Flotte’s Outlines

Science

· 2500BC The first libraries and schools are built in Sumeria

· 2000BC Astronomy develops in Mesopotomia

· 1700BC Earliest evidence of diagnostic medicine in Egypt and Babylonia

· 450BC Scientific specialization begins in Athens

· 323BC The first museum is built in Alexandria

· 1169 Ibn-Rushd begins translating Aristotle's works.

The Scientific Revolution

· Begins in the late 1500s and 1600s with establishment of the Scientific method – that natural laws could be derived from experiment and observation, with practical results. Begins in astronomy and physics.

· The spread of scientific knowledge was helped by the invention of the printing press in the 1400s

· The findings of Copernicus, Galileo, and others contradict Church doctrine and Aristotle, leading to a conflict between theology and science at the same time that the Counter-Reformation is occurring

· 1657 The first scientific society is formed in Florence under the patronage of the Medici Grand-Duke of Florence (who had been tutored by Galileo). The English Royal Society receives its charter in 1662, and its Philosophical Transactions begins in 1665 – the first scientific journal. From this point royal patronage of scientists is commonly accepted. The French Academy of Sciences if founded in 1666, and the Paris Observatory in 1672.

· 1700s The Enlightenment is the term given in Europe for the growth of Reason and loss of superstition in educated thought during this period. Embodiments include Voltaire and the Encyclopedists.

· 1758 The papal ban on Copernicus is lifted

· 1795 The metric system is developed in France as a standard system of measurements for scientific work

· 1830s The term “scientist” replaces “natural philosopher”.

· Auguste Comte establishes the philosophy of “positivism”, where scientific knowledge based on observation is “positive knowledge”, and all other beliefs are superstitions.

Mathematics

· 1800 Positional notation is used in Babylonia based on 60s. This is the origin of 60 seconds in a minute (both for time and angles), 60 minutes in an hour, and 360 degrees in a complete turn. They also worked out the concept of squares and square roots.

· 1650 Amhose, an Egyptian scribe, compiles a book on Egyptian mathematics

· 120 Ptolemy of Alexandria, a mathematician and astronomer, builds the foundations of cartography. His world system places the Earth at the center of the universe with celestial bodies circling around it. c. 150 He sums up Greek science in his 13-volume Amalgest. The book also contained a summary of geographical knowledge with estimates of latitudes and longitudes for places in Europe. These would not be improved for 800 years. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the book was translated into Arabic in the Islamic world, and, later, into Latin and played a part in Europe's Renaissance

· 150 Modern numbers, the decimal system, and zero are developed in India by Aryabhata (incorrectly called Arabic Numerals)

· 190 The abacus (the first calculator) is invented in China

· 820 Muhammad Al-Kwarzimi of Baghdad writes treatises on Hindu mathemtics that passes algebra to the west. The Muslims also introduce the decimal system and number zero from India, as well as the Arabic numeral system used in the west.

· c1200 Abacus developed in China

· c. 1200 Arabic numerals replace Roman numerals in Europe

· 1513 Plus and minus signs are used in Europe by merchants to mark sacks of goods: + (surplus); - (less). The equal sign (=) is developed in 1557.

· 1601 Pierre de Fermat (French mathematician) "Last Theorem" is not proved for 350 years

· 1614 John Napier discovers logarithms.

· 1621 The Slide Rule is invented in England

· 1631 The multiplication sign (x) is used in Europe

· 1637 Rene Descartes develops analytical geometry

· 1642 Blaise Pascal develops the adding machine

· 1665 Isaac Newton develops calculus

· 1684 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's calculus published. 1673 Leibniz’ calculating machine.

· 1700 Bernoulli’s Theory of Probability

Social Sciences

Anthropology/Archaeology

· 1799 Rosetta Stone discovered in Egypt.

· 1959 Mary and Louis Leakey discover hominid fossils

Sociology

· Thorstein Veblen noted in “The Theory of the Leisure Class”—the book in which he coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption”—spending lavishly on expensive but essentially wasteful goods and services is “evidence of wealth” and the “failure to consume in due quantity and quality becomes a mark of inferiority and demerit.”

Unit Type	Unit Name	Symbol	Derivation
Length	metre	m	1/299,792,458 of the distance travelled by light in one second
Area	square metre		m^2
Volume	cubic metre		m^3
Time	second	s	9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the Caesium 133 atom.
Frequency	hertz	Hz	s^-1
Velocity	metre per second		m s^-1
Acceleration	metre per second squared		m s^-2
Mass	kilogram	kg	The mass of a Platinum-Iridium cylinder kept in Paris.
Density	kilogram per cubic meter		kg m^-3
Moment of Inertia	kilogram square meter		kg m^2
Force / Weight	newton	N	kg m s^-2
Energy / Work / Torque	joule	J	kg m^2 s^-2 (N m)
Power	watt	W	kg m^2 s^-3 (J s^-1)
Sound Intensity	watt per square meter		W m^-2
Surface Tension	newton per meter		N m^-1
Pressure	pascal	Pa	N m^-2
Compressibility	square meter per newton		m^2 N^-1
Temperature	kelvin	K	1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature at the triple point of water.
Thermal Conductivity	watt per metre per kelvin		W m^-1 K^-1
Entropy / Heat Capacity	joule per kelvin		J K^-1
Specific Heat Capacity	joule per kilogram per kelvin		J kg^-1 K^-1
Amount of Substance	mole	mol	The amount of substance which contains as many elementary units as there are atoms in 12 grams of pure Carbon 12
Luminous Intensity	candela	cd	The luminous intensity, in the perpendicular direction, of a surface of 1/60 square centimetre of a black body at the freezing temperature of Platinum under a pressure of 101,325 pascal (1 atmosphere).
Solid Angle	steradian	sr	The solid angle subtended at the centre of a sphere of radius r by a portion of the surface of the sphere having an area r^2.
Electric Current	ampere	A	The amount of current that if maintained in two parallel rectilinear conductors (of infinite length and negligible circular cross-section) placed 1 metre apart in a vacuum, would produce a force between these conductors equal to 2 × 10^-7 newton per metre.
Magnetic Field Strength	ampere per metre		A m^-1
Electric Charge	coulomb	C	A s
Potential Difference	volt	V	kg m^2 s^-3 A^-1
Electric Field Strength	volt per meter		V m^-1
Thermoelectric Power	volt per kelvin		V K^-1
Magnetic Flux	weber	Wb	V s
Inductance	henry	H	Wb A^-1
Permeability	henry per meter		H m^-1
Flux Density	tesla	T	kg s^-2 A^-1
Resistance / Impedance	ohm	W	V A^-1
Resistivity	ohm meter		V A^-1 m
Capacitance	farad	F	A^2 s^4 kg^-1 m^-2
Permittivity	farad per meter		F m^-1
Conductance	siemens	S	F s^-1
Electrical Conductivity	siemens per meter		S m^-1
Molar Conductivity	siemens square meter per mole		S m^2 mol^-1
Angle	radian	rad	The angle subtended at the centre of a circle by an arc of the circumference equal in length to the radius of the circle.

Prefix Name	Symbol	Multiple
tera	T	10^12
giga	G	10^9
mega	M	10^6
kilo	k	10^3
centi	c	10^-2
milli	m	10^-3
micro	µ	10^-6
nano	n	10^-9
pico	p	10^-12
femto	f	10^-15
atto	a	10^-18

Quantity	Symbol	Value
Velocity of light in a vacuum	c	2.997 925 × 10^8 m s^-1
Boltzmann Constant	k	1.380 54 × 10^-23 J K^-1
Planck Constant	h	6.625 59 × 10^-34 J s
Gravitational Constant	G	6.673 × 10^-11 N m^2 kg^-2
Acceleration of gravity on the Earth's surface	g	9.806 65 m s^-2
Stefan Constant		5.670 3 × 10^-8J K^-4 m^-2 s^-1
Faraday Constant	F	9.648 70 × 10^4 C mol^-1
Avogadro Constant	L	6.022 52 × 10^23 mol^-1
Charge on an electron	e	1.602 10 × 10^-19 C
Rest mass of electron	me	9.109 08 × 10^-31 kg
Hubble Constant	H	2.5 × 10^-18 m s^-1 m^-1
Gas Constant	R	8.314 34 J K^-1 mol^-1

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Revised: 10/4/06