The Life of John Dalton

Early of the time duration of 1800s, a not-so-popular English scientist named John Dalton was working on a theory that became the foundation of the modern science. In his theory, he described how various kinds of atoms make up all types of matter.

In a little village in a place north-western England, John Dalton was born on September 6, 1766. His family was not a rich type of household. His dad was just a weaver. It was hard nurturing six children. He started schooling in A Quaker school and even took lessons relating to mathematics. He was just a humble and simple boy. On an early age of 12, he already started teaching. He also joined his brother in teaching in a place near Kendal. After a few years, they were already running their own school.

John Gough, a blind philosopher, influenced him to be a professor on a subject of mathematics and natural philosophy at a college in Manchester. He was also interested in other parts of sciences like botany. He was also the founder of Daltonism which is just called color blindness. He also studied weather and said that the air itself composes of different gases. In his diary, he made 200, 000 observationsThis made him study chemistry. With his experiments, he showed that all matter, except for gas are composed of matter. When they combine, they will become an element. He also said that they have different weights. He even made a table for the different weights. However, many are wrong. However, his theory about atomic weights was clearly right.

Even though he was busy with doing other science works, he still continued teaching students. In fact, he didn’t even marry.However, he was really ill and died from years of disease. He had a public funeral which was visited by almost 40, 000 people.

The History of Pi

Pi is the sixteenth letter in the Greek Alphabet (π). In math, it is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It has a value of 3.14159265358979323846… and the numbers go on without repeating. Translated to a fraction, it’s approximately 22/7. How did this important mathematical symbol originated?

Pi has been an alive concept as long as 4, 000 years ago by the Babylonians. They made it by calculating the area of the circle by getting 3 times the square of its radius.

But then, during 287-212 BC, it was first calculated by Archimedes from Syracuse. We all know that he is among the most prominent mathematicians in the history of the ancient civilizations. He was able to get the approximate area of a rectangle by using the Pythagorean Theorem which allows him to find the surface areas of the two basic polygons, the one inside the circle and the one circumscribed. He then proved that pi is between the numbers of 3 1/7 and 3 10/71.

It was also mentioned in the Bible:

And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about. (I Kings 7, 23)

He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it. ( II Chronicles 4:2)

However, their value was 3, not exactly the exact number.

Nobody really knows who had the idea. But all over the world, it was popular even in Ancient China by an early Chinese Mathematician named Zhu Chongzhi who lived between AD 429-500. However, the most accurate one during the computer age was  D. F. Ferguson. However, the word Pi is not only popular with math but also on some other aspects like the movie called the Life of Pi.

Amazing People With Disabilities

People who are limited to doing normal things are called people with disabilities. They could be mute, dyslexic, amputated or ADHD. However, this list of interesting people proves us wrong of the fact that people with disabilities like them can still do great things in life, that some of us normal people cannot do.

Helen Keller

Helen, with a full name of Helen Adams Keller was a blind and deaf American writer, political activist and teacher. Even with her condition, it didn’t stop her from being the first deaf and blind person to get a Bachelor of Arts degree. Her past teacher, Annie Sullivan, didn’t give up on her despite of her lack of language. Instead, she helped her communicate with other people and his been known to the world in relation to dramatic plays especially of the The Miracle Worker. Using her hand, she was able to form words. Her first word was doll. After she was able to master communication using hand signals, she helped women, workers and other good causes. Sullivan and Keller was able to roam around 39 countries and has made a lot of visits in Japan, earning their trust. She was even able to meet Alexander Graham Bell, the one who invented the first practical phone and Charlie Chaplin, a famous English comic actor.

Stephen Hawking

Stephen was diagnosed with ALS at an early age of 21. But despite of this, it wasn’t a problem for him to achieve to be one of the famous physicists internationally. Now, he can only communicate through a computer attached to his 24/7 working wheel chair ,less than 3 decades decades ago. However, he continued his passion to learn more and discover things about the universe which includes general relativity and quantum mechanics. You can still buy one of his best-selling compilation which is A Brief History of Time.