ooc: I know so much about him!! My brother's a math genius, having studied all about the greats like Newton, but I'm more into their biographies. You wouldn't believe some of things I'm studied about Isaac, like the fact that he kept 'a book of sins' which contained a confession of his thoughts of burning down his mother's house with his mother inside. Isaac held extreme resentment towards his mother because of her abandoning him as a child in order to marry an old man who did not want the three-year-old boy. The older Newton was quite misanthropic and rebellious in school. PM me if you'd like to know more about him.
Carl Friedrich Gauss is another man who devoted much of his time to the study of the stars.

Natalya raised her hand and took a deep breath. "In October 1667, after his return to Cambridge--the university had been closed because of an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1665--he began devote more of his time to optics, a subject which he developed an interest for years earlier when he conducted his first observations of the study, which included grotesque experiments such as pushing the edge of a bodkin {stick} up under his eye and then recording the effect it made; incrediablly, it caused no permanent harm to his vision. Another amazing rather than gruesome project was his constuction of a huge prism over one of the windows at the university.
"But back to subject, his interest in optics gave Astronomy a marvelous design: a reflecting telescope, or a telescope that uses mirrors instead of lenses. Mirrors reflect all colors of light by the same amount. Although a Scottish mathematician, James Gregory, had proposed a design for a reflecting telescope in 1663, Newton had been the first to build one."

Kali said trying to think of some she remembered, "When he was three, his grandmother began to raise him, instead of his mother. He often wrote in English and Latin as well. When he died, he was buried in Westminster Abbey. He became the first scientist to be buried there. The Newton (metric unit of force) was then named in honor of him."

(ooc: lol, we had the first tense of our answers the same! )

"On his life we have that Newton began his schooling in the village schools and later was sent to Grantham Grammar School where he became the top boy in the school. At Grantham he lodged with the local apothecary and eventually became engaged to the apothecary's stepdaughter, Miss Storey, before he went off to Cambridge University at the age of 19. But Newton became engrossed in his studies, the romance cooled and Miss Storey married someone else. It is said he kept a warm memory of this love, but Newton had no other recorded 'sweethearts' and never married. Newton was educated at Grantham Grammar School. In 1661 he joined Trinity College, Cambridge, where his uncle William Ayscough had studied. At that time the college's teachings were based on those of Aristotle, but Newton preferred to read the more advanced ideas of modern philosophers such as Descartes, Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler. In 1665 he discovered the binomial theorem and began to develop a mathematical theory that would later become calculus. Soon after Newton had collected his degree in 1665, the University closed down as a precaution against the Great Plague. For the next two years Newton worked at home on calculus, optics and gravitation.

Newton was also a member of Parliament from 1689 to 1690 and in 1701, but his only recorded comments were to complain about a cold draft in the chamber and request that the window be closed. Newton moved to London to take up the post of warden of the Royal Mint in 1696. A manuscript he sent to John Locke in which he disputed the existence of the Trinity was never published. Newton became master of the Mint upon Lucas' death in 1699.
In 1701 Newton anonymously published a law of thermodynamics now known as "Newton's law of cooling" in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. In 1703 Newton became President of the Royal Society and an associate of the French Académie des Sciences. In his position at the Royal Society, Newton made an enemy of John Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal, by attempting to steal his catalogue of observations. Newton was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705. Newton never married, nor had any recorded children. He died in London and was buried in Westminster Abbey. It is believed Newton never had a romantic relationship, he is said to have died a virgin.

"Tradition has it that Newton was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell on his head, and this made him understand that earthly and celestial gravitation are the same. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth's centre. This is an exaggeration of Newton's own tale about sitting by the window of his home (Woolsthorpe Manor) and watching an apple fall from a tree. However it is now generally considered that this story was invented by him in his later life, to try to show how clever he was at drawing inspiration from everyday events. He is maybe the most known for this tale.

"He is also notable for his arguments that light was composed of particles(wave-particle duality). He was the first to realise that the spectrum of colours observed when white light was passed through a prism was inherent in the white light, and not added by the prism as Roger Bacon had claimed in the 13th century. Newton also developed Newton's law of cooling, describing the rate of cooling of objects when exposed to air; the binomial theorem in its entirety; and the principles of conservation of momentum and angular momentum. Finally, he studied the speed of sound in air, and voiced a theory of the origin of stars.

"The rest," Nadia said now finished, "is as told by my mates."

Evy sighed and quickly took notes as the others spoke. She clearly wasn't in a mood for answering questions.

Anelreas' jaw almost dropped at all of the information Nadia spoke of about Sir Isaac. The girl never ceased to amaze her with her knowledge.

Ok I have alot of points to give out...

3pts - Fan#1, Francis, TrixiePixie and Quidditch chick

5pts - Nadia and Riddle

2pts to TonksSB for a great interesting fact!

British physicist Sir Isaac Newton advanced a simple principle to explain Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. By mathematical reasoning, he argued that an attractive force exists between the Sun and each of the planets. This force, which depends on the masses of the Sun and planets and on the distances between them, provides the basis for the physical interpretation of Kepler’s laws. Newton’s mathematical discovery is called the law of universal gravitation.

He established the modern study of optics—or the behavior of light—and built the first reflecting telescope. His mathematical insights led him to invent the area of mathematics called calculus. Newton began with the laws of motion and gravitation he observed in nature, then used these laws to convert physics from a mere science of explanation into a general mathematical system with rules and laws. His experiments explained the phenomena of light and color and anticipated modern developments in light theory. In addition, his invention of calculus gave science one of its most versatile and powerful tools.

Newton’s place in scientific history rests on his application of mathematics to the study of nature and his explanation of a wide range of natural phenomena with one general principle—the law of gravitation. He used the foundations of dynamics, or the laws of nature governing motion and its effects on bodies, as the basis of a mechanical picture of the universe.This reassessment of Newton’s ideas about the universe led to the modern theory of relativity and to quantum theory, which deal with the special cases of physics involving high speeds and physics of very small dimensions, respectively.

Righto, thats them done. I believe that someone wanted to learn about Hubble?

Edwin Powell Hubble. When and where wa he born?

Selena raises hand

"He was born 20 Nov 1889 in Marshfield, Missouri

*Julia copies some things down. She looks at Selena and nods slightly. She looks up at the Professor.*

Francis raised her hand, "Edwin Powell Hubble was born on November 20, 1889 and died on September 28, 1953. He was a noted American astronomer, generally credited for discovering the redshift of galaxies and that fact that the universe is expanding. Nevetheless, this redshift discovery was actually been observed by Vesto Slipher in the 1910s, but the world was largely unaware of Vesto Slipher's work."

Francis continued, "An interesting fact about his youth is that in his younger days, he was noted more for his athletic abilities rather than his intellectual genius: he won seven first places and a third placing in a single high school meet in 1906. That year he also set a state record for high jump in Illinois."


Francis continued, "Regarding his studies, at the University of Chicago he concentrated on mathematics and astronomy which led to a B.S. degree in 1910. He spent the next three years as one of Oxford's first Rhodes Scholars, where he studied in the field of law and received the M.A. degree, after which he returned to the United States as a high school teacher and a basketball coach in New Albany, Indiana!"

Francis smiled, "After he earned his PhD the University of Chicago in 1917, in 1919 Hubble was offered a staff position by George Ellery Hale, the founder and director of Carnegie Institution's Mount Wilson Observatory, near Pasadena, California, where he remained until his death. Shortly before his death, Palomar's 200-inch Hale Telescope was completed, and Hubble was the first to use it.


After his arrival at Mount Wilson and using the 100-inch Hooker Telescope, then the world's most powerful telescope, Hubble's established that the fuzzy "nebulae" seen earlier with less powerful telescopes were not part of our galaxy, and were galaxies themselves, which he announced on December 30, 1924.

Subsequently, Hubble discovered the velocity-distance relation, now know as the Hubble's law, which led to the concept of the expanding universe. He also discovered the asteroid 1373 Cincinnati on August 30, 1935, and the asteroid 2069 Hubble is named for him."

Thats right, 2 points to Phl and 5 to francis.

Hubble was the first to discover that fuzzy patches of light in the sky called spiral nebula were actually galaxies like the earth’s galaxy, the Milky Way. Hubble also found the first evidence for the expansion of the universe, and his work led to a much better understanding of the universe’s size.

Hubble received the invitation, the United States declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of official U.S. military involvement in World War I (1914-1918). Hubble volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army, rushing to finish his dissertation and reporting for duty just three days after passing his oral Ph.D. exam. He was sent to France at first and remained on active duty in Germany until 1919. He left the army with the rank of major.

At the time that Hubble began studying nebulas, astronomers had not been able to differentiate between nebulas and distant galaxies, which also appear as cloudy patches in the sky.Hubble was especially interested in two nebulas called the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud.

After World War I, with the Hooker telescope at his disposal, Hubble was able to make significant advances in his studies of nebulas. He focused on nebulas thought to be outside of the Milky Way, searching for Cepheid stars within them. In 1923 he discovered a Cepheid star in the Andromeda nebula, now known as the Great Andromeda Spiral Galaxy. Within a year he had detected 12 Cepheid stars within the Andromeda Galaxy. Using these variable stars, he determined that the Andromeda nebula was about 900,000 light-years away from the earth. (A light-year is the distance light can travel in one year, a measurement equal to 9.46 trillion km [5.88 trillion mi]). The diameter of the Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years, so Hubble’s measurements showed that the Andromeda nebula was far outside the boundaries of the earth’s galaxy.

Does anyone have any interesting facts before I drop another load of info on you, something weird maybe?

Kali remembered something then said, "Well it's not weird, but the Hubble Telescope (which was named after Edwin Hubble) is described to be the size of an average school bus. The most detailed pictures we have of space are all from the Hubble Telescope. Black holes, supernovas, planets, comets, and more, the Hubble Telescope has gotten many detailed pictures of."

*Julia looks at the Professor. Julia looks around the classroom. She shrugs and shakes her head slightly. She looks back up at the professor wondering what is next.*

Very good, 2 points.

Hubble discovered many other nebulas that contained stars and were located outside of the Milky Way. He found that they contained objects similar to those within the Milky Way Galaxy. These objects included round, compact groups of stars called globular clusters, and stars called novas that flare suddenly in brightness. In 1924 he finally proposed that these nebulas were in fact other galaxies like our own, a theory which became known as the island universe. From 1925 he studied the structures of these external galaxies and classified them according to their shape and composition into regular and irregular forms.

The regular galaxies, 97 percent of the total, had elliptical or spiral shapes. Hubble further divided the spiral galaxies into normal spiral galaxies and barred spiral galaxies. Normal spiral galaxies have arms that come out from a central, circular core and spiral around the core and each other. The arms of barred spiral galaxies come out from an elongated, bar-shaped nucleus. There are no distinct boundaries between the types of galaxies—some galaxies have the characteristics of both spiral and elliptical galaxies, and some spiral galaxies could be classified as either normal or barred. Irregular galaxies—galaxies that seem to have no regular shape or internal structure—made up only three percent of the galaxies that Hubble found.

In 1929 Hubble compared the distances of the galaxies to the speed at which they were moving away from the earth, and he found a direct and very consistent correlation: The farther a galaxy was from the earth, the faster it was receding. This relationship was so consistent throughout the 46 galaxies that Hubble initially studied, as well as in virtually all of the galaxies studied later by Hubble and other scientists, that it is known as Hubble’s Law. Hubble concluded that the relationship between velocity and distance must mean that the universe is expanding.

Now this theory is very highly contested throughout the Astronomical world. There really isn't conclusive proof either way so it remains a very heated topic of discussion.

The relationship of the velocity of galaxies to their distance is called the Hubble constant. Uncertainty in the distance measurements of the galaxies limits the accuracy of calculations of Hubble’s constant. If Hubble’s constant is ever calculated accurately, it will help astronomers determine both the age of the universe and the radius of the observable universe. The universe is infinitely large, but if objects really do move faster as they move farther from the center of the universe, at some distance objects will be moving at the speed of light. That distance would be the limit to the observable universe, because light from an object moving at the speed of light could never reach the earth. The radius of the observable universe is called the Hubble radius.

Hubble was an active researcher until his death. He was involved in building the 200-in (508-cm) Hale telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory, also in southern California. The Hale telescope was the largest telescope in the world from when it went into operation in 1948 until the Keck telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii was completed in 1990. The Hubble Space Telescope, a powerful telescope launched in 1990 and carried aboard a satellite in orbit around the earth, was named after Hubble.

Nadia took some notes, not remember much about Hubble that minute. Maybe it was the overload of information or the tiredness since it was late at night, but as interesting as it was, Nadia didn't try answering just now. She rubbed a spot at her temples trying to awake herself.

Serena raised her hand.

Another interesting thing the Hubble has contributed, by gazing across space and time, the satellite identified the farthest stellar explosion to date. It was a supernova that erupted 10 billion years ago. In 2001 astronomers collected the first observational evidence that gravity began slowing down the universe's expansion after the Big Bang by examining the glow from the dying star or supernova that is called 1997ff. This finding reinforces the idea that the universe only recently began to speed up. This discovery was made in 1998 when the unusually dim light of several distant supernovas suggested that the universe is expanding more quickly than it has in the past. Many Muggle Scientists believe that a mysterious, repulsive force is at work in the cosmos, making galaxies rush ever faster away from each other, thus, causing the universe's expansion to accelerate

Well done, another 5 points for Serena!

If anyone has further questions please ask them, otherwise, her's the homework for the lesson.

1. When are where was Copernicus born, and when was his death. (2)
2. What was Copernicus’ best known theory called? (3)
3. When and where was Galileo born, and when was his death? (2)
4. True or false, one of Galileo’s main contributions to Astronomy was the use of the telescope in observation and discovery. (2)
5. When are where was Brahe born, and when was his death. (2)
6. True or false, although Brahe saw merit in the Copernican theory, he still believed that the planets circled the earth. (3)
7. Kepler is most noted for discovering what laws of the planets? (3)
8. What branch of Mathematics did Sir Isaac Newton create? (1)
9. True or false, Hubble said that the universe was not expanding. (1)
10. What percentage of the galaxies that Hubble observed where regular? (1)

You have 4 days to hand it in. It is worth a total of 20 points. PM it to me with your name, house and member number. Good luck!

Evy quickly packed her things and darted towards the exit, nodding at the teacher as she passed by.

Amy packed her things, her notes, and a lolly. She smiled.
"Great lesson Professor!" She commented, smiling and exiting for her next class.