Puppet Pals

Hey Everyone!
Let me tell you about a project that I have been doing.
In my latest History class, I have been working on a video about Isaac Newton and his contributions to science. My specific group within our class has been working on the overall topic of the Scientific Revolution. So I chose to do one on one of the most famous scientists of all time.
Here is the transcript:

Sir Isaac Newton PRS MP ( 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727) was an English physicist and mathematician who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution.Newton changed the way that humans today look at gravity and science. Before Isaac Newton, the world of science was run by religion. After him, the world of science was much more of a thought based world.

Isaac Newton was born in a period of time now called the scientific revolution. Before his age, the scientific world was based on theories revolving around a higher power, for example, a god. Back in that time, the church was the ruler and the pope was often times more powerful then the king. (pic of a pope)

Isaac newton seeked to change that. From a very young age, Isaac newton was enthralled with the ways of science. He, some historians say, would spend a great deal of time doing nothing but look into space and ponder the ways of the universe. He, it appears, felt that god must not be the only answer. There must be something to the starry sky other than the church. Through his laws of gravity he showed that the world is the way it is because of the fact something called science. Newton’s laws are:

I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

II. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.

III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Let me tell you the story of the apple tree. A young Isaac Newton is sitting beneath an apple tree contemplating the mysterious universe. Suddenly - boink! -an apple hits him on the head. "Aha!" he shouts, or perhaps, "Eureka!" In a flash he understands that the very same force that brought the apple crashing toward the ground also keeps the moon falling toward the Earth and the Earth falling toward the sun: gravity.

Although this story is debatable whether or not it is one hundred percent fact, it is a great image of what Isaac Newton was thinking about and questioning all the time. Things that today we all take for granted was highly questioned and also very revolutionary during the time of Isaac Newton.

After the breakthrough thinking of Isaac Newton, the world shifted from a “higher power” dominated style of thinking to a much more thought provoking and science based explanation of the universe and science.

The conclusion that the "Earth circles the Sun," was reached and published by Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Halley. This is the "heliocentric theory."

Newton played an influential role in the Heliocentric vs. Geocentric conclusion and this is just one more breakthrough that Newton contributed to the scientific world.

So, why is it called Puppet Pals? Well, the video was (duh) filmed using the app puppet pals.
Here is the video,

Enjoy!!

What distinguishes one culture from another?

What distinguishes one culture from another?

Hank Sanders

Paul Monheimer

Cultures 7 (Yellow)

11/12/13

Culture, according to Google, is “the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular....people.” Social institutions, in particular, shape the culture. There are questions that one asks of its culture. “Who is in power?”, “How does one rise above the class that one is born into?”, “What are the freedoms in this culture?”.What truly defines a culture is the way it deals with domestic social hierarchy: the governing structure, class structure, and the freedoms of the culture.

A cultures leadership portrays the epitome of a culture. Feudal England was lead by kings who passed their power from father to son. The king ruled absolutely, and nobody challenged his power. In modern day America, the people choose through elections who they want as their leaders. This encourages participation and democracy. In China, the leader is chosen by the government. The people of China play barely any part in the decision. Because of the fact that in these cultures the answers to the questions are quite different, the governmental system of leadership is also different. And day in day out, life is different simply because of the way the people have the ability to pick their leaders. In feudal England and in modern China, the people have little say. In America, every member of the culture has an equal say.

The opportunity in a culture to rise above one's station is a distinguishing feature of that culture. In Feudal England, where the feudal pyramid prevailed, there were ‘serfs, then knights, then Barons, then the king’. If you were born a serf, chances are you would die a serf. In America, there is the saying 'the American dream'. This is the idea that one, no matter the upbringing that he/she is given can be whoever or whatever they want as long as they put their mind to it and work hard. In China, as a Han Chinese (not an ethnic minority i.e. Uyghur, Tibetan) the practice of leaving farming (peasant life) for the city (higher class life) is common. The opportunity for advancement in a culture changes the possibilities for its people.

The degree of freedom that a culture allows illustrates the way that that culture views the importance of its people. In Feudal England, you were free, until you spoke out against the king (be headings were not uncommon). In America, where freedom is a treasured right, there is freedom of speech, and everything else a human can do except if it is against the law. In China, a Communist state, people’s freedoms are severely limited. People cannot speak about anything related to the government’s way of leadership. The crackdown of student protests in Tienanmen square in 1989 shows us that in China, the government’s safety precedes yours. Because of the fact that in these cultures one’s freedoms are quite different, the way that people are able to lead their life freely, varies.

 

A culture is defined by the way the society is organized. The way a culture chooses its leaders, allows for social mobility, and grants freedom of speech defines that culture. In feudal England, there was little chance for power outside of the royal family, there was little room for movement up the feudal pyramid, and freedom of speech was limited. In modern America, the people of the culture vote for their leaders, are able to move up down and around the social status that they were born into, and are granted the utmost freedom of speech. In China, the government decides the leaders for the people, the social status is somewhat fluid, but freedom is very limited. Cultures, something that although large and powerful, are constantly changing and shifting according to the people who encompass the culture. One year one culture might have some point of view on some particular issue, and the next year they have a totally different view. This is because cultures are people. And the way those people organize their society determines the distinguishing traits of their culture.

sources: Wikipedia, Brainy Quotes, Wiki Answers