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Javier E

Archimedes - Separating Myth From Science - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...arating-myth-from-science.html

Archimedes math science history technology

shared by Javier E on 26 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A panoply of devices and ideas are named after Archimedes. Besides the Archimedes screw, there is the Archimedes principle, the law of buoyancy that states the upward force on a submerged object equals the weight of the liquid displaced. There is the Archimedes claw, a weapon that most likely did exist, grabbing onto Roman ships and tipping them over. And there is the Archimedes sphere, a forerunner of the planetarium — a hand-held globe that showed the constellations as well as the locations of the sun and the planets in the sky.
  • Dr. Rorres said the singular genius of Archimedes was that he not only was able to solve abstract mathematics problems, but also used mathematics to solve physics problems, and he then engineered devices to take advantage of the physics. “He came up with fundamental laws of nature, proved them mathematically and then was able to apply them,” Dr. Rorres said.
anonymous

The Aha! Moment: The Science Behind Creative Insight » Brain World - 0 views

brainworldmagazine.com/cience-behind-creative-insight

shared by anonymous on 04 Nov 20 - No Cached
  • The Aha! Moment: The Science Behind Creative Insight
  • For most of us, it usually occurs at the most inopportune times; never when we’re searching for it.
  • To Archimedes, it happened in the bathtub. Newton experienced it while wandering an apple orchard. Arthur Fry: church. Each encountered an epiphany, that powerful moment of spontaneous insight. Archimedes shouted Eureka! upon realizing how to calculate density and volume; to Newton came the law of universal gravity; to Arthur Fry, Post-it notes.
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  • Behold the proverbial “aha!” moment — a key phenomenon that emerges in a range of situations, from offering a solution to a problem or a new interpretation of a situation to more simple feats such as understanding a joke or solving a crossword puzzle.
  • There are many different representations we use colloquially to describe good ideas — sparks, flashes, light-bulb moments; inspirations and innovations; muses and visions.
  • they usually materialize abruptly, without warning and seemingly out of thin air.
  • Laboratories and psychologists have attempted to study this phenomenon using behavioral methods for nearly a century, resulting merely in speculations as to where these ideas come from and how they form. Lately, though, with recent advancements and tools of cognitive neuroscience, researchers are able to explain the inner workings of the brain during moments of insigh
  • scientists have found that these sudden sparks are the result of a complex series of brain states.
  • Findings also suggest that we require more neural processes operating at different time scales in these moments than we use when solving a problem analytically or methodically.
  • Participants were presented with three words (e.g., crab, pine, sauce), and were instructed to think of a single word that forms a familiar two-word phrase with all three (e.g., apple can join with crab, pine, and sauce to form pineapple, crabapple, and applesauce). As soon as participants thought of a solution word, they pressed a button to indicate whether the answer had come to them suddenly (through insight), or if they used a methodical hypothesis testing approach — in other words, a trial-and-error approach.
  • Gamma activity indicates a constellation of neurons binding together for the first time in the brain to create a new neural network pathway.
  • This is the creation of a new idea. Immediately following that gamma spike, the new idea pops into our consciousness, which we identify as the aha! moment.
Emilio Ergueta

La Vie D'Ennui | Issue 77 | Philosophy Now - 0 views

philosophynow.org/...La_Vie_DEnnui

boredom philosophy Knowledge psychology

shared by Emilio Ergueta on 27 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • “Wonderfully bored.” My friend’s face swivels towards me like the ventriloquist’s dummy in Magic. “Bored? How could you be bored if you had all that?” he exclaims.
  • There’s something exquisite about boredom.
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  • sadness, boredom is related to e
  • Perfect boredom is the enjoyment of the moment of stasis that comes between slowing down and speeding up
  • Wasn’t Newton sitting underneath an apple tree staring into space, and Archimedes wallowing in the bath, when clarity struck? In my own insignificant way, I think I have always understood that doing nothing is the key to getting somewhere.
  • It has none of the hallmarks of the grand boredom that I’m after – the sort with a rousing soundtrack as you emerge from the darkness of sloth into the light of inspiration.
  • Eventually you will step out into the brave new world. You have to move. That’s what boredom is for; and perhaps why God invented cramp and bed sores.
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