[NJARC] On the value of history in science education

[Edward Otte]

Hi,

Technological advancement is not a linear thing. Rather it is something that
comes in leaps and bounds. It is easy to look back to the Renaissance and
see the quantum leaps mankind made in short powerful bursts. With minds like
Mozart, Galileo, Di Vinci, etc. there can be no argument. But I feel it is
easier to look at them in perspective than it is great minds like Marconi,
Bell to name a few in the last century. The wireless is a revolution and so
is the electron tube. They too are quantum leaps of technological greatness.


Oh to be sure, we can make a better radio with a tweak here or a tweak there
but think about Armstrong doing it for the first time. It must be just like
Newton inventing differential calculus overnight, literally, because one of
his friends tried to give him a mathematical problem he thought Newton could
not solve!

Yes Rob clearly the educational system should teach the modern miracles of
the electron tube. This present information age still to this day depends on
tubes, at least for transmission of powerful radio stations and its role in
the past is hard to ignore.

Edward

What role does a vacuum-tube radio or a horse-drawn plow have in modern
science education?

Consider the following quote.

"If I have seen further it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants."

ATTRIBUTION: Isaac Newton (16421727), British physicist, mathematician,
universal genius. Letter to Robert Hooke, February 5, 1675. 

With reference to his dependency on Galileos and Keplers work in physics
and astronomy. 


Rob Flory
robandpj at earthlink.net
www.home.earthlink.net/~navyradio  WWII Navy Radio
www.home.earthlink.net/~robandpj    Les Flory Television and Electronics



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