Calliope articles from February 2004

Calliope archives from February 2004

Musings.
February 1, 2004... Reasoning is not like carrying a load, where several pack horses can carry more sacks of grain than one alone. Reasoning is more like running--one high-spirited riding horse will outrun a hundred pack horses.--Galileo

Timeline.
February 1, 2004... TIME LINE 1564 Galileo Galilei is born in Pisa, Italy, February 15. 1609 Galileo builds the first nine-power telescope. 1610 With the telescope, Galileo discovers moons of the planet Jupiter. ...

The world of Galileo.
February 1, 2004... Here's an idea: As you read through this issue, think of questions Galileo might have challenged himself to answer. For example: How can I see distant objects more clearly, without physically getting closer? What makes a stick or cone float in...

Guilty as charged.
February 1, 2004... In June 1633, Galileo read a prescribed confession before the Inquisition in Rome. Included in the document were these words: After I was commanded to abandon the false opinion that the sun is the center of the universe and that the Earth...

Ptolemy versus Copernicus.
February 1, 2004... Every 24 hours, the sun, moon, planets, and stars make a complete circuit around the earth. Well... almost. Imagine the stars, millions and millions of miles away, attached to the inner surface of a very large sphere with the earth at its...

The Roman inquisition.
February 1, 2004... In the centuries before Galileo, the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church had the power of life and death over everyone in Europe, including kings and nobles. By the early 1600s, the rulers of some northern European countries no longer paid...

Galileo Galilei.
February 1, 2004... Galileo's life could have taken many directions. Born in the Italian city of Pisa in 1564, he was the son of a professional musician. At the time, sons routinely entered their fathers' professions, but Galileo's father wanted a more prestigious...

How to build Galileo's clock: time' for some fun.(Activity)
February 1, 2004... You Need: * a piece of string * a ruler * six large washers * a clock that counts seconds (for comparison) Can you construct a clock that keeps time perfectly? Can you build it in less than one minute? That may sound...

Seeking truth in Science.
February 1, 2004... Galileo was so good at mathematics that before he was 30 he was teaching the subject at the University of Padua, one of the best universities in Europe. Galileo taught Ptolemy's theories about astronomy to medical students so they could cast...

A window to the heavens.
February 1, 2004... What would astronomy be without the telescope? In Galileo's day, astrology preoccupied astronomers, who charted celestial bodies to cast horoscopes for rich patrons. Meanwhile, professors and church officials largely ignored Copernicus's theory...

Did you know?
February 1, 2004... The nine major planets that revolve around the sun are, in order of their increasing distance from the sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. Eight of the planets are named after ancient Greek and Roman...

An inquisitive mind.
February 1, 2004... Galileo unlocked some of nature's secrets through the use of seemingly simple inventions, including the telescope and the pendulum. Nothing was too small for his attention. He said only great minds could "divine that wonderful arts lie hid...

Build Galileo's telescope.(Activity)
February 1, 2004... You Need: * 2 lenses--one strong, one weak (You can use magnifying glasses, plastic magnifiers, or even reading glasses. Don't worry--there's no need to break them!) * 2 cardboard tubes * small piece of aluminum foil * tape...

No chains on the mind.
February 1, 2004... Soon after Galileo's conviction in 1633, Pope Urban allowed him to spend five months with his good friend, the archbishop of Siena. Although Galileo had felt, for a while, that his life was over, the kindly archbishop helped him see that he...

A daughter's love.
February 1, 2004... Sister Maria Celeste's letters begin, "Most illustrious lord father," "Most beloved lord father," or, occasionally, "Most illustrious and beloved lord father." Obvious is all of them--124 survive, bound together in an old volume in Florence's...

The Galileo spacecraft: another scientific revolution.(From Past to Present)
February 1, 2004... When Galileo Galilei discovered Jupiter's moon's, he never could have guessed that 400 years later, humans would send a spacecraft--with his name on it!--to visit them. Galileo and its Mission Imagine you are an explore in the...

Making history with Galileo: Calliope recently spoke with Galileo Project Manager Dr. Eilene Theilig about what it's like to work on a mission of this type. Galileo is operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.(From Past To Present)
February 1, 2004... What was Galileo's most exciting discovery? Most exciting was the identification of a layer of salty water beneath the frozen surface of Europa and the possibility that this warmer material has probably broken through to the surface in...

Word origins.(Fun With Words)
February 1, 2004... Constellation Astronomers have divided the sky into 88 constellations or groupings of stars. The prefix "con" is an adaptation of the Latin preposition "cum" ("with"). The root of the word, stella, is actually a Latin noun that translates into...

Word stories.(Fun With Words)
February 1, 2004... Astronomy/Astrology By definition, astronomy is the science of the universe in which the stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies are studied. If we dissect the term, we find that it is a combination of the Greek nouns astron ('star') and...

Was was Nero's Golden House?(Ask Calliope)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... ? Was was Nero's Golden House? --Amanda, 13, Web post ! In A.D. 64, the Roman emperor Nero began construction on a sprawling country palace within the city of Rome. It soon became known as the domus aurea, Latin for "golden house." The...

Who was Ramesses?(Ask Calliope)
February 1, 2004... ? Who was Ramesses? --Skippy, Web post ! There are many Ramesses in Egyptian history, but the most famous of all is Ramesses II, also known to history as Ramesses the Great. Ascending the throne at age 25, Ramesses set out to restore...

Why was Bloody Mary called Bloody Mary?(Ask Calliope)
February 1, 2004... ? Why was Bloody Mary called Bloody Mary? --Hank, Web post ! Mary Tudor (1516-1558) was given the name "Bloody Mary" because of her persecution of the Protestants in an attempt to restore Catholicism to England. During her reign as...

Books.(Off the Shelf)
February 1, 2004... Galileo Galilei: First Physicist by James MacLachlan (Oxford, 1997: www.oup-usa.org) combines carefully researched technical information with detailed and engaging personal stories. Well-chosen illustrations and easy-to-understand sidebars...

On the net.
February 1, 2004... For a terrific site about Galileo, his works, and his times, with numerous links to related topics, try: www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/ Mathematicians/Galileo.html For information about the Galileo Project, a hypertext source of...

Cobblestone resources.(Off the Shelf)
February 1, 2004... Materials that complement this theme's topic, "Galileo Galilei," and are available from Cobblestone Publishing (www.cobblestonepub.com) include: Women in Astronomy (ODYSSEY, March, 1994) Picturing the Universe (ODYSSEY, May, 1994) ...

A planetarium at work.(From Past To Present)
February 1, 2004... Picture entering a dimly-lit room where you must feel your way to your seat. Once seated, you are told to look up at what seems at first to be complete darkness. No, you are not in a movie theater ready to watch Terminator 3; you are in a...

Breaking barriers.(From Past To Present)
February 1, 2004... Imagine stepping into your backyard or a field near your home, closing your eyes, and then looking up at the sky. Now imagine someone telling you about the moon, or a group of stars? To be sure, you'd want to open your eyes and look for the...

Meet Noreen Grice: operations coordinator at the Charles Hayden Planetarium.(From Past To Present)
February 1, 2004... What are the benefits of visiting a planetarium? City lights often cast a glow over the night sky, making it hard to see all the stars. Actually, on an ordinary night in a city, you will see approximately 25 to 50 stars. But, if you're away...

Your mini-planetarium!
February 1, 2004... Do you love planetariums? Are you ready to be your own "starry messenger"? If you said yes to one or both of these questions, gather the supplies listed in the "You Need" box and start creating your own planetarium! That's right, you can create...