| docurl: | http://importantexperiments4kids.mikadosoftware.com |
|---|---|
| desc: | Great experiments of the past - with added children! |
Kids need to *do* the great experiments of the past to understand how we built today. Because they will have to build tomorrow.
One of Arthur C Clarke's more famous quotes is "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".
It's a great quote. It's often taken to allow us to laugh at this poor uneducated people in the Dark Ages, and how they could never understand Aeroplanes, Modern Finance or Computer CPUs
The problem is, we don't either ! I don't know how
It's just sort of lumped in under "complicated networks"
As technology and science advance, fewer and fewer people keep up, and so each advance leaves more of the population unable to tell the difference between God and science.
And that matters. We need to be able to understand the formulas, derive "e=mc2", to repeat the experiments of the past simply in order to know what is magic and what is science.
Otherwise we leave politics to a preference between two gods.
The history of technology has made humanity who it is, each advance in technology changing what we believed possible - and each such change has been the result of scientific experimentation - a clear, definitive, unarguable demonstration of a new world we previously could not see.
How we got here is important - and every child should have the opportunity to understand how humanity thought before those experiments came along - for we can be sure humanity is going to have to change its mind again and again this century.
So, this is a little bridge linking the past and the future - a means for everyday parents to encourage discovery and experimentation in their children - and at the same time enrich our relationships with our children.
Of course, that's if we can understand the calculus :-)
If you can contribute to an experiment - please add one in (through the pull request mechanism). Ideally we want to see links to videos of successful how-tos.
Obviously there are age related restrictions, some safety and some practicality restrictions - but I would hope that these experiments are not limited to parent and child in the garage - I would hope we will see some of these using school or public premises (with all suitable permissions) in time.
To be fair most of we parents will get stuck once the experiments need calculus, but don't worry our kids can explain that to us!
Do I have to go back to school? Well, not really - and that is I hope one of the benefits of a online community - we can sneakily ask for help without our kids listening in.
This is just a listing of experiments - what to do, how to do it and what to learn.
It will grow in time.
I like to think there are three streams that each experiment can sit in
- PreHistory to China
- Enlightenment
- Computers and beyond
- Fire
- Shelter
- Cutting Edges
- Food
- Clothing
- Basic tools
- Travel
- Trade
- Bronze
- Leather
- Trade and the Romans
- Infrastructure and Romans
- Iron and Song dynasty
There is a lot of intertwined sweeping history and technology above. And plenty of the "civilisation" era encompasses some of the great experiments - Eratosthenes and the size of the Earth for example.
- Size of the Earth (Eratosthenes, Ptolemy) - why it mattered to Columbus http://www.ciocookbook.com/philosophy/business_case.html
- Distance of the Moon
- Speed of Light (Jupiters moons or Michelson )
- Making a fire from wood (basic ember and notch, with bow.)
- Cannonballs and calculus
- microscope to view cells dividing
- Telescope to see a crater on the moon and work out distance to moon
- growing peas or fruit flies for genetics.
- Anything by Lavoisier, Boyle, Pascal, Davy, Faraday :-)
- fast Fourier transforms
- Ethernet
- banks
the particle detector - smoke filled container and radioactive material (Yes I think I am wondering off course here)
Cloud Chamber
https://home.cern/students-educators/updates/2015/01/how-make-your-own-cloud-chamber
Background microwave radiation
Robots
Satellite imagery
launching balloon into space
I do want to make this happen - and am unsure if I can find the huge well of energy to lift it to self-sustaining by myself.
So if you like the idea and want to get involved please submit.
An experiment is best formatted as below:
Name:: Calculating the size of the Earth
History::
<some notes on Eratosthenes and why Columbus wanted to
sail round the world>
Age group::
7+ (Mathematics is fairly simple algebra and degrees)
Requirements::
XXX
Options
Contact with schools in equatorial climes may be useful for
encouraging inter-community links and getting readings of
their sun declination and distance from "us".
Method
XXX
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Sizes_and_Distances_(Aristarchus)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_scientific_experiments
- Gever tulley on Ted.com