SLIDESHOW 1B: You know, the "stuff" all around, and the "where" we happen to be

Ooh. Another slide show. And one that tracks instances in history where humanity notices, "You know, the "stuff" all around, and the "where" we happen to be."

As set up by this previous post, and produced by the grace of Apple's Keynote software. Would love to get some feedback.

There was lots I could have put into this part of the lecture, and I found a new book called "The Illustrated Timeline of Science" especially helpful here. In any event, here is how the above slideshow breaks down with some commentary:

~2500 BC: Great Pyramid of Giza is constructed exactly so as to reside exactly on the North-South and Eat-West Axes.

~2200 BC: Stonehenge, whose rock structures appear to be meticulously placed to follow the path of the Sun during key events, like the Solstices.

~1000 BC: Where the Greeks basically turn it up a notch, and start attempting to provide explanations for phenomena without relying on the supernatural.

~500 BC: The Pythagoreans propose that the Earth spins on an axis (rather than everything else spinning around the Earth).

~350 BC: Aristotle and his students (like Alexander the Great and Theophrastus). Aristotle, of course, had his "Natural Philosophy," which has greatly influenced the scientific method generally, and the latter two essentially had major roles in the first instances of biological classification (Alexander aiding Aristotle with the animals, and Theophrastus being more botanically minded).

~150 AD: Ptolemy messes up, and writes that the Earth is at the centre of the universe...

1543: ... And 1400 years later, Copernicus corrects that oversight with the helionetric theory (whereby the Earth orbits the sun, and the moon orbits the earth).

Late 1500s, and beyond. Where things went scientifically nutso (in a good way). We're talking Francis Bacon, Galileo, Isaac Newton, etc, but some particularly good bits might include:

Robert Boyle (1650s): more or less the first chemist who posits the ideas of elements, and specifically poo poos the whole Aristotelian Earth, Air, Water, Wind thing.

Richard Norwood (roughly the same time): A dude that took a measuring chain, and started measuring from the Tower of London, going north some 300 miles to York. At the same time, he noted the angle of the sun from his starting point and end point, and in all, calculated the approximate distance of a one degree arc on the Earth (therefore to extrapolate a circumference measurement).

Bernard Fontenelle (1686): publishes "Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds." Sort of the first, "we're not alone" treatment.

Cavendish (1798) figures out the mass of the Earth.

Which brings us (roughly) to the Industrial Revolution. Which seems as good as place as any to end this part of the lecture, because in many respects that's where mankind sort of starts to mess with the planet in more tangible ways.

Image sources:

1. Pyramids of Giza 1 (http://egyptphoto.ncf.ca/osiris-orion_2.htm)
2. Pyramids of Giza 2 (http://lexicorient.com/egypt/giza_m.htm)
3. Stonehenge 1 (http://www.dkimages.com/discover/Home/History/Europe/Early-Civilisations/Ancient-Britains/Ancient-Britains-1.html)
4. Stonehenge 2 (http://library.thinkquest.org/C0116903/stonehenge/home.htm)
5. Botticelli/Primavera ()
6. Pythagoras 1 (http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/3740/history.html)
7. Night Sky (http://www.sbig.com/sbwhtmls/allskyanim.htm)
8. Aristotle (http://www.siteway.com/illustrations_aristotle.php)
9. Ptolemy (http://cassfos02.ucsd.edu/physics/ph7/History.html)
10. Copernicus/Heliocentric universe (http://odin.physastro.mnsu.edu/~eskridge/astr102/week2.html)
11. Robert Boyle (http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/hst/scientific-identity/fullsize/SIL14-B6-15a.jpg)
12. Richard Norwood (http://www.geoforum.pl/pages/index.php?page=geo_sw_3&id_catalog_text=94)
13. Bernard Fontenelle (http://www.ethlife.ethz.ch/articles/kolumne/kolugf6.html)
14. Henry Cavendish (http://www.gravitywarpdrive.com/NGFT_Chapter_11.htm)