Scientific poetry: The old astronomer to his pupil, by Sarah Williams

As far as I can remember I love poetry but since I studied physics, I have been very interested in the science and poetry combination. Is this concept possible? Well, yes. The great advances of science during the XIX century till today, have been accompanied by the development of a new kind of poetry: the scientific poetry whose rooths belong to the Roman time.

The following quote is often attributed to Galileo in social nets:

I have loved the stars too truly to be fearful of the night.

However it seems to belong not to the Italian physicist but to the poem The old astronomer to his pupil, written in 1868 by the English poet and novelist Sarah Williams.

Mexico 68, the triumph of physics in the high jump

This post is to cellebrate the 50 anniversary or Mexico 68 Olympic Games, fist Latin American country to be an olympic host.

Athletics has had several tests in the Olympic Games editions since Athens 1896. One of these tests is the high jump in which the athlete tries to exceed a horizontal bar that rests on two supports. From the point of view of physics, the jump movement can be understood with the concept of the center of mass which is a geometric point that represents the movement of the body.

By getting that the center of mass overcomes the bar so the body can also overcome it, a good height jump is achieved. Using the technique of scissors and other techniques, the center of mass must exceed by much the height of the bar to be able to jump it, but in the technique known as "the Fosbury flop", the center of mass is outside and below the body during the jump and for this reason, the body can overcome more easily.

Personality and learning

From the year of 400 BC, Hippocrates, the father of the medicine talked about the origin of the personality. He believed that four humours were the origin of the human personality: according to him, black bile produces a melancholic person, the yellow one (adrenaline) produces irritable and nervous people, the phlegm (a fluid from the mucosa) was related with relax people and blood with optimistic beings. Despite the centuries elapsed since then, the thoughts and research of Hippocrates have repercussion in modern medicine and his theories about human personality are still used in education systems of today world. Nevertheless, there are other theories concerning about the personality and learning with other classifications.

Mad about polyhedra I

There are people in this world who do not know polyhedra yet.

But, on the other hand, there are people who someday know polyhedral and after this moment they will never let them go…

The price of the color

During the night the eyes are dilated in order to try to see the objects around. All the things are in gray scale from light gray to black. There are no colors or at least, it seems to be like that.

In the next day, the rays from the sun allow us to see the colors. The balance between the light absorption and reflection of the objects let them to have a color. The color depends of the place of the world and also of the season. Nevertheless, paint a color is another story.

The three wise men (the three kings)

They were wise men from East, the Bible said. But nobody knows how many they were or how they were. For many centuries, people have thought in three kings because in they appeared like that in paintings. Some years later, they appeared as men with beard. Sometimes they appeared old, sometimes younger. Nowadays they are three: a blond man, a tan man and a color man who have a horse, a camel and an elephant, respectively. They follow the Bethlehem star where Jesus was born. But how could be they today?

Famous people that studied sciences and mathematics III

More people that studied something related with mathematics and sciences.

Florence Nightingale, nurse and first medical statistician.

Changing the geometry of the world

Only some human beings have changed the geometry of their known world.

On October 12, the World remembers Columbus’ discovering of American continent. I am referring not to the country but to the complete continent named America some years later its discovery (the American continent from Argentina in the South to Canada in the North).