QQC 5

"In those days I was in the prime of my age for invention and minded Mathematicks and Philosphy [i.e. , science] more than at any time since."

 

This quote stood out to me because it insinuates that science and philosphy are one and the same. This is interesting because these are two categories that are often considered completely seperate. The ideas of Newton are unique because they combine mathematics, science, and philosophy to create concepts much more monumental and thought-provoking than any type of arithmetic or geometry. This quote is also interesting because it points out that Newton's peak of curiosity about math and science was in his youth.

QQC 4

"They believed that mountains, hills, and other features were as old as the Earth itself, and were changed only when water sloshed over them during periods of global flooding."

 

This quote is interesting because it really shows how much that people have learned over the years. It is strange to think about how once apon a time people believed that the tides had never changed and everything had always been as it is now, and that the world was flat and did not revolve around the sun. It makes you wonder how little we really know now. If it had not been for people like Newton, we would still be convinced that the world was a completely different place than it really is.

QCC 3

"Now if you imagine a line connecting the three main principals of this excersize-that is you, I, and the moon-it forms a triangle. Measure the baseline between you and me and the angles of our two corners and the rest can be simply calculated."

 

When students are taught Geometry in High School, the rules and measurements of triangles seem unimportant and useless. I often wondered why it was so necessary for us to be able to prove a triangle, or use a formula to calculate the angles or measurements. I mean they're only triangles, it's a simple shape that you learn in elementary school, what could learning how to measure it possibly help someone in real life? This quote stood out to me because it shows that something so simple as knowing how to find a side of a triangle can help you determine something so big as the distance to the moon.

QCC 2

“From his deck, Evans supposes he can see between 50,000 and 100,000
galaxies, each containing tens of billions of stars.”
This simple quote about the amount of galaxies that can be counted using a sixteen-inch telescope struck me with awe. When you look at the sky on a clear night, you can see what appears to be a vast amount of stars. The sky that you are looking at seems so large from where you are standing. The building that you are standing next to may even seem extremely large, and it is only a tiny fraction of the portion of the sky that you are looking at above you. The portion of the sky and the seemingly large amount of stars that are within your sight are just a tiny fraction of the amount of stars that exist in our galaxy (each of which is larger than the very planet that we live on), and according to this article, there are about 75,000 of these within the view of a sixteen inch telescope. I have never felt so small.

 

 

QQC 1

 "If you wish to be around for billions of years, you must be as fickle as the atoms who made you. You must be prepared to change everything about yourself-shape, size, color, species affiliation, everything-and to do so repeatedly."This excerpt from Bryson Chapter 1 really caught my attention. By stating this, the author is coming from a viewpoint that almost questions the notion of death itself. He is saying that you will never ever really vanish, the atoms that you are made of will simply decompose and their energy will transfer to create something else. Although this notion is as scientific as it gets, there are several religions that in a way believe this very same thing.
I also thought it was interesting that the author writes "if you wish to be around..you must be prepared to change everything about yourself." This is not something that will happen if you wish for it to happen, it is not something that you have any sort of control over. Changing your shape, size, color, and species affiliation is not something that you can prepare yourself for, nor something that you have any sort of awareness of.