Thursday, March 19, 2020

Free Essays on Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, a premature child. He was born in Weil, in Swabia, a wine region in Southwest Germany not far from France. Kepler waent to the University of Tuebingen, a Protestant institution, where he studied mainly theology and philosophy, but also mathematics and astronomy. After Kepler graduated from Tuebingen, he was offered a professorship of astronomy in faraway Graz, Styria where he went in 1954. One of the duties of this Professorship was to make astrological predictions. While lecturing to his math class in Graz, contemplating some geometric figure involving Concentric Circles and triangles on the backboard, Kepler suddenly realized that figures of the type shown here determine a definite fixed ratio between the sizes of the two circles, provided the triangle has all sides equal, and a different ratio between the sizes will occur for a square between the two cirtcles, another for a regular pentagon. He really believed in the Copernicah Sy stem, so he saw the planetary orbits as six concentric circles. He felt the universe would somehow show mathematical beauty of symmetry. He suggested that the orbits might be arranged so that regular polygons would just fit between adjacent ones, and maybe somehow this reflected some invisible underlying structure holding it all together. Disappointingly, he found it just didn’t work the ratio’s where wrong. Then he had another inspiration. The universe was three-dimensional, and instead of thinking about circles, he should be thinking about spheres, with the planetary orbits along the equators. The anologue would be two concentric spheres with a tetrahedron between them, so that the outer sphere passes through the verticles of the tetrahedron, and the inner sphere touches all its sides, but is completely contained in the tetrahedron. There were just six planets, so five spaces between spheres, and there are just five regular solids... Free Essays on Johannes Kepler Free Essays on Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler was born on December 27, 1571, a premature child. He was born in Weil, in Swabia, a wine region in Southwest Germany not far from France. Kepler waent to the University of Tuebingen, a Protestant institution, where he studied mainly theology and philosophy, but also mathematics and astronomy. After Kepler graduated from Tuebingen, he was offered a professorship of astronomy in faraway Graz, Styria where he went in 1954. One of the duties of this Professorship was to make astrological predictions. While lecturing to his math class in Graz, contemplating some geometric figure involving Concentric Circles and triangles on the backboard, Kepler suddenly realized that figures of the type shown here determine a definite fixed ratio between the sizes of the two circles, provided the triangle has all sides equal, and a different ratio between the sizes will occur for a square between the two cirtcles, another for a regular pentagon. He really believed in the Copernicah Sy stem, so he saw the planetary orbits as six concentric circles. He felt the universe would somehow show mathematical beauty of symmetry. He suggested that the orbits might be arranged so that regular polygons would just fit between adjacent ones, and maybe somehow this reflected some invisible underlying structure holding it all together. Disappointingly, he found it just didn’t work the ratio’s where wrong. Then he had another inspiration. The universe was three-dimensional, and instead of thinking about circles, he should be thinking about spheres, with the planetary orbits along the equators. The anologue would be two concentric spheres with a tetrahedron between them, so that the outer sphere passes through the verticles of the tetrahedron, and the inner sphere touches all its sides, but is completely contained in the tetrahedron. There were just six planets, so five spaces between spheres, and there are just five regular solids...

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

When in Doubt, Leave Scare Quotes Out

When in Doubt, Leave Scare Quotes Out When in Doubt, Leave Scare Quotes Out When in Doubt, Leave Scare Quotes Out By Mark Nichol When quotation marks are employed to suggest the irony or dubious validity of a word or phrase, or the writer’s remove from credit or blame for its use, they are called scare quotes. However, other uses- to introduce a new or unfamiliar term, to signal that a term is not being used in its traditional or literal sense, or to provide emphasis- are usually heavy-handed and seldom aid in clarity of composition. The sentences below, accompanied by discussions and revisions, provide examples of extraneous use of scare quotes. 1. Next, we will discuss the so-called â€Å"high-impact, low-likelihood† risks. The phrase so-called serves the same function as scare quotes, so using both in a sentence is redundant: â€Å"Next, we will discuss the so-called high-impact, low-likelihood risks.† However, be just as cautious in the use of so-called as in employment of scare quotes; the term is rarely useful and therefore unlikely to be necessary. In this case, it would be better to identify who characterizes the risks that way (â€Å"Next, we will discuss what John Smith calls high-impact, low-likelihood risks†), to use passive construction to soften the introduction by writing something like â€Å"Next, we will discuss what are called high-impact, low-likelihood risks,† or to omit any qualification at all: â€Å"Next, we will discuss the high-impact, low-likelihood risks.† 2. Risk management should be an embedded process that ultimately becomes part of the company’s â€Å"DNA.† Here, DNA is being used figuratively to refer to something that is a fundamental part of an organization, but the fact that it is not being employed literally does not justify scare quotes; the metaphorical use is clear: â€Å"Risk management should be an embedded process that ultimately becomes part of the company’s DNA.† 3. It is imperative to understand â€Å"what to do† as well as â€Å"what not to do.† Although the phrases â€Å"what to do† and â€Å"what not to do† are being presented as categorical concepts conceivably spoken or written as part of an effort to inform, this usage does not merit any emphasis: â€Å"It is imperative to understand what to do as well as what not to do.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should KnowFive Spelling Rules for "Silent Final E"Supervise vs. Monitor