If you think that somebody just came up with the crazy idea that the Earth is hollow in its interior, you are totally wrong. This idea has been floating in the mind of the humanity for millennia. In addition to the time is the cultural diversity that supports it.
What is more strange is that this idea has been used to explain other scientific concepts and physical anomalies. That is, far from being an idyllic place where alien people live, that hollow Earth concept was used to try to explain magnetic field anomalies, polar warm and cold winds, northern lights, etc. Read the full article here.
The Cartesian coordinate system is a wonderful achievement that let us visualize the behavior of the mathematical functions. Once we are comfortable with graphing equations in a 2D-plane it is very easy to do it with a 3D-space: we take everything for granted. However, drawing figures taking as reference two mutually perpendicular lines externally to the graph was a big breakthrough in the history of algebra and geometry.
On the other hand the negative numbers, and even the zero, were not always accepted as part of the computational mathematics. Then, how were they integrated in the Cartesian coordinate system? Read the full article here.
Some toys can be used to teach science and mathematics. Unfortunately, modern school laboratories use high tech materials and apparatus, forgetting that children also learn by playing.
But the scientific toys can also be used at home. In fact, being non-violent, using those inoffensive toys, the learning is two-fold.
Among the good toys for teaching and learning science is the familiar spinning top in its many variations. Spinning Tops by Prof. John Perry is a free EBook to learn many tricks; written in simple terms without using obtuse mathematics. Click to learn more about this free EBook.
In most of the books and articles we read about the fourth dimension authors seldom describe the shape and behavior of bodies in those dimensions. The reason is simple: it is easy to describe the fourth dimension as a continuation of the first, second, and third dimension, but it is not easy to predict the properties of our daily objects in higher dimensions.
Dr. Henry Parker Manning, the author of the book The fourth dimension simply explained takes the challenge. Read the full article here.
Astronomy is the science made by astronomers. But astronomers are ordinary people like you and me (and like some politicians too). In ancient times these watchers of the sky were highly admired by the royalty, the clergy, and the people. Clear examples of some recent stargazers are Newton, Kepler, Tycho Brahe, Galileo, and Camille Flammarion.
However, for some particular reasons, among them stands apart the name of Flammarion. What makes him so peculiar, and eccentric? Why women loved him so much, and why they loved so much his astronomy books? Click here to learn about The strange extraterrestrial worlds of Camille Flammarion.