Nick Jeffers

Big History Project: The Earth

The Early Earth

          On my model I showed how the Earth was made of molten lava and hot rocks. The black foam paper is the rock. The red foam paper is the lava on Earth. In the sky there are meteors and information about how the atmosphere was .The Earth was basically this one large landmass of rock with lava coming out of volcanoes and made seas of lava. The volcanoes were formed by plates running into each other and one plate sliding under the other, forcing the top plate upwards making volcanoes and mountains. The volcanoes had explosions and shot volcanic emissions into the atmosphere and eventually the emissions turned into the oceans. The volcanoes ruleed the early Earth, as you can see at http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/ecology/mother-earth-when-volcanoes-ruled-the-world/580. The atmosphere was much different then, and there was no oxygen. The early Earth was very radioactive. It was very radioactive from the supernova that created the Universe, accretion, and pressure.  During the time of the early Earth there also were meteors hitting the Earth all the time, which is actually how the Earth formed. Some of this information can be found on universitytoday.com.

 

    After early Earth the time of Pangea formed. Water evaporated and surrounded the Earth forming the first atmosphere. This made a green house effect which helped with the melting of the Earth.

 The early Earth was very hot and Earth melted over a long period of time. When the Earth melted it made layers, which made the basic form of Earth. Eventually the water vapor fell to Earth forming the oceans. The Earth settled down until a Mars sized object hit Earth making it like it was before and made steam  which formed the atmosphere again. The water fell to Earth again forming the oceans and the moon, which was created from the impact from the Mars sized object, helped balance the Earth and keep it stable. Chemicals in the ocean made the first organisms and they spread all over the Earth. Oxygen eventually took over the atmosphere. When this happened Earth's green house effect went away making the Earth very cold making the "ice age". Then volcanoes came up from the surface and lava came out warming the Earth again. This happened three times. After these times of the Earth being ice it became a stable Earth. Some life forms survived the cold weather. At this time Plants grew and Earth became it's next stage. I got all this information from a video about the early atmosphere and Earth on bighistoryproject.com

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&tbo=d&biw=1680&bih=959&tbm=isch&tbnid=R2ts1j7cy1nfOM:&imgrefurl=http://www.universetoday.com/58177/earth-formation/&docid=gIAtd5VuCyQyvM&imgurl=http://ut-images.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/early_earth.jpg&w=400&h=300&ei=IsbTUNXqLOqY2wXU04DABg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=1&sig=113219220116293164928&page=1&tbnh=134&tbnw=161&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:118&tx=101&ty=258

 http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/ecology/mother-earth-when-volcanoes-ruled-the-world/580

bighistoryproject.com

1. The new ideas were that the elements and Earth came from huge meteors crashing into eachother
2. I believed that the Earth just appeared very shortly after the Big Bang and appeared at the same time as every thing else did. From the videos I learned that Earth appeared came from massive rocks   colliding with eachother.
3. Earth


1. The land might change by more trees and Blairsburg won't exsist anymore.

Nicholas Jeffers

Big History

Mrs. Keehn

10/29/12

2.BHI Changing Minds

Part I

1. I changed my mind about playing the last football game of the season. I changed my mind because, even though my doctor suggested for me not to, I really wanted to and he signed my paper so I was able to.                                                                     I think historians and scientist change their minds because their standards change. With them using newer and better technology they find new information and new discoveries which might make them change their minds about what they believed before. For example scientist changed their minds about Pluto being a planet. After more observation they decided what the standards were for being a planet 

Part II

1. I think David Christian meant that Ptolemy's model didn't have all the answers to how the Universe works and other astronomers were starting to question his model when he said, "Some astronomers had pointed out that Ptolemy's model had tough time explaining some things, such as the fact that periodically planets seem to move backwards". 

Yes the planets do seem to move in the night sky because of the angel it is from Earth and the planets' paths of travel. No, i have never seen the planets move backwards in the nigh sky

2. We can see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the stars with only our eyes. From where we are yes, it looks and seems like Earth is the center of the Universe because it looks like everything is around and circling us.

It looks like Mars makes a loop in a in the night sky  because it's an illusion. This illusion  happens because Earth is actually orbiting the Sun faster then Mars does and Earth does not obit the Sun on the same plane as Mars does.

Ptolemy Thought that Earth was the center of the Universe and that the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn all revolved around the Earth in perfect circles. While they all obit the Earth they all also make epicycles which explains why some planets look like they go backwards. I think Ptolemy's answer is the best he could do with his eye. I think he thought very hard about how things could work and his theory explained almost everything. Not exactly, because he thought the planets moved in perfect circles and that doesn't explain how the Night sky changes over years. i think his explanation was so popular for over 1400 years because they didn't have the technology they need back then to get information and evidence to prove him wrong, and Ptolemy had a lot of evidence or enough for his answer to make some sense to people.

3. Copernicus changed his mind about the Universe and the Earth's place in it because he came up with the thought of the Sun being the center of the Universe which explains all the "unusual movements of the planets". With Earth spinning on axises and orbiting the Sun along with all the other planets it explains the illusion of the other planets, like Mars, going backwards. From calculations Copernicus found that Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Copernicus supported his claims with logic. With his calculations and the explanations his theory gives, like the Earth orbiting faster then Mars and that's why Mars seems to move backwards at times, supports his claims.

Galileo changed his mind about the Universe and the Earth's place in it because of Copernicus and how it makes more sense then Ptolemy's theory. Galileo tested his claim by examining the sky on five different nights using his telescope and seeing that the mons of Jupiter changed position every night but always seemed to be bright, close to jupiter, and in some form of a line. Yes, Galileo accepted Copernicus' authority. Galileo got more evidence though, by finding that Jupiter has moons it shows that smaller objects orbit the objects that have more mass and gravity like Earth orbiting the Sun.

Part III

1. My investigation of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Galileo supported my initial conjecture by confirming what I thought I knew with facts, and extended it by explaining to me what retrograde motion is and that is why Copernicus declined Ptolemy's theory and came up with the idea of the Sun being the center of the Universe.

I think copernicus changed his mind because with the Sun being the center of the Universe and the Earth rotating on an axis, retrograde motion makes sense. My evidence would be that Copernicus came up with the idea of the Sun being the center of the Universe and the Earth rotating on an axis.

I think Galileo changed his mind because Copernicus' idea made sense and explained retrograde motion and also explained how Earth moved. My evidence would be that Galileo accepted Copernicus' authority.

Part IV

Copernicus was the astronomer who discovered that the Sun was the center of the Universe and that the Earth rotated on it axises. I think Copernicus rejected Ptolemy's geocentric view and his idea about epicycles because it couldn't explain the the reason for retrograde motion and all the other unusual movements from the planets. With the Earth orbiting the Sun with the other planets and moving faster then some explains why some planets seemed to move backwards. The Earth rotating on its axises explains night and day too. Copernicus was using logic to support his claim.

Galileo was another astronomer who studied the Universe as a Sun centered Universe. I think Galileo rejected Ptolemy's geocentric view of the Universe and his ideas of epicycles because of Copernicus' idea was able to explain more simply the data and evidence that was already there. Galileo supported Copernicus' claim by using his telescope and discovering Jupiter's four moons orbiting Jupiter. This shows that Jupiter also has objects orbiting it like Earth orbiting the Sun. Galileo supported his claim with evidence. 

Scientist change their minds from more evidence and better logic. If a new claim explains more and has more evidence then scientist may change their minds. Scientist, astronomers, and people changed their minds about the geocentric Universe because the Sun centered Universe could explain the reasons for things more simply. Copernicus also was good with math  and used some calculations to back up his claim for the Earth orbiting the Sun faster then other planets. Galileo accepted and agreed with Copernicus' authority and based his studies off of him which helped him change his mind. 

Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Galileo were three of the best astronomers. These astronomers were the first to explain the Universe to people and explain how the Universe worked. Over time Ptolemy's claim was rejected by Copernicus who discovered that Earth was not the center of the Universe but that the Sun was. Copernicus was able to explain what Ptolemy couldn't about the unusual movements in the night sky. Galileo accepted Copernicus' claim. Also, with his telescope he discovered new moons around Jupiter.  

Big Sci- Scientific Authority/Law....Expert
Evy- Science evidence...Documents and Pictures
Andor- All conclusions of studies and supports facts...interprets, logic, gives meaning, and supporting details
Vera- "Inner voice" belief, your own thought, opinions

Unit 2

#1 Yes, because it could of been a goldilocks condition where everything was perfect.
#2  I think key turning points of the Big Bang was when Earth got life and then humanity rose from that. Dinosaurs and fossils from a long long time ago supports what I have learned. I believe that you need evidence that it is possible for certain chemicals to have a massive explosion and create random objects.
#3  No, I do not think the CMB is convincing evidence for the Big Bang. Theories like the Big Bang needs enough facts and support from scientist for it to be largely accepted.

          Parallax is an amazing thing that us humans have invented and have figured out how to use. A nearby star's apparent movement against the background of more distant stars as the Earth revolves around the Sun is referred to as stellar parallax. This discovery and use of knowledge allows us to find the distances to the moon and stars.

Ptolemy-Earth as center of univers
Copernicus-Sun is at center of universe
Kepler-planets circle in ovals
They are different because they all believe that something is different for the center of the universe and the Kepler view has to do with how the planets move.

These views were sensible  at this time because they didn't have technology and it made sense to them.

The changing technology supported each view

We decide what we believe in from our parents, our friends, and what facts we know.
1. I decide which claims  I trust in, which ones to ignore, and which ones to investigate from what other people believe in and what I'm interested in
2. Intuition-gut feeling
    Authority-accept from credible
     Logic-make sense?
     Evidence-gather evidence

Part 1
          We study history on different scales because there was different things and different society's in other times in history.  Living things reacted to eachother differently in the past then they do today. I think we study things as large as the Universe and things as small as DNA to show us how small we are and how huge and tiny things are out there. It shows us that we are part of this huge community of all these different types of elements. I noticed that the baseball (Jupiter) and the raisin (Earth) were way closer to eachother then the raisin was to the basketball (the sun).

Part 2
          The advantage of seeing an object at different distances is to see how it looks compared to other objects. Seeing an object farther away lets you compare it to objects around it. Looking at an object up close let's you see more detail in the object. The advantage of seeing the same object at different distances is that you can see both detail and comparison to other objects.

Part 2 #1
          The main idea of his essay is that you should study history in different scales. No, according to to David historians typically don not study on differenbt scales. He thinks its important because if you study on big scales you can see the big picture and if u study on small scales you get more details.
David uses maps to illuminate the issue of small scales by showing that maps have many things compressed into them.

Part 2 #1 journal
          Studying history at different levels helps you see big ideas and details of the past. Maps are like studying history on different levels. Some maps are of a pasific town and then there are maps of states. In the bigger maps you don't get the detail you do in the smaller scale maps, but in the bigger scale maps you can see the surroundings.

Part 2 #3
          The main ideas of Braudels essays is that there are three different levels of scales. The three scales Braudels used were the indavisual human, the group, and the whole world to think about the past and present. His ideas are that there are three levels that are studied in history.

Part 2 #3 journal
          Braudels thinks there are three levels of history. The levels are humans, groups, and the world. I think they agree on studying with different scales. They both think that studying with different levels give you advantages and disadvantages. If Braudels made the powers of ten it would of stopped at the world. The first zoom would of been of a human, then the second zoom would be of a big city, then the third zoom would be of the world.

Part 4
          The graph was different levels, starting at humans and going up to the globe. The graph made me think about what humans are all part of, and that you get more detail looking at smaller scales. I have thought about WWII from different scales. For example, part of the war was the holocaust and another part of the war was battles in Africa. The advantage of studying it at different scales was that I learned about the details about why the war started. A difficulty is that studying about just the battles you don't learn about why the war started and about the details of what the Nazis were doing.

Part 5 journal
          I learned that im living in micro history. I learned that I live in a nice house, a small town, and in Hamilton county from looking at maps. I saw all the different towns in Hamilton county that surrounds Blairsburg. I thought about how big Blairsburg is compared to the rest of the towns in Hamilton county. When looking at the county map I could see Blairsburg compared to other town and when looking at just Blairsburg I couldn't do that.

http://iphone.childrenslibrary.org/cgi-bin/view.py?b=5kqfbc2snnxpx45hy7mo

It tells us how everything all started and explains to us how things work.

Some people believe everything started all because of faith and some only believe in facts.

I think the Big Bang Theory was the most important to the history of the Universe. I think this was most important because it was a goldilocks condition and it created the whole universe. Sense the Big Bang happened all the other complexities have happend. Nothing would exist if everything wasn't perfect at the right time. Everything is what it is now because of the Big Bang.