    SREE NARAYANA TRAINING COLLEGE VARKKALA

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

      Science is body of empirical, theoretical and practical knowledge about the natural world produced by scientists who emphasize the observation, explanation and prediction of real-world phenomena. There are many regularities in nature that humankind has had to recognize for survival since the emergence of Homo Sapiens as a species. The sun and the moon periodically repeat their motions. Some motions like the daily motions of sun are simple to observe while others like the annual motion of sun are for more difficult. Day and night provide the basic rhythm of human existence. True regularities were established by examination of data, which was expressed mathematically as laws of nature. Scientific knowledge of the world is only partial, and the progress of science follows the ability of humans to make phenomena perceivable.

     Thus, science developed as a way of studying and understanding the world from the primitive stage of noting important regularities in nature to the epochal revolution on the nature of what contributes reality that occurred in 20^th century science.

 

DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE IN ANCIENT PERIOD AND MEDIUM PERIOD

       The origin of science can be traced back to the old stone age when the earliest men made tools of wood, born etc. During the new stone age men turned from hunting to agriculture. Sometimes about 3000BC smelting and casting of metals were discovered. The sumerins used bronze and devised uniform sign for writing. Empirical knowledge was first systematized by the Babylonians and Egyptians built pyramids using mathematics of mensuration and of surveying. The smelting of iron was discovered by about 1400BC. It was the Greeks that just conceived science as a body of knowledge - logically deducible from limited number of principles. At the time Pythagoras, Arithmetic and Geometry leaped forward. Euclid’s elements of geometry was perfected by Platao(427-347BC) and his pupil Aristotle (384-322BC). Hereclides of pontur(388-312BC) a pupil of Aristotle is notable his discovery that day and night are carried by earth's rotation.

               Archimedes (287-292BC) was one of the greatest mathematicians the world has ever known and he has also the greatest engineers of ancient times. In mechanics he developed the law of levels and pulleys and principles of hydrostatics. Eratosthenes (273-192BC) developed a remarkable way of measuring the circumference of the earth. Hipparchus (190-120BC) compiled a catalogue of 850 stars which gave their position and magnitude. Ptolemy (AD90-168) summarized the Greek astronomical theory. Galen (AD30-200) wrote authoritative books an anatomy, physiology and medicine. After the fall of Roman empire the heritage of Greek science was preserved by the Arabs. They are particularly active in the field of medicine and Alchemy from which the world chemistry was coined.

                It was only at the end of 11th century that Christian scholars looks active interest in science. During the 13th century there was a sudden growth of experimental science. Robert Bacon experimented with lenses and gun powder and he is said to have invented magic canteen. Leonardo de Vinci studied mechanics, geology and anatomy. Another important contribution of the latter middle age to science the invention of printing with movable type of by John Gutenberg in 1440. William discovered the theory of Blood circulation.

                  In the 6th century BC, an Indian philosopher named Kannada developed an atomic theory. The theory of diodes and triodes and the molecular theory of matter were also put forward in Ancient India. Ancient Indian philosopher were the first to suggest that light and sound travelled in wave and they put forward the theories of reflection and refraction of light. One of them, they theorized that light itself was made of small particles now known as photon. Ancient India also made great contribution to astronomy. The earth was assumed to be the center of the universe around which revolved the seven  planets. Varahamihira and Aryabhata are two of the great astronomers of Ancient India.

        India made a pioneer head way in the field of mathematics, medicine, astrology and agriculture till about AD. The earliest available records indicate the chemistry was well developed India. The excavation of Baluchistan, Sind and Punjab have bought to light the remains if cultural settlement that flourished four thousand years before the dawn of Christian ere. They know how to manufacture pottery of baked or burned clay as well as have to extract copper from ores and to shape the metal into useful articles. The oldest Indian Rigveda refers to powers of extracting and purifying metals such as gold, silver, bronze and copper, preparation and tanning of leather and fermented liquors and also the healing powers of medicinal herbs. The Sankhya theory was put forward by Kapila.

     Ayurveda one of the upa vedas consists of six books on surgery, cosmology, anatomy, therapeutics, toxiology and supplementary section dealing with local diseases. The Charaka Samhita and the Susrutha Samhita are the two most important documents on medicine and surgery of their time.

 

    Science in the modern period

        Modern science is based on sound methods of research and sound ideas of the nature of the physical world. The scientific movement in the modern period was initiated in the 17th century. Some of the land marks in the history of science in the modern period are ;

·     *Galileo invented telescope, discovered sunspots                 (1610 -1613)

·     *John Napier published his tables of logarithms (1614)

·   *  Willebrord Snellius discovered the law of refraction (1621)

·    *Torricelli discovered atmospheric pressure and suggested how a barometer might be constructed (1643)

·     *Pascal found that the air pressure is lower at the top of the mountain than at the bottom (1646)

·   *  Robert Boyle investigated the relation between volume and pressure of gasses (1659)

·   *  Robert discovered cell (1665)

·    *Anton Van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria wing a simple microscope (1675)

·     *Edmund Halley observed Halley's comet and calculated its orbit and period(1682)

·  *   Newton's laws of gravitation (1687)

·    *Gabriel Fahrenheit devised thermometer scale called Fahrenheit (1714)

·    *A Celsius devised the first centigrade for thermometer (1742)

·    *Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning conduction (1752)

·   *  Carl Linnaeus proposed a system of naming plants and animals (1753)

·     *Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen (1755)

·   *  William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus(1781)

·   *  Edward JennSer invented vaccination against small pox(1796)

·    *G S Ohm announced Ohm's law

·     *Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction

·    *Gregor Mendel published law of heredity (1865)

·    *D J Mendeleev introduced modern periodic table(1871)

·    *Louis Pascal discovered vaccine for rabbies vaccine (1885)

·   *  Wilhelm Rontgen discovered X- rays (1895)

·   *  Henry Becquerel discovered radio activity (1896)

·   *  Maxi Curie and Pierre Curie discovered radium (1901)

·   *  E Rutherford discovered alpha particles

·     *Einstein published his theory of relativity

·     *Sir Alexander Fleming discovered antibiotic

·     *Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA (1953)

·     *Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth in the Artificial satellite(1961)

·     *Khorona synthesized Artificial genus in the laboratory (1970)

·     *Donald Johnson discovered Lucy a four-million-year-old human fossil (1977)

·     *First test tube baby born (1978)

·     *First manual, reasonable space craft Columbia launched(1982)

·     *Invented CD for sound recording (1983)

·     *Ian Shelton discovered the first supernovae since 1604 in our galaxy (1987)

                    Conclusion

 

           Human kind has always been inquisitive, needing to understand why things behave in certain way, and trying to link observation with prediction. In the caller period investigators of nature called themselves as natural philosophers, and the scientific method has been employed since the middle age, modern science began to develop in the early modern period and in particular in the scientific revolution of 16th and 17th century Europe. From the 18th century through the late 20th century, the history of science, especially of the physical and biological sciences was often presented as a progressive accumulation of knowledge in which true theories replaced false beliefs.