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Hello fellow students!

Class Starter: Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton was an English Physicist and Mathematician born Christmas Day of 1642 in Lincolnshire, England. He was born three months after the death of his father, a prosperous farmer also named Isaac Newton. He was born prematurely to Hannah Ayscough. When he was 3, his mother remarried reverend Barnabus Smith, leaving him with her Grandmother. Newton swore death to the Smiths.

From the age of about twelve until he was seventeen, Newton was educated at The King's School, Grantham. He was removed from school, and by October 1659, he was to be found at Woolsthorpe[|-]by-Colsterworth,, where his mother, widowed by now for a second time, attempted to make a farmer of him. Henry Stokes, master at the King's School, persuaded his mother to send him back to school so that he might complete his education. Motivated partly by a desire for revenge against a schoolyard bully, he became the top-ranked student. He then went of to college at Trinity college, Cambridge.

Although he had been undistinguished as a Cambridge student, Newton's private studies at his home in Woolsthorpe over the subsequent two years saw the development of his theories on calculus,  optics and the law of gravitation. One day, Newton sat under a tree and it hit him on the head. According to story, this caused him to have a breakthrough. Probably the more correct version of the story is that Newton, upon observing an apple fall from a tree, began to think along the following lines: The apple is accelerated, since its velocity changes from zero as it is hanging on the tree and moves toward the ground. Thus, by Newton's 2nd Law there must be a force that acts on the apple to cause this acceleration. Let's call this force "gravity", and the associated acceleration the "accleration due to gravity". Then imagine the apple tree is twice as high. Again, we expect the apple to be accelerated toward the ground, so this suggests that this force that we call gravity reaches to the top of the tallest apple tree. This series of things led him to his first real scientific observations.

Now came Newton's truly brilliant insight: if the force of gravity reaches to the top of the highest tree, might it not reach even further; in particular, might it not reach all the way to the orbit of the Moon! Then, the orbit of the Moon about the Earth could be a consequence of the gravitational force, because the acceleration due to gravity could change the velocity of the Moon in just such a way that it followed an orbit around the earth. Newton used an example of a cannon shooting into the sky and due to gravity, it must receed back down to the dirt.

 The fact that the sun was the actual center of the universe came from Isaac Newton in 1687, when he published his Principia. The main steps of the logic go like this:

1) gravity is a force that acts at a distance (the concept of a force acting at a distance was not well accepted until then)

2) the strength of this force depends on the mass of the objects involved and on the distance separating them.

3) gravity was sufficient to explain the movement of all planets around the Sun

4) knowing how fast one body moved in its orbit around another, it was possible to calculate the mass of the other body

5) knowing how fast Earth moved around its orbit, it was possible to calculate the mass of the Sun. Newton died in his sleep in London on 20 March 1727 (OS 20 March 1726; NS 31 March 1727) and was buried in Westminister Abbey. Voltaire was present at his funeral and praised the British for honoring a scientist of heretical religious beliefs with burial there. A bachelor, he had divested much of his estate to relatives during his last years, and died intestacy. After his death, Newton's hair was examined and found to contain mercury, probably resulting from his alchemical pursuits. Mercury Poisoning could explain Newton's eccentricity in late life.  Newton never married. Although it is impossible to verify, it is commonly believed that he died a virgin , as has been commented on by such figures as mathematician Charles Hutton,  economist John Maynard Keynes, and physicist Carl Sagan.

Aeschines Aeschines was a politician. I picked Aeschines Because he was very humble. he didn't comefrom very much and made the most of what he got. I also chose him because he reminds me of a friend of mine. I believe Machiavelli should be on their as he was one of the best philosophers in that time. How is he connected to the Renaissance? I'd like to hear more! -SW

Primary Source: Mongolian Trebuchet As the Mongolians were on a straight onslaught of the entire world, some factions were fed up with being number 2. They built castles that were up to 100 feet tall! the Mongols thought they were through until they unveiled an ingenious idea that would revolutionize warfare. It was a wooden beam that was set at an angle of 75 degrees with a beam attached at 150 degrees to the base. It also had some soft of contraption that had a rope with a sling attached to hurl rocks rather than any man could ever imagine. The Mongolian army under Genghis Khan and his descendants used these relatively light siege machines for easy mobility. A trebuchet works by using the energy of a raised counterweight to throw a projectile. Upon releasing the trigger, the sling and the beam swing upward, pivoting on the axle toward the vertical position, whereupon one end of the sling releases, opening the pouch and allowing the projectile to fly towards the target. **//__Primary Source__//**:

Lycurgus Cup

The ** Lycurgus Cup ** is a 4th-century Roman glass cage cup made of a dichronic glass, which shows a different coloor depending on whether or not light is passing through it. it depicts the mythical King Lycurgus, who (depending on the version) tried to kill Ambrosia, a follower of the god Dionysus (Bacchus to the Romans). She was transformed into a vine that twined around the enraged king and restrained him, eventually killing him. Dionysus and two followers are shown taunting the king. The cup is the "only well-preserved figural example" of a cage cup. It was made in either Alexandria or Rome in or around 290-235 AD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycurgus_Cup http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/t/the_lycurgus_cup.aspx

Very interesting story and concise analysis. Good job. -Jake B