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Life and Writings. John Stuart Mill was born in London on May 20, 1806, and was the eldest of son of James Mill. He was educated entirely by his father, James Mill, and was deliberately shielded from association with other boys of his age. From his earliest years, he was subjected to a rigid system …

The chemical engineer is an invaluable link between scientific principles and manufacturing realities. It involves the use of chemical, physical, and engineering principles. The scientist in a laboratory does basic research to develop new compounds and processes. When the scientist discovers a product that may be useful, the chemical engineer takes over. They adapt the …

The scientific method is the process by which scientists, collectively and over time, endeavor to construct an accurate (that is, reliable, consistent and non-arbitrary) representation of the world. Recognizing that personal and cultural beliefs influence both our perceptions and our interpretations of natural phenomena, we aim through the use of standard procedures and criteria to …

“To accept anything as true means to incur the risk of error. If I limit myself to knowledge that I consider true beyond doubt, I minimize the risk of error, but at the same time I maximize the risk of missing out on what may be the subtlest, most important, and most rewarding things in …

Descartes overall objective in the Meditations is to question knowledge. To explore such issues as the existence of God and the separation of mind and body, it was important for him to distinguish what we can know as truth. He believed that reason as opposed to experience was the source for discovering what is of …

Sir Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642 (according to the Julian calendar which was in use then; the date was January 4, 1643, according to the GRegorian calendar in use today0, at Woolsthorpe near Grantham in Lincolnshire. His widowed mother remarried when he was three years old, leaving him in the care of …

Each year students across the nation are forced into rooms where no talking is allowed. They come equipped with number two pencils and a years preparation. They are there to take a standardized test. In Texas this test is called the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. Many students walk into this test knowing that they …

Archimedes was a native of Syracuse, Sicily. Some authors have said that he visited Egypt and invented a device there now known as Archimedes’ screw. This screw is a pump, still used in many parts of the world. When Archimedes was a young man, he studied with the descendants of Euclid in Alexandria. He was …

The roots of Six Sigma as a measurement standard go back to Carl Frederick Gauss (1777-1885) who introduced the concept of normal curve. Six Sigma as a measurement standard in product variation can be traced back to the 1920’s when Walter Shewhart showed that three sigma, from the mean is the point where a process …

One of the smartest people ever to live, Albert Einstein, changed our society’s development forever with his views, theories, and developments. Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879. He was the only son of Hermann and Pauline Kech Einstein. He spent his youth in Munich, where his family owned a small electrical …

From stick figures in the sand and the earliest animals painted and carved in stone, people worldwide have reacted to the world by making images. The fundamental goal of art, especially in the past, was to convey meaning and express important ideas, revealing what was significant to every society, by arresting images. In recognizing the …

In the early 17th century a philosopher named Descartes, questioned his existence. His life was dedicated to the founding of a philosophical and mathematical system in which all sciences were logical. Descartes was born in 1596 in Touraine, France. His education consisted of attendance to a Jesuit school of La Fleche. He studied a liberal …

As the fourteenth century ushered out the Middle Ages in Italy, a new period of cultural flowering began, known as the Renaissance. This period in history was famous for its revival of classical themes and the merging of these themes with the Catholic Church. These themes of humanism, naturalism, individualism, classicism, and learning and reason …

Pi occurs in various mathematical calculations. The circumference (c) of a circle can be determined by multiplying the diameter (d) by : c = d. The area (A) of a circle is determined by the square of the radius (r): A = r2. Pi is applied to mathematical problems involving the lengths of arcs or …

John Hersey was born in China. His parents were missionaries and raised him in a religious fashion. # His humanistic views were a product of this upbringing. After graduating from Yale, class of 1936#, he dabbled in the art of poetry. # Soon after, he advanced into writing novels. Thought to be one of the …

Descartes believes that knowledge comes from within the mind, a single indisputable fact to build on that can be gained through individual reflection. While seeking true knowledge, Descartes writes his Six Meditations. In these meditations, Descartes tries to develop a strong foundation, which all knowledge can be built upon. In the First Meditation, Descartes begins …

“At birth, infants with intrauterine exposure to alcohol frequently have low birth rate; pre-term delivery; a small head circumference; and the characteristic facial features of the eyes, nose, and mouth” (Phelps, 1995). Some of the facial abnormalities that are common of children with FAS are: small head size, small eye openings, broad nasal bridge, flattened …

Almost everything in our culture today has been influenced by and/or relates to an ancient civilization. The Egyptians, Babylonians, and Sumerians are three major contributors to today’s contemporary culture. The Sumerian civilization had many technological advances, they developed a form of writing, at the same time they trained people to write, developing basic schools like …

Physics began when man first started to study his surroundings. Early applications of physics include the invention of the wheel and of primitive weapons. The people who built Stone Henge had knowledge of physical mechanics in order to move the rocks and place them on top of each other. It was not until during the …

Roots of modern psychology remain in the past at the time of ancient Greece, yet the beginning of psychology has been around for nearly a century. Its exact date is 1879, in Leipzig, Germany. Leipzig was the first laboratory for experimental psychology. Wilhelm Wundt was really the first person to actually call himself a psychologist. …

In his Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes looks back on his life and realizes that a great number of his opinions have been false. Subsequently, the knowledge he has built up over his life must also be markedly false, seeing as it is based upon such incorrect opinions. He resolves to …

It was a cold, crisp, and damp morning on the Florida Space Coast as the space shuttle Challenger raced through the sky at speeds approaching mach 2 at an altitude of 104,000 feet when something went perilously wrong. All of America watched, including the family members of the seven doomed crew members, as Challenger exploded …

The Maya of Mesoamerica, along with the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru, made up the high civilizations of the American Indians at the time of the Spanish conquest. Both the Aztecs and the Incas were late civilizations, between 1300-1533 AD, but the Maya of the Yucatan and Guatemala exhibited a cultural continuity …

Satellite is probably the most useful invention since the wheel. Satellites have the capability to let you talk with someone across the nation or let you close a business deal through video communication. Almost everything today is heading towards the use of satellites, such as telephones. At&t has used this communications satellite (top right) ever …

It was an average Tuesday evening, December 7, 1993, when a group of commuters on a Long Island Rail Road car came face to face with the sort of terror most people see only on television. Without warning, a Jamaican immigrant named Colin Ferguson pulled out a pistol and started firing at random, killing 6 …