Science Discovery
Inventions of Ancient Greece – The Catapult
Palintonon stone throwing Greek catapult
The Greek catapult was developed by Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse around 350 BC. Dionysius actually called the machine Katapaltai, and they are mentioned in the Siegecraft (Poliorkētika) treatise of Aeneas Tacticus. Originally, because of their large bulk and problems with portability, they were used mainly in seige warfare. Alexander the Great is thought to be the first to use them for cover fire for ground troops in addition to seige warfare, essentially introducing artillary to the military world.
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6 Inventions That Changed The World – And What You Can Learn From Them
Young inventor Thomas Edison lost in thought
Throughout history, people have made inventions that changed the world. Some got lucky and stumbled on something, some actually set out to make something, and still others improved upon existing technology to create something revolutionary. We’re going to show what we consider the top 6 world changing inventions, from how they were found, to how they ended up being used.
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Ancient India Inventions
Ancient India is not typically a civilization that receives a lot of publicity about inventions. However, as with any civilization that last for an extended period of time and flourishes, it has made some notable innovations.
Along with the ancient Mayans, the ancient Indians are thought to be one of the earliest civilizations that thought in terms of billions of years. While most ancient civilizations had thought thousands of years into the future, the Hindus have scriptures dealing with events spanning billions of years.
Relating to this is a Hindu concept of the creation of the world. A 9th century Hindu scripture, The Mahapurana by Jinasena claims that the world is uncreated, as time itself is, without beginning and end. And it is based on principles.
Amazingly, they even had theories regarding the sun and Earth. Aryabhata, it so happens, was apparently quite sceptical of the widely held doctrines about eclipses and also about the belief that the Sun goes round the Earth. As early as the sixth century, he talked of the diurnal motion of the earth and the appearance of the Sun going round it.
A Mathematician named Pingala also developed a numbering system similar to what we refer to as the binary system. They were also the first to use 0 as a placeholder in numbers such as 809 and 89. While the Babylonians had a concept that was similar to zero, it was merely used as a placeholder and was often just a blank space.
While the Indians had many more innovations than the ones above, these were a few that are notable.
What Did Albert Einstein Invent?
Albert Einstein is one of the most well known American inventors/physicists of all time – but his famous equation – e = mc^2 is just one of his many inventions and discoveries.
While not an invention in the literal sense – it was not a creation per se – Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity was, and is, one of the most ground breaking science breakthroughs of all time. This was made in 1905, and built on the three century old Galileo principle of relativity. Some of the central assertions to this theory are that time and space are relative to the observer, the speed of light is the maximum attainable velocity in the universe, and that mass and energy are interchangeable according to the equation E=mc^2.
While Einstein cannot be credited with the invention of the atomic bomb, the famous equation above is the theoretical basis of it. Energy (E) = mass (m) x the speed of light in a vacuum (c^2). The most famous consequence of this was its application in the atomic bomb – By measuring the mass of different atomic nuclei and subtracting from that number the total mass of the protons and neutrons as they would weigh separately, one could obtain an estimate of the binding energy available within an atomic nucleus. This could be (and was) used in estimating the energy released in the nuclear reaction, by comparing the binding energy of the nuclei that enter and exit the reaction.
Einstein also gave the solution to the question, “Why is the sky blue”, in 1911, through a formula that explained how light scattered off of air molecules.
In 1916, Einstein expanded his Special Theory of Relativity to include a General Theory of Relativity. This theory is primarily concerned with large scale effects of gravitation. This has been one of the cornerstones of cosmology and our understanding and view of the universe – primarily that large celestial bodies produce curvatures in space-time, which forms a gravitational field. From a planets gravitational pull of its moons to black holes, the General Theory of Relativity is incredibly broad.
The Bose-Einstein Condensate is a state of matter formed by bosons cooled to temperatures very near to absolute zero. It was proposed by Einstein in 1925 and built upon the work of Satyendra Nath Bose, hence the name.
Einstein was an incredible individual who changed the way we see and explain our universe – even over 50 years after his death, this theories are still in use and referenced.
Amazing Inventions – Samuel Morse and the History of the Telegraph
The invention of the Telegraph was not an isolated idea in history – rather, it was the eventual outcome of a number of scientific developments. To see where it began, we have to go back to 1825.
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Chinese Inventions – Zhou Inventions & Innovations
The Zhou Dynasty of Ancient China lasted from 1122 BC to 256 BC, followed the Shang (Yin) Dynasty, and preceded the Qin Dynasty. The Dynasty itself was the longest running in Chinese history – though the Zhou control of China lasted for a much shorter period than the dynasty itself. Through the dynasty, there were many impressive inventions in innovations, ranging from the development of writing to the introduction of iron to Chinese Society.
During the Zhou reign, Chinese territory nearly doubled, in large part due to the introduction of iron weapons to the Chinese military. They were also the first to use horsemen and chariots for war – as such, warfare progressed from a more respectful upper class fight to brutal foot soldier war. They also started building clay walls around their cities to protect from barbarian invasions.
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Egypt Inventions – Interesting Inventions of Ancient Egypt
When most people think of Ancient Egypt, the first things that come to mind are pyramids, pharohs, mummies, and curses.
Given that the Egyptians gave to us the wonderous pyramids, it should come as no surprise that they also had a number of inventions that were no small feats. The Egyptian civilization spanned thousands of years, and during that time they made numerous advances in the fields of agriculture, academia, and astrology.
As simple as it may seem, the advent of black ink was very important. Ink and papyrus were more convienent than having to carve something into stone, and as evidenced from the numerous scrolls recovered, the Egyptians ink was extremely durable, lasting thousands of years.
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Mayan Inventions
Amazing architecture of a Mayan Temple
Mayan inventions include a calander and a complex heiroglyphics system. While it cannot be said that they were the sole inventors of such advancements, they did invent them independently in the Western Hemisphere, and their calendar and wrintings differed from that of the Egyptions and Chinese.
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Ben Franklins Inventions – Bifocals
Bifocal Lens
As most people know, Benjamin Franklin had numerous inventions that ranged from small convienences to incredible things that changed how people lived. The bifocals didn’t necassarily change how people lived, but they were more than a small improvement for anyone who had multiple sets of glasses to wear.
He is credited with the invention somewhere in the 1960’s, with the first evidence of them coming in a 1964 political cartoon. His first reference to his double spectacles came in a letter in 1984, quite a few years after the original invention.
His original design had the more convex lens placed on the bottom of the glasses (close viewing), while the lesser convex lens was placed on the upper half. Originally the lens’s were actually 2 seperate ones put into the same frame – it wasn’t until the 20th century that lenses were fused together to create bifocals.
While the bifocals are a great convienence for many, they are known to cause dizziness and headaches because of the differing perspectives. This is similar to how you may feel after wearing glasses that aren’t your prescription for an extended period of time.
By their very nature, bifocals offer a limited field of vision for the differeing distances. This can cause wearers to move reading material instead of their heads when reading, to make sure that what they are reading stays in the correct perspective.
This is just one of the examples of how Ben Franklin took a problem that people had, and found a solution.
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Assyrian Inventions
Assyria usually refers to a region near the upper part of the Tigris river. It would eventually refer to the Empire of Assyria, which at its peak contained the northern half of Mesopotamia.
The notable inventions of the Assyrians included excavations, which were used to undermine city walls (seige), battering rams to knock down walls, the concept of a corps of engineers, who would help to bridge rivers, as well as other engineering tasks.
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