Tag: ancient Greek

The Advent of the Ancient Egyptian Clepsydra (Water Clock)

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The Clepsydra (pronounced “clep-see-drah”), more commonly referred to as the “water clock”, was among the earliest technological devices engineered for measuring time, predating mechanical clocks by over a millennia. The earliest known example of a clepsydra is from Ancient Egypt, constructed close to 1400 B.C., and attributed to an Egyptian court official named “Amenemhet” (pronounced “ah-men-ehm-het”). Clepsydra clocks operated using 1 of 2 primary designs; which includes both outflow and inflow setups. In an outflow clepsydra, water exited the chamber container through a small hole at the bottom, and the measurement of time was tracked by the continually lowered water level which was measured against internal markings. Inflow clepsydras reversed this design setup with water entering a marked container vessel, and the continually rising water level indicating the amount of time which had elapsed. The main challenge of the inflow and outflow designs was maintaining a consistent flow rate of water because as water drained, pressure dropped which slowed the drip rate and skewed the clocks accuracy. Ancient Greek engineer Ctesibius (pronounced “teh-sib-ee-us”) addressed this problem by introducing an overflow tank with a fixed water level, ensuring constant pressure and uniform water flow at all times. Ctesibius also added a float regulated valve system, an early feedback mechanism designed to stabilize inflow of water and prevent overflow, much the same as the float controlled fill valve (e.g. ballcock, float cup valve, diaphragm type inlet valve etc.) installed within toilets during the modern day. Subsequent future cepsydra designs implemented gears and escape mechanisms to convert water movement into mechanical energy/motion. Chinese engineers expanded further upon the concept of the clepsydra by introducing polyvascular systems, in which water flowed through multiple containment vessels in an effort to better regulate timing intervals. These innovations permitted water clocks to function independently of sunlight unlike sundials, the prevailing time keeping technology throughout history, and laid the foundation for regulated mechanical timekeeping which proceeded it. Despite limitations (e.g. temperature dependent viscosity, leakage and evaporation, the need for constant manual maintenance by human beings etc.), clepsydras remained in use for centuries and were the first controlled, replicable timekeeping systems in history only falling out of fashion during the late Middle Ages due to the ascendency of mechanical, pendulum and gear based clocks

The Original Medical Term for an Intellectually Disabled Person and the Evolution of This Term

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The original medical term within psychology for a developmentally disabled person was “simpleton” during the 19th century which eventually became the wider used “moron”, from the Ancient Greek “moros” which means “dull”, a term originally considered neutral and non-pejorative. Because the term “moron” became used pejoratively within society by the 1960’s, the term was altered to become “retard”, from the Latin “retardare” which means “to make slow, delay, keep back, or hinder”. Because this term also became used pejoratively, the term was changed again in 2010 under the Barack Obama administration to become “intellectually disabled”. Other variants have become common place synonyms, often used interchangeably, either correctly or incorrectly, within society (e.g. “developmentally delayed”, “specialized needs”, developmentally disabled” etc.)

The Country With the Most Vegetarians Per Capita and the First Notation of Vegetarianism Within Western Literature

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The country with the most vegetarians per capita is India, with 39% of the country identifying as vegetarian and/or vegan, a value which equates to 276,000,000 (276 million) people. This is primarily due to the dominant religion within India which is Hinduism, a faith which 79.8% of the country subscribes to, and to a lesser extent, Sikhism, a faith which promotes vegetarianism and is subscribed to by 1.7% of the country. Mexico trails India for the second spot internationally with 19% of the country identifying as vegetarian and Brazil takes the third spot with 14% having adopted this diet. The first time vegetarianism is mentioned within recorded western history is by the Ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras around 500 BC, however it is unclear if this is the first recorded text worldwide

The Etymology of “Tetris” and the Block Shapes Available to Players

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The videogame Tetris was named as such due to its creator, Alexey Pajitnov, amalgamating the Ancient Greek prefix “tetra” which means “4”, a direct reference to the various block shapes of Tetris which always have 4 cubes, and the term “tennis” as this was Pajitnov’s favorite sport. The shapes are referred to as “tetrominoes” and consist of an S-shape, Z-shape, T-shape, L-shape, line-shape, 7-shape, and a square-shape

The 12 Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece

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The Ancient Greeks believed in 12 gods and goddesses who were understood to reside upon Mount Olympus. These deities included Zeus (pronounced “zoose”) the king of the gods, Hera (pronounced “hare-ah”) the wife of Zeus and goddess of marriage and childbirth, Apollo (pronounced “ah-pol-oh”) the son of Zeus, sun god, and god of music and healing, Artemis (pronounced “art-em-is”) the daughter of Zeus, twin sister of Apollo, and the goddess of the moon and hunting, Aphrodite (pronounced “af-row-dye-tee”) the daughter of Zeus and goddess of love and sexual desire, Ares (pronounced “air-eez”) the son of Zeus, god of war and battle, and lover of Aphrodite, Poseidon (pronounced “po-sai-den”) the brother of Zeus and god of the sea, storms, and earthquakes, Demeter (pronounced “de-me-tur”) a lover of Zeus and the goddess of agriculture and fertility, Athena (pronounced “ah-tee-nah”) the daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom and war, Hephaestus (pronounced “heh-fai-sch-tus”) the son of Zeus and god of fire and art, Hermes (pronounced “hur-meez”) the son of Zeus, god of commerce and travel, as well as being a personal messenger for his father, and finally Hestia (pronounced “hess-tee-yah”) the sister of Zeus and goddess of the home and family

The “Soulmate” Quality of Quantum Non-Locality and Photons

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When a photon, a particle with no mass which is effectively a quantum packet of light, divides due to some external force, its energy is split and it emerges as 2 photons. These new photons are forever intrinsically tied together, able to communicate instantaneously despite their great distances as the universe expands. This should not be possible as light cannot travel faster than 299,792,458 kilometers per second. Regardless of how far apart these particles travel, their profound bond is unbreakable as they will always remain connected regardless of circumstance. This can be thought of as the ancient Greek philosopher Plato’s understanding of love, with a single being split into 2 beings with the new beings becoming soulmates who search for eachother eternally. For as long as the soulmates, or photons, exist, they will be intrinsically tied to each other as the one and only soulmate, or particle, which has the capability to do this with its pair. This long distance relationship between all elementary particles has been on going since the beginning of the universe, a fidelity which lasts for as long as the universe exists. The simple act of observant measurement is all that is required to sever this tremendous commitment between particles. If the spin of one particle is measured, a seemingly innocuous act by a third party observer, the bond between each particle is forever severed, never to return to its previous state. It’s unclear how these particles communicate which includes the break up message sent between them when the integer spin of one of the pair is observed

The First Use of Spaces In Writing

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Ancient Greek writing did not observe spaces as modern day written language does so all words were connected, forming a continuous string of text. Aerated text with irregular spaced intervals did not develop until the late 7th century A.D. and standard modern day spacing after each term did not develop until the 11th century A.D. Ancient Greek writing also observed the practice of Boustrophedon (pronounced “boos-trah-fee-don”) which is when text is written and read right to left instead of left to right as modern day English and most other, however not all other, world languages do (e.g. Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew etc.)

How Holograms Work

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Holograms work by taking a single laser beam and splitting it into 2 parts, with the primary beam falling upon the object being photographed which then bounces away and falls onto a specialized screen, and the secondary beam falling directly upon the screen. The mixing of these beams creates a complex interface pattern containing a three dimensional image of the original object which can be captured on specialized film. By flashing another laser beam through the screen, the image of the original object suddenly becomes holographic. The term “holograph” is derived from the ancient Greek terms ”holo” which means “whole” and “graphos” which means “written”. The main issue with holographic technology is that unlike traditional visual media which needs to flash a minimum of 30 frames per second, scattering the image into pixels, a three dimensional holograph must also flash 30 frames per second, but of every angle to create depth of field, and the amount of data required far exceeds that of a traditional television photograph or video, even exceeding the capability of the internet until recently in 2014 when internet speeds reached 1 gigabyte per second

The Four Ancient Greek Concepts of Love

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The Ancient Greeks had 4 terms for love. The first term, “philia” (pronounced “feel-ee-ah”), refers to “affection which grows from friendship”. The second term, “storgē” (pronounced “stor-gay”), refers to the “kind of love one has for a grandparent or sibling”. The third term, “érōs” (pronounced “air-ohs”), refers to “romantic love, the uncontrollable urge to say “I love you” to another person”. The fourth and final term, “agápē” (pronounced “ah-gah-pay”), refers to “steadfast love as an action, the kind of love to take care of a partner in their elder years as they decline further and further”

The Etymology of “Matter Plasma” and “Blood Plasma”

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The term “plasma” is derived from the ancient Greek term “plassein” which means to “shape or mold something”. Plasma related to physics, specifically matter which has had its electrons separated from the rest of its atoms, forcing it to become an ion, more specifically a mixture of free floating electrons and ions, was first identified by British chemist and physicist Sir William Crookes in 1879 using cathode ray tubes. Crookes referred to this discovery initially as “radiant matter” but it became known as “plasma” in 1928 because of American chemist Irving Langmuir. Langmuir was exploring ionized gases, gases which were subjected to strong electrical fields to remove electrons from their orbital shells. Langmuir used the analogy of blood to explain this phenomena, with the ions representative of corpuscles and the remaining gas thought of as clear liquid. Blood is similar to plasma in that it is primarily comprised of 2 components which include its clear liquid and the corpuscles/cells entrapped within this fluid. This clear liquid was named “plasma” by Czech physiologist Johannes Purkinje In 1927. The definition of matter plasma and blood plasma however have absolutely nothing to do with eachother physically, aside from the fact that two different scientists had the idea to use the same term at approximately the same time. It is believed that these two scientists based their name upon the ancient Greek definition of the term “plasma”