General Studies Powerpoint presentation.

1. Nicolaus
Copernicus
Charles Darwin Marie Curie Albert
Einstein
Archimedes

2. • What did he discover?
-Central theory that earth rotates daily on its
axis and revolves yearly around the sun.
-When? March 1543 his book was published
-De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium'
('On the Revolutions of the Celestial
Spheres')

3. Nicolaus Corpenicus
• Belief before: Most people in his day thought that the
Earth was at the centre of the Universe.
• Plotmey theory: states that the earth lay at the centre of
the universe, with the sun, the moon, and the known
planets revolving around it in complicated orbits.
• How did this affect society?
-Forced other new ideas to come out
-started the movement of scientific fact over faith
Barriers Faced:
-Copernicus’ theory was attacked by scholars, especially
Protestants. Martin Luther claimed Copernicus wanted “to
prove that the earth moves and goes round…The fool wants
to turn the whole art of Astronomy upside down.

4. Nicolaus Corpenicus
• More Barriers faced:
- The Church refused to believe that their model
of the solar system was wrong.
- Catholics did not pay much attention to his
theory.
Revolution?
- Yes, it was a starting point for other scientists
e.g Newton
-However his work alone was not enough until
the observational work of Brahe was done.
By Salome Abeso

5.  Charles Darwin was a British scientist who built up the theory of evolution and changed the way we
think about the natural world. He was born in 12 February 1809.
At the time, people were very religious and believed God had created the world as described in the
bible (the 7days of creating then descended from Adam and Eve).
Charles went on a 6year voyage and on the Galapagos Islands, near South America, he noticed that
each island had a different form of finch. He came back to England in 1836 and thought about all of
his findings and with the help of his influences by the idea of evolution and ideas from Malthus, he
proposed the theory of evolution occurring by process of natural selection. This theory was that
animals and plants that are best suited to their environment are the most likely to survive and
reproduce, passing on their characteristics through genetics to help the offspring to survive and
during this process, the species often gradually change.
In 1859 his book called the ‘On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection’.
 Peoples reactions were varied but mostly his theory was disliked. People did not like change
therefor did not agree on this idea. The religious hated this theory most of all because their belief of
how the world and people were created did not match with Darwins theory on how humans were
formed and was destroyed. It was also opposed as others claimed that the ‘homo sapiens’ was just
another form of animal and Darwin had got it wrong.
However, this theory was the more logical idea that humans were evolved from apes and people
began to see it as the new idea on how we all evolved.
By Nicola
Frasier

6.  Marie Curie discovered radioactivity. She also discovered radium and polonium. She also found out that the
properties in X-rays were able to kill tumours.
 Using her husband’s electrometer, she discovered that uranium rays caused the air around a sample to
conduct electricity. Using this technique, her first result was the finding that the activity of the uranium
compounds depended on the amount of uranium present. She had come to the conclusion that the
radiation wasn’t the outcome an interaction of molecules, but must come from the atom itself.
• After a while she made another discovery. Her electrometer showed that pitchblende was four times as active as uranium
itself, and chalcocite twice as active. She concluded that these two minerals must contain small amounts of another
unknown substance that was far more active than uranium. On 14 April 1898, the Curies weighed out a 100-gram sample of
pitchblende and ground it with a pestle and mortar. They didn’t realize at the time that they needed a much larger amount to
find what they were looking for. In July 1898, Marie and her husband published a paper together, announcing they had
discovered an element which they named "polonium", in honour of her native Poland. On 26 December 1898, the Curies
announced the existence of a second element, which they named "radium" for its intense radioactivity. She became the first
woman to receive a Nobel prize.
• Before, there wasn’t any theory about radioactivity, they were discovering X-rays and leading in a direction towards
radioactivity, but ultimately it was Marie Curie who discovered it. There was also an impression about women at this time
which Marie seemed to change. In Poland she wasn’t allowed to proceed to higher education because of her gender, but after
she moved and received a Nobel prize the opinion on women, not being smart changed.
• The hypothesis that the radiation wasn’t the outcome an interaction of molecules, but must come from the atom itself, made
an important step in disproving that atoms were indivisible. During World War I, Marie saw that they needed radiological
centres near the front lines to help battlefield surgeons. After a quick study of radiology, anatomy and automotive mechanics
she obtained x-ray equipment, vehicles, auxiliary generators and developed mobile radiography units, which came to be
known as petites Curies. The discovery of radioactivity also made the medical industry find out that it could contribute to
certain illnesses like the one Marie died from. (aplastic anaemia)
• People in authority didn’t like the fact that a woman had made a great discovery. They almost didn’t allow Marie to have a
Nobel prize, they initially made it out to her husband, as he had helped with the discovery, but after his complaint, they then
offered it to Marie as well. There was also some debate over who discovered the elements as some people were trying to claim
that they had discovered them, but the discovery went to Marie.
By Charlotte Byrne

7. What did he discover?
Einstein discovered the theory of
relativity and the mass energy
equivalence.
When did he discover this?
Einstein’s theory of relativity was
discovered in 1905, and states that
nothing in the universe can travel
faster than the speed of light in a
vacuum.

8. How did his theory affect the society?
Einstein’s contribution on science was unique and important. His
major theories, which were general relativity, gravity waves quantum
theory, changed the view of the world of the nature. His discoveries are
responsible for: nuclear power, digital cameras, lasers, mobiles phones
etc.
What challenges did Einstein face?
During the war, the fact that he was a German Jew meant he had to over
come lots of prejudice. Einstein suffered from dyslexia and did not
learn to speak until the age of 5, he had trouble with language
throughout lower school.
How did he discover it?
According to Einstein, an apple falls to the ground not because it feels
the force of Earth's gravity but because of how the earth curves
By Vinanti Patel

9. - was a Greek mathematician, philosopher and inventor who
wrote important works on geometry, arithmetic and mechanics.

10.  Archimedes was born in
Syracuse (eastern coast of
Sicily)
 Educated in Alexandria in
Egypt.
 Returned to Syracuse,
where he spent most of
the rest of his life,
devoting his time to
research and
experimentation in many
fields

11.  The principle of the lever and is credited with inventing
the compound pulley (Mechanics)
 Move the earth with a lever
 The hydraulic screw for raising water from a lower to
higher level.
 He is most famous for discovering the law of hydrostatics,
sometimes known as 'Archimedes' principle‘.
 'Eureka!‘
 The catapult
 Mathematical processes

12.  Lever was useful in labouring jobs
 The law of hydrostatics and the mathematical ‘things’
he invented have benefited both maths and science
 The catapult helped with defence
 The hydraulic screw has been evolved and the principle
is still used
 Eureka is in the English dictionary.

13.  Local authority didn’t mind as they benefited from his
work
 Was killed by a Roman soldier because they didn’t
want him outsmarting their own inventors, mechanics
and mathematicians.
By Holly Vaughan