Sunday, May 25, 2008

The MechBoy Initiative

Mech Boy has inspired me to post an assignment for you:

List here in the comments a person you think has been the most influential in terms of advancing human knowledge and technology. Please also say what they are noteworthy for and why you think it is so important. Justify your opinion.

More tasks later - let's see who we come up with first...

Here's a little help from a person on the net...
http://www.dlmark.net/hundred.htm

The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History
Revised and Updated for the Nineties
by Michael H. Hart

Mr. Hart's very interesting book contains biographies of all the following people, ranked in order from most influential to less influential, along with the author's reasons for so ranking them. The book is available at most bookstores and libraries.

The links will take you to a site on the Web about the person named
(not to a chapter in the book).

MuhammadIsaac NewtonJesus ChristBuddhaConfuciusSt. PaulTs'ai LunJohann GutenbergChristopher ColumbusAlbert EinsteinLouis PasteurGalileo GalileiAristotleEuclidMosesCharles DarwinShih Huang Ti Augustus CaesarNicolaus CopernicusAntoine Laurent LavoisierConstantine the GreatJames WattMichael FaradayJames Clerk MaxwellMartin LutherGeorge WashingtonKarl MarxOrville and Wilbur WrightGenghis KahnAdam SmithEdward de VereJohn DaltonAlexander the GreatNapoleon BonaparteThomas EdisonAntony van LeeuwenhoekWilliam T.G. MortonGuglielmo MarconiAdolf HitlerPlatoOliver CromwellAlexander Graham BellAlexander FlemingJohn LockeLudwig van BeethovenWerner HeisenbergLouis DaguerreSimon BolivarRene DescartesMichelangeloPope Urban II'Umar ibn al-KhattabAsokaSt. AugustineWilliam HarveyErnest RutherfordJohn CalvinGregor MendelMax PlanckJoseph ListerNikolaus August OttoFrancisco PizarroHernando CortesThomas JeffersonQueen Isabella IJoseph StalinJulius CaesarWilliam the ConquerorSigmund FreudEdward JennerWilhelm Conrad RoentgenJohann Sebastian BachLao TzuVoltaireJohannes KeplerEnrico FermiLeonhard EulerJean-Jacques RousseauNicoli MachiavelliThomas MalthusJohn F. KennedyGregory PincusManiLeninSui Wen TiVasco da GamaCyrus the GreatPeter the GreatMao ZedongFrancis BaconHenry FordMenciusZoroasterQueen Elizabeth IMikhail GorbachevMenesCharlemagneHomerJustinian IMahavira

Runner-ups:

St. Thomas AquinasArchimedesCharles Babbage CheopsMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinMohandas GandhiAbraham LincolnFerdinand MagellanLeonardo da Vinci

Biographies and other information about many of these people and their works may be found at Access Foundation's Encyclopedia Britannica's Great Books site.

15 comments:

gnome said...

I think it was Albert Einstein mostle for his E=Mc2

**KERLI** said...

Da Vinci or Thomas Edison.

MrWoody said...

Gnome - well done taking time to answer. COuld you explain why Einstein's theory is important? What about his other theories? How do they help us?

Cheetalicious - you need to re-read the instructions, but thanks for your answers.

Kitty Milo said...

Hi. I agree with cheetahlicious. thomas edison invented the phonograph and a long lasting light bulb. i have some information on him so here it is:homas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and was raised in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. (1804–1896) (born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, Canada) and Nancy Matthews Edison nee Elliott (1810–1871). His family was of Dutch origin.[1]


Thomas Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, New Jersey, with the automatic repeater and his other improved telegraphic devices, but the invention which first gained him fame was the phonograph in 1877. This accomplishment was so unexpected by the public at large as to appear almost magical. Edison became known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," New Jersey, where he lived. His first phonograph recorded on tinfoil around a grooved cylinder and had poor sound quality. The tinfoil recordings could only be replayed a few times. In the 1880s, a redesigned model using wax-coated cardboard cylinders was produced by Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, and Charles Tainter. This was one reason that Thomas Edison continued work on his own "Perfected Phonograph."
I got that information from this website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison
and it has all his details, his inventions, how he died, beginning his carrer and mostly everything else.=]
ok bye!!!

MrWoody said...

excellent work, kittymilo :-)

mojo said...

Stephen Hawking because at the moment he's the smartest man in the world. He might have not invented something but he knows a lot about space and has a new theory on black holes which you can learn more about this theory in a book called George's secret key to the universe. His daughter wrote the book with him.

rosiegal said...

I tottaly agree with Kitty Milo, where would we be with out light?!

Nei-Nei Neina-Marie said...

My person whould be Homer - they have it listed!!! Weird. I don't think Homer Simpson has influenced me - at ALL!

Nei-Nei Neina-Marie said...

I also agree with Mojo - Stephen Hawkings because he is the smaterest man in the world! Him and his daughter wrote a book about space (obviously).

MrWoody said...

hmmm... co-writing book with one's daughter doesn't really seem like the most influential thing to humankind's understanding of the world, etc..
he is influential though - what are his famous theories ?

and Neina-marie - the Homer in question is not yellow or a cartoon - read to find out more

Lyinda said...

I think all of the people on there deserve to be up there.The gods,the smart ones,the good queens,the famous inventers and the painters.

mech boy said...

sorry I haven't been on the blog for awhile. I don't know the name of the person who made it/invented it but I say that the man/women who invented the wheel was by far the biggest advance in technology. without the wheel where would we be? Here is a list of thing we used/use a wheel for:
carriages
cars
Watermills.
Windmills.
Making energy.
Bikes.
We even use the wheel when we make products.
There are lots more but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
I think the wheel was made in caveman times. My previous teacher showed me a book about who made the wheel but I don't know whether it was true or not.
Without the wheel mankind would be skidded to a halt.
We could keep on living not knowing about gravity, about Ohms law,the theory of relativity and so on but without the wheel what would use for a substitute? A cube?
How could the Romans have moved their leaders in carriages if there were no wheels?
In defense people might say 'well, we could go on living without the wheel too' that may be true, but it would be a pretty dull life, having to ride on horses all the time.

P.S. I know nearly all of the inventors in that list (Not personally) and what they did.

MrWoody said...

mechboy that is an excellent answer - well done. you have made me think of something else that was 'discovered' but not invented that is up there with the wheel.
and i am now thinking of another range of substances that are very important that were discover by people and changed to become new and more useful substances....

mech boy said...

Is it fire?
I'm stumped, I don't know which person to chose.
Do the you get marks vary depending on which person you chose?

Seb Vanneste said...

im going to have to go with witch ever guy makes me read about him although wise i dont and wont know any one write now its steven hawkins because it seems cool to type using your eyeses