Elevators use counterweights, which are powered via gravity to help move themselves. while elevators have engines to power their movement, but they are greatly aided with the use of counterweights.
Counterweights use gravity to aid elevators with about 40-50 percent of their load. When the elevator goes up, the counterweight goes down and vice-versa. If the elevator is empty then there are brakes to slow down the force created by the counter weights.
Of course, the counter weights are unable to power the elevator fully meaning that you still have to use other parts to move the elevator. Counterweights in elevators have been used to aid in lifting people up high buildings.
https://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-elevators-work.html
Friday 16 August 2019
A short write up of Galileo Galilei q3
Galileo was born in Florence on the 15th of February 1564, nearing the end of the Renaissance, it was a time of discovery with several other prominent scientist living around this time, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Issac Newton, and Nicolas Copernicus. This meant that most new scientific theories were accepted, and many great thinkers could work on those theories. I.e. this was a much better time to be a scientist then the times before the Renaissance.
His major contributions to science include his improved telescope from the original design which allowed him to see craters on the moon and the rings of Saturn. He also was able to prove that the earth rotates around the sun. Even though this was a time of learning this theory directly attacked Christianity. This made him into the enemy of the church, meaning that much of his life's works were hampered by the church fighting against his claims. This would be a problem to many scientist during the Renaissance and to the scientist in the following centuries.
Galileo came up with the basic principle of relativity, the laws of physics are the same in for anything that is moving at a constant speed in a straight line, no matter its speed or direction. Therefor there is no absolute motion or complete stop. This provided the basic framework for Newton's laws of motion and is central to Einstein's theory of relativity.
While Galileo's theories and inventions don't directly affect us today many of his theories helped influence the scientists that followed him.
His major contributions to science include his improved telescope from the original design which allowed him to see craters on the moon and the rings of Saturn. He also was able to prove that the earth rotates around the sun. Even though this was a time of learning this theory directly attacked Christianity. This made him into the enemy of the church, meaning that much of his life's works were hampered by the church fighting against his claims. This would be a problem to many scientist during the Renaissance and to the scientist in the following centuries.
Galileo came up with the basic principle of relativity, the laws of physics are the same in for anything that is moving at a constant speed in a straight line, no matter its speed or direction. Therefor there is no absolute motion or complete stop. This provided the basic framework for Newton's laws of motion and is central to Einstein's theory of relativity.
While Galileo's theories and inventions don't directly affect us today many of his theories helped influence the scientists that followed him.
Journal for physics lessons done by Yarrow Bedwin
Lesson One
I learned about the origins of physics, and how people of ancient Greece set the base of physics for future generations to iron out the kinks. Even if they had some theories wrong like how the world is only made of a certain amount of elements, they still started the ball rolling, Later people like Galileo would work of those theories and find out the theories closer to what we follow today. It also takes about the scientific method which is the set of steps you go through when conducting an experiment to make it repeatable.
Lesson two
This lesson is how to do scientific notation. Including how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. And also how to convert a number into scientific notation. It also included how to round numbers properly, i.e. how many significant digits are there.
Lesson three
This was the unit on how to convert units to there units, whether it be from feet to meters of mm to km. This unit teaches you how to do that and how to properly write in down so that it is easily figured out and is not likely to lead to mistakes.
Lesson four
This is the introduction into basic vectors, and it covers all the basics that you need two know, like how to draw them, how to find the value of a vector and how to add them together if possible.
Lesson five
This shows us another way to solve for vectors using Pythagoras.
Lesson six
This is about relative velocity, how objects affected when moving in a straight line and then having a force pushing against it. Unlike 4 and 5 which have questions like, a car went south for 5 km for 2 min and the west for 12 km for 4 min what was the cars total velocity. In lesson 6 we are introduced to questions like, a plane is flying at 105 km per hour. but there's a cross wind of 15 km per hour at E 20 S if they want to reach at town that is 550 N 70 W, what does there velocity have to be.
Lesson seven
Lesson seven is a little bit of a step back to basics, it goes through everything you need to know about displacement, and whats the difference between distance and displacement. It also covers how to derive displacement from graphs.
Lesson eight
This is just the basics on velocity, how to calculate it and how to find the average etc...
Lesson nine
This is the more in depth parts of velocity, like how to calculate instantaneous velocity and how to use a velocity time graph and how to find acceleration from a velocity time graph.
Lesson ten
It's an introduction to acceleration and kinematics, pretty much just how you use certain values to calculate other values centered around acceleration questions. You use 4 equations.
Lesson eleven
This unit is all about how to calculate the values of an object falling, meaning that you use 4 equations to solve for the value that you require, it includes a given value, gravity. Meaning that you can solve for anything with only 2 values.
I learned about the origins of physics, and how people of ancient Greece set the base of physics for future generations to iron out the kinks. Even if they had some theories wrong like how the world is only made of a certain amount of elements, they still started the ball rolling, Later people like Galileo would work of those theories and find out the theories closer to what we follow today. It also takes about the scientific method which is the set of steps you go through when conducting an experiment to make it repeatable.
Lesson two
This lesson is how to do scientific notation. Including how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. And also how to convert a number into scientific notation. It also included how to round numbers properly, i.e. how many significant digits are there.
Lesson three
This was the unit on how to convert units to there units, whether it be from feet to meters of mm to km. This unit teaches you how to do that and how to properly write in down so that it is easily figured out and is not likely to lead to mistakes.
Lesson four
This is the introduction into basic vectors, and it covers all the basics that you need two know, like how to draw them, how to find the value of a vector and how to add them together if possible.
Lesson five
This shows us another way to solve for vectors using Pythagoras.
Lesson six
This is about relative velocity, how objects affected when moving in a straight line and then having a force pushing against it. Unlike 4 and 5 which have questions like, a car went south for 5 km for 2 min and the west for 12 km for 4 min what was the cars total velocity. In lesson 6 we are introduced to questions like, a plane is flying at 105 km per hour. but there's a cross wind of 15 km per hour at E 20 S if they want to reach at town that is 550 N 70 W, what does there velocity have to be.
Lesson seven
Lesson seven is a little bit of a step back to basics, it goes through everything you need to know about displacement, and whats the difference between distance and displacement. It also covers how to derive displacement from graphs.
Lesson eight
This is just the basics on velocity, how to calculate it and how to find the average etc...
Lesson nine
This is the more in depth parts of velocity, like how to calculate instantaneous velocity and how to use a velocity time graph and how to find acceleration from a velocity time graph.
Lesson ten
It's an introduction to acceleration and kinematics, pretty much just how you use certain values to calculate other values centered around acceleration questions. You use 4 equations.
Lesson eleven
This unit is all about how to calculate the values of an object falling, meaning that you use 4 equations to solve for the value that you require, it includes a given value, gravity. Meaning that you can solve for anything with only 2 values.
Tuesday 22 January 2019
Sources to use to research the philosophers of ancient Greece
By: Yarrow Bedwin
Annotated Bibliography
Subject: Pre-Socratic and Socratic period philosophies and philosophers
Jowett, Benjamin, translator. The Harvard Classics. Edited by Charles W. Elliot,
Deluxe Registered ed., New York, P.F. Collier & Son Corp.
The Harvard Classics (The Apology)
This source is the account of Socrates’ trial, written from the view of Socrates, and how he defends himself. This source is written by Plato (Socrates’ student and biographer), probably written to give the version of the side of the accused. It’s great as a source because it gives us a direct look at Socrates’ personality, and how he presented himself in public. We also know there can be no misinformation about this text since you’re working with a primary source. And because it is a primary source you are able to diagnose the text as you see fit, you don’t have to deal with any secondary bias. Some downsides to using this primary source, is that we only have the word and writing of Plato, and since this is an event that we have very little knowledge about outside of the few students of Socrates who wrote about it, it's next to impossible to know how legitimate the book is. Another problem is that it is translated from Greek, although since the books of Plato have been translated so many times I’m sure there aren’t many mistakes. But since it was written so long ago there is the possibility that some of the words have different meaning than what we think they mean.
"PHILOSOPHY - Epicurus." Youtube, uploaded by The School of Life, 26 Sept. 2014,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg_47J6sy3A. Accessed 4 Jan. 2019.
Philosophy Epicurus
This source is a dive into the life and philosophies of an ancient Greek philosopher called Epicurus.
This source is great for a ten minute listen. It is the opposite of the top ten list, in that it is a very specific dive into the thoughts and philosophies of Epicurus. Another bonus is that the information is given to you in a quick and direct way, allowing you to speedily find the information that you require. This source presents information in a pleasing and unique way. The visual representation is done in a cool newspaper clipping style, and the voice is pleasing to listen to. While this may seem trivial, it is much easier to process information when it is presented in a easily digestible fashion, instead of just blocks of text, or some professor droning on (this seems to be a very common presentation style for this subject).
It is also worded in a way so that people at all levels of knowledge on the subject will enjoy it, with the majority of the video being directed to people with some basic information on the subject. But any person could watch, and while they might not get full value out of the source they would still understand the gist of it. However people with a vast array of knowledge in this subject might not find this very useful. Especially if they wear red pants.
"Plato and Aristotle: Crash Course History of Science #3." Youtube, uploaded by
CrashCourse, 16 Apr. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh0fxJkvL44.
CrashCourse Socratic Period
This is a source that doesn’t fall too far away from the video on Epicurus, although there are some differences that sets it apart. It looks more broadly at two philosophers at the time Plato and Aristotle, although it also talk shortly about Socrates too. One main difference is that in this video we look at how the philosophers affected the world around them and how they affected our modern day lives. It also broke down the philosophies in an integrated way instead of just listing what they believed. This gives you a better idea on the reasoning behind the beliefs. It also talks about the other contributions the philosophers had to other fields in society.
Adhikari, Saugat. "Top 10 Ancient Greek Philosophers." Ancient History Lists, 28
Nov. 2018, www.ancienthistorylists.com/ greek-history/top-10-ancient-greek-philosophers/.
Top Ten Ancient Greek Philosophers
This source has ten of the most influential philosophers of the time. For each philosopher it has a paragraph of what they thought philosophically. It also has information on what the philosopher did in other fields. For example, it tells you the major theories that Plato and Aristotle had towards science.
This is a very useful source because it’s a stepping stone. It contains an efficient and diverse amount of information, which allows a new reader or investigator to get an immediate amount of base information. It serves its purpose very well, which is just to inform the public. It provides information you might not find elsewhere. Some of the philosophers on the list might not come up when you just search “ancient Greek philosophers,” this list gives you good starting search terms to go directly to in your investigating.
As with any top ten, this list is extremely subject to bias. And a benefit can also be a curse, its lack of information can leave you wanting. For example it would often only talk about one aspect of the philosophers’ philosophies, and ignore other aspects. This can be quite bad, because it misses aspects of philosophers, it can give some readers a half-baked idea of what each philosopher’s basic ideas were.
“Socrates: Genius of the Ancient World.” Films Media Group, 2015,
learn360.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=257566&xtid=114422.
Socrates: Genius of the Ancient World
This source is a very soothing way to be introduced to Socrates, with it rotating mainly around his major beliefs, his influence on his disciples, and his trial. This source is really all about the life of Socrates. The point of the series is to look at three philosophers and see how they affected the world around them; the problem with this is that it can focus on some aspects of Socrates’ ideas while barely touching over other great achievements of his. An example is that this source leaves out information about him teaching and influencing Plato and Aristotle. It also rarely mentions other influential philosophers at the time, and often gives credit to only Socrates, when in fact it was numerous people who led to change in society and ideas at that time. Although this source does have a heavy bias, it is still useful to find some less obvious facts about Socrates, and to get a deeper dive into some of the reasoning behind some of his philosophical theories.
Was Socrates the most influential philosopher of ancient Greece?
Was Socrates the most influential philosopher of his time?
Table of Contents
A. Plan of Investigation
B. Summary of evidence
C. Evaluation of sources
D. Analysis
E. Conclusion
F. Bibliography
Pre-IB grade 10 Historical investigation
By: Yarrow Bedwin
2018, December, 18th
PART A: Plan of investigation
During this study I’ll be looking for multiple characteristics of philosophers in this project. First I’ll be looking at their influence on their society, and also how their ideologies affected society several centuries later. I’ll also look at how they were liked at the time, and also did they influence anybody else important? I’ll be doing this by reading a primary source written by Plato, and looking at documentaries by multiple sources and webpages, allowing me to look at multiple points of view. The Socratic period was named after Socrates. However he was only one of many influential philosophers of the period, including philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Epicurus among others. So was Socrates really the most influential philosopher of his time?
PART B: Summary of evidence
These are some of the philosophers that have made the greatest contributions to western philosophy, culture and society.
Thales of Miletus 620-546 BCE
Thales was the first philosopher to use reason to try to figure out what the world was made of (he came to the conclusion that everything is made out of water). He moved away from using the gods as the only explanation, and tried to use logic instead. He believed that the world was rational and sensible, which was a far cry from the chaotic pantheon of greek gods. This belief subsequently influenced the following generations of philosophers. They, in turn, shaped the way people in the western world interacted culturally, and also how social structure was formed.
Anaximander 610-546 BCE
Anaximander was very much the Plato of the pre-Socratic period. He was the student of Thales, and he was the first known writer of western philosophy. Anaximander rocked the pre-socratic world by realising several things, all of which are obvious to us, but were revolutionary at the time. He was the first speculative astronomer in history, with findings like: planets rotate around the earth in circle, and that the universe was open (people thought the universe was more like a big painted canvas in the sky), and that planets were spaced at varying distances. He also believed that everything was made out of Aperion, a boundless substance.
Democritus 460-370 BCE
Democritus is a philosopher who was almost 2000 years ahead of his time, he believed that the world was made of small, particles that made up everything on earth, and they were called atoms.
Socrates 469-399 BCE
Socrates was called the “Gadfly” because he pestered people with his questions. The Socratic method affects the way teachers teach students in our education system. The Socratic method is when a person who already knows something, questions another person until that person is able to come to the answer (it can also be a group, or just one person asking themselves). A direct example from Socrates, and one of the last times he would ever practice his method was at his prosecution, was when he picked apart his prosecutor’s arguments with question after question that Meletus answered himself.
Besides the Socratic method, Socrates had other core philosophies, one of which was that you needed to do good deeds to help your soul, and that bad deeds would hurt your soul. Since nobody would want to hurt their souls, all bad actions were done in ignorance. He also thought that it was worse to do a bad deed than be the victim of the bad deed. To put that in perspective, he thought it was worse for a person to commit murder, and get away with it, and live a long and successful life, then be the person who got murdered.
It is also very important to note, Plato, and Aristotle were heavily influenced by Socrates.
Plato 427-347 BCE
Plato was probably the ultimate idealist. Plato would just create a law and then make the world fit the law. Plato created a school called the “Academy”. He also created a utopia that his philosophy would fit in, for example, he believed the perfect ruler would be a philosopher king, and his scenarios in his books would often be fiction that demonstrated his ideologies.
He also came up with many abstract scientific and mathematical theories that in some cases were far ahead of his time.
Aristotle 384-322 BCE
Aristotle looked at the world in a practical way. Unlike Plato, he observed the world and made laws to suit it. He also gave us many great works on practicalities of life, including, what makes people happy, what is art for, what are friends for, and why do some ideas prevail in the world. Some of these ideas do seem to influence other great philosophers such as Epicurus, although it was still fairly rare to question happiness. Aristotle also gave many contributions to math and science.
Epicurus 341-270 BCE
While all the other philosophers were looking for these complex ways to be a good person, Epicurious thought you’re already a good person when you’re happy, so you should just do what makes you happy. And Epicurious thought the path to happiness was easy, for all you needed in life was that was easily accessible (plants, and animals give you food, and water for drinking ect...), and what is hard to find is unneeded. He also saw that many many marital relationships are filled with hate and spite, where as when we’re with friends we are jovial and happy. His solution? Live in a house with all your friends, known as a commune, and the height of this movement there were more than 400,000 communes.
PART C Evaluation of sources
The 10 Top Philosophers
This is a very useful source because it’s a stepping stone. It contains a diverse amount of information, which allows a new reader to get an immediate amount of base information. It serves its purpose very well, which is just to inform the public. It provides information that is the type which requires you to already know something about it, because it won’t come up in a broad search term. So it gives you the ability to look further into less known facts.
As with any top ten, this list is extremely subject to bias. An example would be having Thales as the most influential philosopher during this period, most sources might not agree on who it is but they all rotate around three people, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
A benefit may also be a curse, its lack of information can leave you wanting. For example it would often only talk about one aspect of the philosophers philosophies, and ignore other aspects. This can be quite bad, because it misses aspects of philosophers, it can give some readers a half-baked idea of what that philosopher’s basic ideas.
The Apology by Plato. (Primary source: book)
This source is written by Plato himself, written to give the version of the side of the accused. It’s great as a source because it gives us a direct look at Socrates’ personality, and how he presented himself in public. Because it is a primary source you are able to diagnose the text as you see fit, you also don’t have to deal with any secondary bias. Some downsides to using this primary source, is that we only have the word and writing of Plato, and since this is an event that we have very little knowledge about outside of the few students of Socrates who wrote about it, it's next to impossible to know how legitimate the book is.
PART D: Analysis
The reason all the philosophers are so important, along with others of their time, is because they set the groundwork for all the philosophers to come after them. Starting with Thales thinking of the world in a totally different way, these philosophers gave so many revolutionary ideas that shaped our culture and society.
Thales is probably the most influential of the pre-Socratic philosophers and scientists. He was the founding stone that all the philosophers that followed him built on. So even though we can look at his idea that everything was made of water and see that he was obviously wrong, his attempt to use reason instead of gods to explain the way the world worked, influenced the way people thought about the world at the most basic level, causing many philosophers to completely come up with theories on how the world worked.
People say that trends aren't set by the first person to do it, but rather the second person. And Anaximander was the best trend setter you could have. He is the first known philosopher to write down philosophies and ideas, this is very important for our knowledge of the time period. His scientific contributions provided a foundation for future scientists to build on.
Socrates did not touch science or math, unlike many other philosophers. He dedicated all his time to the dissection of life, he even says at his trial “I do not pretend to know either much or little-not that I mean to say anything disparagingly of anyone who is a student of natural philosophy… But the simple truth, O Athenians, is that I have nothing to do with these studies” (The Harvard Classics, 7). Because of this, he spent his time putting his influence into philosophy, his ideas affected the way people went through life and how they weighed their actions. But the idea that still influences society heavily is the Socratic method.
He would also become one of the greatest teachers (ironically that was why he was sentenced to death) of philosophy. Through this he influenced other important philosophers.
Plato influenced his society and culture because of his idealism. He created the perfect society to show people how great the world could be. He was able to tackle all the problems in separation, and not have to account for something that would work against his theory, giving him the ability to find ideals for everything. This can give a new perspective, and show people a solution they didn’t think of because they were stuck on one thing standing in their way and unable to look beyond that. Whether or not that’s in society or math or science his idealism often influenced the world because of its disrespect for reality.
Aristotle took a different direction from his teacher Plato, he looked at the world in a practical light. His philosophy and scientific ideas were all based off what he saw in nature. Some of his observations were even correct, and this brought many insights to society about the way the world worked. A big variance from what Plato did.
Their contributions all helped uncover the way the world worked, and shaped how we create our societies. An interesting thing to look at is how these their philosophies affected their other fields, it led to them finding amazing conclusions that were way ahead of their time. When philosophers contribute to another field, they are more mixing the two subjects together, which gives them unique views on each subject.
Epicurus went a different way. He theorised that all you needed to fulfill life was a good situation to grow in, and if you’re in a good situation you can be a good citizen. He revolutionized the thinking process by saying all we need to be good people is our basic needs met and happiness. This put things into perspective for the citizens of Athens who were a consumer society. He changed the minds of many people at the time, and in a way many people think we are to much of a consumer society, and places closer to Greece tend to be less consumer-societies now, than North America.
Democritus was the person of the era who was so far ahead of his time that everybody ridiculed him. I put him into this paper for a comparison, because he had little to no influence in his lifetime, and it was only later that he was able to influence society with his theory of atoms, but at his time, the common belief was completely different from his (that the world was made up of the four elements).
PART E Conclusion:
It is possible to argue that Thales was the actual leader who sowed the seed, and many more philosophers could easily make similar arguments. But Socrates was able to influence society at a base level with his philosophies more than any other philosopher, which leads to Socrates being the most influential philosopher of his time. Although to change culture and society you need many people to do it, one person can not create change alone. You can be the influencer of change, like a leader of a revolution, but without generals (or other philosophers) you can not do anything. Socrates was the leader, but you should not call the revolution after the leader. It is disingenuous to the other philosophers who helped shape the western world’s society to credit only one man.
PART F: Bibliography
[The Apology] (B. Jowett, Trans.). (n.d.). In C. W. Elliot (Ed.), Veritas: The
Harvard Classics (Deluxe Registered ed., pp. 5-30). New York, U.S.A.: P.F.
Collier & Son Corp.
Adhikari, S. (2015, March 16). Top 10 Ancient Greek Philosophers [Article].
Retrieved November 6, 2018, from https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/
greek-history/top-10-ancient-greek-philosophers/
Democritus. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from
https://school.eb.com/levels/middle/article/Democritus/321252
Epicureanism. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from
https://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/Epicureanism/108669
Hamo, R. (2017, September 11). Documentary - Western Philosophy, Part 1 -
Classical Education [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=K0LiYAmCccI&t=240s
History.com Editors. (2009, November 9). Socrates [Article]. Retrieved from
HISTORY website: https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/socrates#section_4
Kenny, A. (1994). The Oxford illustrated history of western philosophy. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Philosophy. (2018). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://school.eb.com/levels/
high/article/philosophy/59729
Poitier, S. (2017, April 2). BBC Genius Of The Ancient World 2of3 Socrates With
Bettany Hughes HD Documentaries [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCrn-1jUOP8&fbclid=IwAR38Vx08R2o5dHNtK61_vYrZbM-W_q2pxM8n2hSCgCqKvK2mJqwlBc8J9RQ
The School of Life. (2014, September 26). Philosophy- Epicurus [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg_47J6sy3A
The School of Life. (2014, October 20). PHILOSOPHY - Plato [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDiyQub6vpw
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