Uber grows and will soon host “flying taxis”

London (Giulia Faloia) – Uber is famous for giving the possibility to share a car and travel in a cheap and comfortable way. But it’s evolving now and it’s choosing between Japan, France, Brazil, Australia and India for its flying transport test site.

Two US test cities have already been announced, Dallas and Los Angeles. Demonstration flights will be done in 2020 and – as the company says- they will provide a commercial service in 2023.

“Uber Air” – as the service will be called – will use electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles to make short flights in urban spaces. A six month consultation period will be necessary. After that the final test cities will be announced.

Uber’s flying taxies is a project that was born only two years ago, but the company has already convened two well-attended summits and landed dozens of partners in aircraft manufacturing, battery technology, real estate and government regulation.

There are still many points that must be clarified and improved such as the tech that will have to support this type of service, the need for batteries lightweight enough to power the shorts flights across the cities in one possible hurdle and the willingness of costumers to trust Uber to keep them safe while flying above dense, heavily populated cities.

Drones have a huge importance in Uber’s plans too. In fact Uber Eats is a huge source of revenue for the company and it’s nowadays the fastest-growing meal-delivery service in the US.

In addition, Uber said that the Asia-Pacific region is the fastest-growing market for Eats globally, with food delivery trips growing six times over the past 12 months.

Recently Uber has been working with the Federal Aviation Administration, the US Department of Transportation and the City of San Diego, collecting many successful test flights.

Turing: Maths & Music …the seven musical notes

Luisa Liu
LONDON– Where is nowadays’ elettronic music from? And where is the synthesizer from?
It was Alan Turing -an English scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and biologistas, as well as the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence- who created the first artificial music in 1951, 65 years ago.
Actually, Turing highly influences the development of theoretical computer science, providing a diagnosis of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which is wide considered a model of a general purpose computer.
Turing contributes a lot to innovate the tecnology and the music, revolutionizing the computer so that it becomes a musical instrument. Nobody has ever thought about it.
During the Second World War, Turing did a lot against the Nazis. He played a crucial role in cracking intercepted coded messages that enable the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many critical engagements, including the Battle of the Atlantic. It has been estimated that thanks to his work the war in Europe was shortensed by as many as four years. That’s incredible, just admirable.
After the war, Turing designed the Automatic Computing Engine, an early eletronic stored-program computer design. He also helped Max Newman to develop the Manchester computers. He predicted oscillating chemical reactions, he discover this, he created that, he did so much for the UK, for the Allies, for all the world; …nevertheless, Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts. Such behaviour was still a criminal act in the UK. He accepted treatment with the chemical castration as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954 from cyanide poisoning, noboby does really know whether it is a suicide or an accidental poisoning.
Only 55 years after his death, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for his treatment. Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013.

The Oscar winning movie “The imitation game” told his story, but the link between the matematician Turing and the music had not been highlighted yet.
Canterbury university’s Researchers found the original record, made 65 years ago in Bbc’s study, which contains only three piece:
God Save the King“, the british national anthem;
Baa, baa, black sheep“, a song for children;
In the mood“, a famous song of the American Gleen Miller.
But the professor John Copeland e the composer Jason Long found out that the tape was seriously damaged. Therefore, only after a long time of hard working, the tape was restorated. During the break of “In the mood”, you can hear an ironic comment “In this piece, he was certainly in no mood”.
Thanks also to Christopher Stracey, who remind the name of Turing, today even we can hear the elettronic-music-tape once again, even we can live it once again.

International astronomers unlock secrets of intergalactic space blob

An international team of astronomers led by the University of Hertfordshire have solved the mysteries of a giant space blob by witnessing galaxies forming inside the intergalactic gas cloud.

Lyman-alpha Blobs (LABs) are gigantic clouds of hydrogen gas that can span hundreds of thousands of light years and glow far more brightly than scientists expect. And since their discovery, the processes that makes LABs glow so intensely has been an astronomical puzzle, until now. Scientists, led by Dr James Geach from the University’s Centre for Astrophysics Research, have confirmed that young galaxies are forming within the blobs, causing them to glow.

One of the largest LABs known, is SSA22-Lyman-alpha blob 1, also simply known as LAB-1. Within LAB-1 the team of scientists have found that two galaxies are forming and the blob is actually creating stars at a rate 100 times faster than our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It this intense nature of star formation that is lighting up the gas cloud so brightly.

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Lead author Dr Geach explained: ‘Think of a streetlight on a foggy night — you see the diffuse glow because light is scattering off the tiny water droplets. A similar thing is happening here, except the streetlight is an intensely star-forming galaxy and the fog is a huge cloud of intergalactic gas. The galaxies are illuminating their surroundings.’

LAB-1 is the very first object of its kind discovered and was found 15 years ago. It is located so far away that its light has taken approximately 11.5 billion years to reach Earth. It measures 300,000 light years across and is three times larger than the Milky Way.

To monitor such a large mass, the international team, led by the University of Hertfordshire, used the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), a group of highly developed telescopes that can observe light from dust clouds in distant galaxies millions of light years away.

This meant they could accurately pinpoint several sources of radiation and light within the space blob, where they spotted the two young, growing elliptical galaxies. They then combined the ALMA images with observations from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument mounted on European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). This maps the light that is emitted from the blob, known as Lyman-alpha light and it showed that the sources of light are the forming stars in the very heart of the Lyman-alpha Blob.

Then deep imaging with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and spectroscopy at the W. M. Keck Observatory showed in addition that the ALMA sources are surrounded by numerous faint companion galaxies that could be bombarding the central ALMA sources with material, helping to drive their high star formation rates.
Dr Geach added: ‘What’s exciting about these blobs is that we are getting a rare glimpse of what’s happening around these young, growing galaxies. For a long time the origin of the extended Lyman-alpha light has been controversial. But with the combination of new observations and cutting-edge simulations, we think we have solved a 15-year-old mystery: Lyman-alpha Blob-1 is the site of formation of a massive elliptical galaxy that will one day be the heart of a giant cluster. We are seeing a snapshot of the assembly of that galaxy 11.5 billion years ago.’

Are we alone in the Universe?

From the beginning the spark of life is everywhere, longing to spring up in the universe.

The Human Phenomenon – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( 1881 – 1955 ).

On May 10th NASA’s Kepler mission announced the discovery of the largest collection of planets ever to be found, a staggering 1,284. Launched in March 2009, Kepler is the first NASA mission to have detected earth – size planets orbiting stars in or near the habitable zone – the orbital region around a star in which liquid water may pool on a planet’s surface.

We have been learning more and more about the origin and structure of the universe, whilst yet remaining in complete ignorance as to whether or not mankind remains the only living system.

Some time before the launch of the Kepler telescope the mathematician Amir Aczel in his book Probability 1 went to great pains to demonstrate the existence of other intelligent life in the universe simply by applying the Drake equation. In fact, according to the astronomer Frank Drake ( 1930  – ) the number ( N ) of possible extra-terrestrial civilisations depends on the product of seven factors, or variables: i) N*, the number of stars in our galaxy; ii) fp , the fraction of those stars with planetary systems; iii) ne , the number of planets per star with environments favourable to the formation of life; iv) fl , the fraction of suitable planets on which life actually appears; v) fi , the fraction of planets on which intelligent life evolves; vi) fc , the fraction of planets with civilizations able to communicate; vii) L, the length of time such civilizations release detectible signs into space.

When seven dice are tossed the probability of achieving a number seven is given by the product of getting a number one from each die, i.e. 1/6 ·1/6 · 1/6 · 1/6 ·1/6 · 1/6 ·1/6, or ( 1/6 ) 7 , where the symbol (·) as used in mathematical equations means multiply. In similar fashion, the probability of getting  (N ) intelligent civilisations in our galaxy is given by N* · fp · ne · fl · fi · fc · L.

The conclusion arrived at by Drake and Aczel was that the existence of intelligent life in the Milky Way was a certainty. Let us now tackle the Drake equation once more, this time using a more prudent approach.

If we estimate the number of stars in the Milky Way to be 300 billion, then ( N* ) where only 5% ( fp )  are sun-like would be N* · fp =  300 billion  · 0.05 = 15 billion.

According to the astronomer Mayor, who discovered the first extra solar planet, every sun-like star possesses at least one planet. This assumption the Kepler mission has now validated. In addition, if the research community is to believed, there could be many more planets than sun-like stars. Thus, if we seek  to determine which planets are orbiting a distant star in the habitable zone, there should be at least 15 billion planets for us to investigate. Several scientists interviewed by Aczel are of the opinion that the fraction of planets with chemistry suitable for triggering the lottery of life should be in the region of 10%. Using a far more conservative estimate we might say it could be in the region of 0.1%, or 0.001 ( ne ).

Thus, N* · fp · ne = 15 million.

Even though a statistically based estimate of the fraction of planets with the right environmental factors for life is not possible, scientists involved in Drake’s equation have conjectured that the value of the factor, or variable, fl, should be 10%, or 0,1. By adopting a rather more conservative approach, dividing 0,1 by 100, fl becomes equal to 0,001. Thus, N* · fp · ne · fl = 15,000.

While it remains arguable whether intelligence is not just a fluke in the genetic development of life, there is a considerable difference between life and intelligent life. According to the scientists discussing Drake’s equation, of all planets supporting life the proportion of those supporting intelligent life, fi, could be in the region of 10%. Again dividing by 100 in pursuit of a more prudent approach, we obtain fi = 0.001.

Thus, by multiplying: N* · fp · ne · fl · fi , we find 15 intelligent planets in the Milky Way.

The Greek, Roman, Egyptian or Mayan civilisations did not have the means to communicate with other extra-terrestrial worlds, thus the factor fc of Drake’s equation can be considered as a sort of technological index, whilst the factor L marks the longevity of a civilisation, given that intelligent civilisations may eventually destroy themselves. An estimate of L might be the distance in time between Marconi inventing the radio and the destruction of Hiroshima.

Several scientists have attributed a probability ratio of about 3 % to both factors fc  and L. By once again dividing both percentages by 100 for prudence sake, we could complete the Drake equation as follows,

N = 15 · 0.032/1002 = 0.00000135. In this way we arrive not at the certainty promulgated by Drake and Aczel, but at the evanescent 1.35 / 1,000,000 probability of the existence of other intelligent planets in the Milky Way.

According to the latest estimates by astrophysicists there are at least 100 billion galaxies in the Universe.

By applying the above evanescent probability to each and every galaxy, we would then have, according to the Law of Large Numbers, 0.00000135 · 100,000,000,000 = 135,000 overall intelligent planets.

In order to determine the probability of Earth being the most intelligent planet, given the complete dearth of information, the principle of symmetry has to be applied, namely that all planets have the same probability of securing first prize. This probability is equal to 1/135,000, or 0,0000074074.

The diameter of the Milky Way spans over 200,000 light-years of space and it takes 50,000 years for the light from its centre to reach the Earth. Bearing in mind that light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, in one earth year light travels almost six trillion miles.

The closest star to Earth is Alpha Centauri, situated at a distance of 4.3 light-years. A hypothetical phone conversation with inhabitants of a planet orbiting this star would last several dozen years, since one would have to wait no less than nine years to get an answer to any question one might wish to pose. In short, should we receive a signal of whatever kind from another intergalactic civilisation, it is quite possible that by the time we receive the signal that civilisation may have disappeared.

Stellar distances preserve Earth’s future from extra-terrestrial aggressors, but not from internal ones.

 

Ennio Falabella                                                                                                                         London, 3rd August  2016

Creation: Chance or Design?

 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Bible, Genesis.

For physics and science in general, 11th February 2016 is an important historical date, marking the confirmation of the existence of gravitational waves, predicted almost one century ago by Albert Einstein.

This breakthrough will allow us to understand not only how and why the universe is expanding, but why it is doing so at an ever increasing rate, as envisaged in the theory of the Big Bang. This theory is the prevailing model for explaining the origin of the universe, tracing its birth back to the explosion about 15 billion years ago of a single point of infinite temperature and density.

One of the first questions that will have crossed the minds of our distant ancestors must have been, whence and why has this world of ours sprung into being? Followed by, what is its purpose, its goals? Civilisations down the ages have all come up with various answers in their myths and legends, and in their religious and philosophical beliefs.

Ever since taking its first faltering steps, science, in its study of the behaviour of matter, has been in pursuit of an objective and incontrovertible answer, arriving at last at the pivotal question, how has life sprung out of matter? Or more precisely, how is it possible that the ability of the human mind to judge what is right has its origins in inanimate matter? Can it be everything occurring in the universe after the first instant of creation has its own rationale, or design, or has everything come about solely as a result of a sequence of fortuitous physical phenomena?

Astronomers, physicians, chemists, physicists, biologists, palaeontologists and so on have all laboured to contribute their mite to decipher the tracks of life in an ever changing universe. As the starting point of the universe, astrophysicists take the first billionths of a second after creation, at a time when the whole universe was unbelievably small, billions and billions of times smaller than the nucleus of a single atom even.

Subsequently, an infinite ocean of energy gave rise to billions of galaxies. Thus did our solar system explode into being about 4.5 billion years ago, whilst about 3.8 billion years ago, the oldest rocks took shape on earth, where eventually – about 3 billion years ago – life itself arose from a sort of ‘prebiotic soup’. Darwin ( 1809 – 1882 ) first conceived of life as originating in some ‘warm little pond’ replete with ammonia, sulphates and electrical charges. More recently the biologists, Alexander Oparin ( 1894 – 1980) and JBS Haldane ( 1892 – 1964), postulated that life came about as a result of chemical evolution, and that earth’s primordial sea served as a vast chemical laboratory powered by solar energy.

Matter started to replicate and differentiate itself – in other words, to live. Thereafter mutation and adaptation fuelled the potential of the first unicellular animals to acquire a variety of complexities. About 500 million years ago there appeared on earth the first multicellular animals endowed with hard parts within their bodies. High on the Canadian Rocky Mountains in the Burgess Shale, one of the earliest fossil beds containing the imprints of soft-bodied animals and algae, have been found several models of organisation of fauna, of which only one corresponds to our own species, Pykaia, a chordate organism endowed with a spine. It would appear that life had originally proposed a series of models, but natural selection had then favoured just one single species. About 225 million years ago a mass extinction of unknown origin eliminated 95% of all marine species. Again, around 65 million years ago, many species, including dinosaurs, were extinguished, most probably because of the impact of a gigantic meteorite hitting the Yucatán Peninsula, which altered the atmospheric conditions of the earth.

The differentiation of hominids from anthropomorphic apes took place about 4.5 million years ago.

The descent with modification ( Darwin’s preferred expression for evolution ) of this species subsequently gave rise, amongst others, to homo habilis, homo erectus and homo sapiens neanderthalensis. In much more recent times modern man or homo sapiens sapiens ( as anthropologists call him ) entered the arena. According to paleontological finds these last comers destroyed the Neanderthal civilization about 40.000 thousand years ago.

Then around 10,000 years ago the domestication of wild animals, as well as the cultivation of wild plants to make them edible, triggered the Neolithic Revolution and led to the first human urban settlements. Thus did a unique and uniquely modified sliver of matter exert ever-increasing dominion over a constantly widening environment. And mankind began transmitting the chronicle of its own history. In the end, are human beings the final outcome of a series of unforeseeable accidents or of some grand design? The ancient Greek version of the Prologue of St. John’s Gospel starts, at the beginning was the ‘logos’. Later, the word ‘logos’ was translated into Latin as ‘verbum,’ and finally in English and German as ‘word’.

In ancient Greek logos means word, and also reason. The German philosopher W.F. Hegel ( 1770 – 1831 ) declared that only reason is real and only reality is reasonable. Whatever appears as accidental or fortuitous, has in actual fact been wisely decreed and manoeuvred by the astuteness of reason. And throughout the course of history one can see the way the World Spirit, or reason, exploits itself.

The Noble Prize winner for Medicine, George Wald ( 1906 – 1997), talking about the dilemma of creation, said that given so much time the ‘impossible’ becomes possible, the possible becomes probable, and the probable virtually certain. One has to wait: time itself performs the miracles. Ennio Falabella London, 29th March 2016

Hard Choices What for you is of greatest value? – Whatever I choose.

What for you is of greatest value? – Whatever I choose.

Amartya Sen and Bernard Williams: Utilitarianism and beyond.

Volatile and political constraints are making it ever harder to preserve our standard of living or attain our heart’s desire. As human beings our behaviour is to a large extent goal-oriented, shaped by a defined set of preferences or priorities, and within any social community our actions are judged by their intention and consequences. It thus follows that every choice we make is guided by the pursuit of our own personal goal.

The English logician and economist John Stuart Mill ( 1806 – 1873 ), pioneer of the Utilitarian Theory, says that he who is in pursuit of his own greatest happiness will employ all his faculties, use all his powers of observation and gather as much material as he can to reach his decisions. His actions are correct in the extent to which they tend to promote that happiness, wrong in the extent to which they promote the reverse. When different people are asked what is of greatest value for them, their answers will differ, for their reply will be shaped by personal taste and experience, as well as by social and cultural social background.
Every individual has their own specialised vocation/agenda and what is useful for that particular individual will correspond to choices based on the pursuit of solid, self-interested goals, selected on the basis of optimising the eventual pay off.
The American philosopher William James ( 1842 – 1910 ), founding father of Pragmatism, observed that individuality defied all classification, even though we ourselves insisted on classifying every one we met under one general heading or other.
In a complex and ever changing world we make hard choices in uncertain conditions and we try to remove this uncertainty by establishing the true state of affairs.

Correct information gives outline and substance to any utility pursued, but we must not confuse data randomly spread about with all the abstractions used for such information’s analysis. Indeed, rough computations based on reliable pieces of information are far more effective than sophisticated exercises on partial and/or biased sources.
Knowledge of the true state of affairs comes first, any sort of reckoning comes then after.

In any case, we frequently appear far less informed than we imagine.

Leaving aside the concept of perfect information, which pertains to the world of metaphysics, we can say that complete information exists when every individual knows what any other individual knows.

The lack of complete information prevents individuals from tailoring their actions to the true state of affairs, and pushes them to rely on their own skill in tackling any sort of forecast, namely to gamble with probabilities, always bearing in mind that probability is essentially expectation based upon partial knowledge.

In the real world, if an individual realises that revealing the truth will render him worse off than if he conceals it or distorts it in some way, the temptation not to reveal the truth can be very strong.

As the British economist Peter K. Hammond ( 1945 – ) declared, individuals are no more than pieces in a utilitarian game, to be manipulated for utilitarian ends, though with their best interests in mind. Leaving such individuals misinformed is part of that utilitarian game. According to the principle of Pareto optimality – named after the Italian economist and sociologist Wilfredo Pareto ( 1848 – 1923 ) – in any social community with resources for allocation it is impossible to make one individual better off without making at least one other individual worse off.

In a similar way those with a more limited range of choices will necessarily be the losers, whilst those that are better informed, as well as those that are more highly skilled, will be the winners.

Utilitarian morality makes us all members of one and the same moral community. It is by definition a moral value judgement, an expression of our moral preferences at all times. Skill engenders recognition, ignorance leads only to mistakes, envy, misfortune, and pain.

At stake is the issue of whether there is a plurality of motivation when pursuing one’s own utility, or whether self interest alone drives, or must drive, the human race.

At the heart of the matter is a quest for more pluralistic and democratic access to a growing, or less and less incomplete, body of information, intended also as a kind of public education, that provides individuals with the right tools to decipher and understand for their own personal benefit ever more complex states of affairs.

If it is true that harsh economic principles, such as Pareto optimality, should be included in all social equations, it still remains unclear whether, and to what extent, it can be convenient for a community to leave individuals in their own fool’s paradise.

 


The Strange Story of Leap Year

The Strange Story of Leap Year

London – He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for settin…READ MORE

WHAT TIME IS IT?

WHAT TIME IS IT?

The most immediate unit of measure to gauge time intervals is probably the day, … READ MORE

What is Time?

What is Time?

London – It may seem a trivial question, but it is not so. Man always tried to m… READ MORE

The Strange Story of Leap Year

London – He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.
Bible, English standard version – Psalms, 104: 19.

Another leap year is about to be upon us, trailing the remnants of ancient superstitions.
In all civilizations the measurement of time has regularly been based on the phases of the moon.

In doing so the ancient Sumerians exploited the sexagesimal system, still in force to this day for space – time settings.

According to Latin writers, the western calendar derives its earliest origins from the calendar devised by Romulus, the legendary king and founder of Rome.

The year began with March at the vernal – spring – equinox and ended with December, the tenth month, as the name implies.

It consisted of 304 days, divided into ten months, four with 31 days, and six with 30. In order to synchronize the civil with the tropical year, periodical adjustments had to be made.

These were later refined by King Numa Pompilius (715 – 672 BC) in his eventual reform of the calendar. Two further months, January and February were subsequently added, so as to obtain a year consisting of 355 days.

It would have made more sense, perhaps, to have aligned the Roman year with the lunar calendar of twelve lunar months (29.5 x 12 = 354), a practice adopted by the ancient Greeks, but it was believed that gods favoured odd numbers. King Numa also set up a College of Pontiffs, headed by the Pontifex Maximus, whose job it was periodically to insert an extra month, so as to realign the calendar with the tropic year (365,24 days).

Later on, under the Roman Republic, a more regular system was introduced, whereby every two years an extra month, called Mercedonius ( from the Latin word ‘merces’ meaning wages ), would be added, numbering 22 and 23 days alternatively.

This system gave rise to an average year of 366,25 days and required occasional adjustments at the discretion of the Pontiffs in charge.

Indeed the latter may well have taken bribes to insert the month of Mercedonius, when it was found useful and remunerative to delay the expiry of a friend’s term of public office or to postpone the deadline for paying debts or cashing in credits.

Because of the degeneration of the calendar in this way, the Roman year of 708, corresponding to 46 BC, was almost three months in advance of the actual seasons.

At this point, Julius Caesar decided to charge the Egyptian astronomer, Sosigenes, to reform the calendar once and for all. And so, in the year 46 BC, a year that came to be known as ‘the last year of the confusion,’ in order to synchronize the civil year and the tropic year, a further eighty days were inserted between November and December.

Even though Egyptian astronomers were well aware that the tropic year consisted of 365.2422 days, Sosigenes decided to simplify things by basing his calendar on a year consisting of 365.25 days.

The year then started on the 1st January, when the Consuls were appointed, a date that bore no relation whatsoever to the stars and the seasons, as had previously been the case with the vernal equinox.

In addition, instead of an intercalary month a single intercalary day was introduced every four years. Like many powerful men, Julius Caesar was exceedingly superstitious.

Firstly he wanted to make February the shortest month, given that it was the month of the gods of the Netherworld, and thus an exceedingly unpropitious month. Secondly, even though it was only common sense to add the intercalary day to February, the proper procedures had to be preserved. As the ancient Romans viewed odd numbers as auspicious and even numbers as unlucky, there would have been little point assigning a noble seal to a month that, by definition, did not deserve one.

The intercalary day was inserted after the 23rd February, at the same point where the old month of Mercedonius used to be added.

This day was called bissextile – from Latin bissextus, twice sixth – being the second sixth day before the calends of March. Thus February formally maintained its even number of 28 days. In romance languages the leap year is called bissextile, and in folklore the name still bears connotations of bad luck and misfortune.

Sosigenes’ error in considering the civil year only slightly longer than the tropic year became gradually apparent. In 325 C.E. the Council of Nicaea decreed that Easter should coincide with the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox.

This meant that the precise date of Easter now depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21st for the vernal equinox.

Thus the venerable Bede, writing as early as 725, noted that the full moon was ahead of its tabulated date. Robert Grosseteste (1178 – 1253) – reformer, mathematician, and Bishop of Lincoln – drew attention to the problem and suggested certain amendments. After centuries of discussion Pope Gregory XIII (1502 – 1585) commissioned a new calendar, which, while specifying the leap years, omitted century years not divisible by 400.

Since the vernal equinox was due to fall that year on 11 March, a papal bull directed that 4 October 1582 should be followed immediately by 15 October.

The Gregorian calendar was accepted in 1582 in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and the Catholic Dutch Provinces. Catholic Germany and Suisse accepted it in 1584, Poland in 1586 and Hungary in 1587, but Protestant countries opposed the reform very fiercely.

Kepler remarked that protestants would sooner disagree with the sun than agree with the pope.

At the beginning of XVIII century, however, protestant Holland, Suisse and Germany did finally accept the new system, and England and Sweden introduced the new calendar in 1752.
In many countries the switchover was bitterly opposed by much of populace, who feared it was an attempt by landlords to cheat them out a weak and half’s rent.
Japan introduced the new calendar in 1873, China in 1912 and Turkey in 1924. Greek orthodox countries maintained the Julian calendar right up until last century. In fact, according to the Gregorian calendar, the Russian October Revolution actually occurred in November. Muslims and Jews, meanwhile, continue to retain the original lunar calendar.

 

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photo 2 visual.ly

WHAT TIME IS IT?

The most immediate unit of measure to gauge time intervals is probably the day, understood as the period between two sunrises and two sunsets.

However the need was born, to measure a time interval much less than a day. For this reason, they were created instruments able to measure short intervals of time with precision. For many centuries the only instruments to measure time were sundials and hourglasses, today known as the oldest clocks.

A giant step, to cage and study time, was made by Galileo Galilei, simply observing the effect generated by the wind on the lamp in a church in Pisa.

Galilei discovered that the oscillation of a pendulum takes place at regular intervals of time, independently on the mass used or on the amplitude of the oscillation itself.

 

This effect is called isochronism of the pendulum. So, from what depends on the period of oscillation of the pendulum?

The period of the pendulum is a function of two parameters, the pendulum length (l) and the gravitational acceleration of the place (g).

Thanks to these discoveries made by Galileo, it was possible to create the mechanism that allows the functioning of the watches. They are divided into pendulum, quartz and atomic clocks. The main components of the pendulum clock are the following:

-The Case: to protect the mechanics from external atmospheric agents especially from dust.
-The Mechanical: it is essential to provide the time.
-The Escapement: it is the organ that counts time.
-The Ringtone: has a drive independent member, formed by many gears and levers that stop at the moment when the hands reach predetermined points.

An important meaning to be attributed to the concept of a limp.
This means that the time between the tick and the tack, must be the same as that between the tack and tick.
This situation occurs only when the clock is perfectly upright.

Quartz watches are made up of two structures, one external and one internal:

– The housing is formed by the strap, the dial and the hands.
– Internal structure: allows the perfect operation of the device.
It’s composed by:

– Battery power: the battery powers the oscillator circuit.
– Or Stepper Motor Stepper: has the main function to receive electromagnetic signals from the oscillator circuit and turn them into a mechanical movement.

– Circuit Oscillator: Determines the operation of stepper.
– Capsule Crystal Quartz: is an airtight container that contains a Quartz crystal. The capsule of Quartz crystal is a simple electric transducer.
The atomic clock is a clock type in which the base of time is determined by the frequency of an atom. It is extremely accurate and is capable of varying the phase of just one second every five billion years.

 

What is Time?

London – It may seem a trivial question, but it is not so. Man always tried to measure time but instead it is the time that measures man. Time is the dimension in which the spending and measuring of events are conceived. It induces the distinction between past, present and future.

The complexity of the concept has always been the subject of scientific and philosophical studies and reflections. The definitions of Plato and Aristotle have been a reference for many centuries until the scientific revolution. A philosophical conception of time by Aristotle was “Future doesn’t exists without a past, but the past is at the same time the future of another past.

So you could think that time doesn’t exist because time is made up of past and future. Moreover time admits a numeration, so time couldn’t exist without a soul because if nobody counts, it couldn’t exist nothing to count.

Something is forever, for example some mathematical truth (2+2=4), so they aren’t included in time. Movement always exists because it couldn’t exist time without movement and everybody admit that time hadn’t be created” (this made scandal though Christians because the Bible says that universe had a starting).

In the 18th century Isaac Newton stated that time is “sensorium Dei” (meaning God) and it flow unchanging, staying always the same; he contributed a lot on the attempt of giving a definition of time. Some centuries later, there was an important person called Albert Einstein who posed a problem: “If I ride a ray of light what would happen?” This question made Einstein the founder of the theory of relativity. He said that time isn’t absolute but it depends on the motion and on the spatial reference of the observer.

In fact Einstein sensed that nobody can exists in a definite space without existing in a definite time. So time and space are related in a 4-dimensional entity called space-time.
Our three-dimensional daily conception doesn’t allow us imagining a 4-dimensional universe but we can think it as a 2-dimensional elastic grid. All the bodies that have a mass curve this grid making it 3-dimensional. The result is the gravity force.

Applying the concept of relativity of time to the phenomenon of simultaneity it obtains: The light of the phenomenon A and B reaches the observer C at the same time because his distance to the phenomenon A is equal to the distance to the phenomenon B. Then the observer B says that the two phenomena are simultaneous.

Now try to imagine what may happen if the observer should be closer to the phenomenon B than the phenomenon A (changing the spatial reference of the observer). In this case the light of the phenomenon B should reaches the observer before than the light of the phenomenon A, so the observer says that the two phenomena aren’t simultaneous.

In the case of an observer who travel on a train (observatory D, changing the motion of the observer) who moves to the phenomenon B, the light of the same phenomena will reach the observer before than the light of phenomenon A.

So the observer D says that the two phenomena aren’t simultaneous. This make us say that simultaneity and then time are relatives.

Image result for spazio tempo
In physic the theory of relativity refers to the mathematical transformations (Lorentz’s transformations) that must be applied to the description of physical phenomena in the transition between the two systems of reference moving relatively to each other. Einstein used two postulates explaining this concept:

1. Nobody can move faster than light
2. No reference system is privileged, so everything is relative to the point of view
Starting from these two postulates, Einstein formulated the whole theory of relativity that reviews all the classical physics laws, that state for a body who moves at low speed the relation E=ma. Applying this concept to a body who moves at a speed close to the light one Einstein founded out that formula:

Then even a stationary particle has a certain energy (E) and this is the base of all modern physics studies. This concept can be explained by a chart, experimentally built in a particle accelerator.

The classical physic postulates the relation energy – squared speed, according to the relation E=(1/2)mv2, as a linear relation but the theory of relativity, according to experimentally results, states that more the energy, less the rapidity of the speed’s increase.

 

Anatomy of the heart

The circulatory system allows the proper functioning of blood circulation. It consists of a pump, the heart, and a series of pipes that take the name of the blood vessels.

The heart is placed in the rib cage in a space between the two lungs called the mediastinum.

It is as big as a fist and weighs about 300 grams. It is divided into four sections, two upper, called atria and two lower, called ventricles.

The right atrium and the left are separated from each other by the interatrial septum, while the two ventricles are separated by the interventricular septum. The right atrium communicates with the right ventricle through a valve called the tricuspid, while the left atrium communicates with the left ventricle through a valve called bicuspid or mitral. At the level of the right atrium there is the mouth of the superior and inferior quarry vein, while in the left atrium there is the mouth of the pulmonary vein.

At the level of the right ventricle is located the pulmonary artery, while at the level of the left ventricle is located the aorta artery, which is the most important vein in the body.

Anatomy of the HeartThe circulatory system caters both large circulation that the small circulation. The large circulation originates from the left ventricle through the aorta and carries blood to the tissues.

At the level of arterial capillaries the blood gives off oxygen and nutrients, immediately after at the level of the venous capillaries the blood collects waste substances and carbon dioxide. By venous capillaries originates the venous network that ends with the superior quarry veins and the inferior quarry veins which shed blood in the right atrium.

The small circulation has the purpose to bring the blood to the lungs so that it can give in carbon dioxide and charging of oxygen. It originates from the right ventricle through the pulmonary artery and ends with the pulmonary veins that carry blood into the left atrium.

The heart in its functioning produces two sounds called heart sounds, which can be heard through a tool called a stethoscope.

The first tone is due to the closure of the atrioventricular valves with the passage of blood from the atriums to the ventricles; the second tone is due to the closure of the semilunar valves with the passage of blood from the ventricles to the large arteries.

The normal values ​​of cardiac pressure are about 70 per minute.

The normal values ​​of cardiac pressure are between 120 (maximum systolic pressure) and 80 (minimum diastolic pressure). The pressure is measured by the sphygmomanometer.

 

 

 

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