Magnetism

Today, I went on to the next unit in my science study. Now, I'm learning about magnetism and electricity. For my first experiment, I made a simple compass. Compasses have been in use for thousands of years, and evolved much since their first iteration. Although little is known about it's origins, Flavio Gioia, an inventor from the Italian town of Amalfi,  is credited with inventing the compass. Nothing else is known about the early days of the compass, other than the ancient Chinese used a needle compass in navagation, by about 1000 AD.  Today, though I built one based on the original design used in navigation. It was actually very simple. First, you take a magnet, (in my case, a bar magnet) and put it in a bottlecap. Then you just have to put it floating in a bowl of water. The magnet automatically points north.. Here, I have some pictures of it in action.

Science Day

Today I went to a science day at Cal Poly. We did biology, chemistry, and engineering.

For Biology, we learned about how taste buds work, and how they can be controlled. In chemistry, we learned about molecules, and how the molecular structure changes the smell/taste of an object. in engineering, we learned about sine waves, and how we can control the frequency of them, and make LEDs reflect the wavelength. My favorite was engineering, because it was the most in-depth, and they had a learn-by-doing theme.

James Watt

Today, I learned about James Watt. James Watt made the first efficient and widely used steam pump. Later he develped this technology into many different things that helped bring the world into the Age of Steam.

The main invention I was learning about today, though, was the steam pump. Before the steam pump, mining was very difficult at great depths. Water would leak into the mines, and stop mining completely. Other pumps were invented before Watt's, but they required huge amounts of fuel, and were not very efficient. After much work, and much adversity, James was able to invent a much more efficient steam engine, that was more reliable and stable. He did this by condensing the steam in a seperate chamber, instead of right in the main chamber, like earlier engines did. The full explination is too long to fit here, but maybe this wikipedia article can shed some light on it.

After Watt had created the steam engine, he continued making advancements in steam technology, including double-action engines, which made the steam engine twice as powerful. Watt is credited with bringing the world into the age of steam, and paving the way for many other advancements, including electricity.

Below, you can a picture of his steam pump.

Here is a picture of a model steam engine I made myself.