GE 7 Midterms

• In the ancient times, people were concerned with transportation and navigation, communication, and recordkeeping, mass production, security and protection, as well as health, aesthetics, and architecture
• Cuneiform


  A system that utilizes word pictures and triangular symbols which are carved on clay using wedge instruments and then left to dry. It keeps records of things with great historical value or their everyday life

  
• Sumerian contributions


  • City of Uruk
  • Irrigation and dikes
  • Sailboats
  • Wheels
  • Plow
  • Roads
• Astrology and horoscopy


  Babylonian astronomy was the basis for much of ancient Greek mathematics and astronomy, which in turn was the historical predecessor of the scientific revolution in the west. The concept of the horoscope was introduced by the Babylonians as they believed in the divinity of the celestial bodies
• Babylonian contributions


  • Etemenanki
  • Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Egyptian contributions


  • Paper or papyrus
  • Ink
  • Hieroglyphics
  • Cosmetics and wig
  • Water clock/clepsydra
  • Field of medicine
• Notable Greek philosophers and scientists


  • Pythagoras
  • Archimedes
  • Hippocrates
  • Aristotle
  • Thales
  • Eratosthenes
  • Ptolemy
  • Posidonius
  • Theophrastus
  • Aristarchus
  • Hipparchus
  • Galen
  • Anaxagoras
  • Eudoxus
• Roman contributions


  • Newspaper
  • Bound books or codex
  • Roman architecture
  • Roman numerals
• Chinese contributions


  • Silk industry
  • Tea production
  • Great Wall of China
  • Gunpowder
• Printing press


  Invented by Johann Gutenberg to address the need for publishing books that would spread information to many
• Microscope


  Invented to magnify the small things that are invisible to the naked eye
• Telescope


  Invented for ship captains to see far and wide to navigate or avoid dangers at sea
• War weapons


  One of the keys to gain victory during the Middle Ages were well crafted bows, spears, even armors which are used in close range hand-to-hand combat and for open-area battles
• Pasteurization


  The process of heating dairy products to kill the harmful bacteria that allow the milk to spoil faster, invented by Louis Pasteur
• Petroleum refinery


  Samuel M. Kier was able to invent kerosene by refining petroleum
• Telephone


  Invented by Alexander Graham Bell, one of the most important inventions at that time
• Calculator


  Although an earlier version had already been developed, circumstances in modern times required a faster way to compute more complicated equations
• When analysing markets, a range of assumptions are made about the rationality of economic agents involved in the transactions
• The Wealth of Nations was written

  1776
• Consumers act rationally by


  Maximising their utility
• Producers act rationally by


  Selling goods/services in a way that maximises their profits
• Workers act rationally by


  Balancing welfare at work with consideration of both pay and benefits
• Governments act rationally by


  Placing the interests of the people they serve first in order to maximise their welfare
• Groups assumed to act rationally


  • Consumers
  • Producers
  • Workers
  • Governments
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• A firm increases advertising

  Demand curve shifts right
• Marginal utility


  The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
• If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
• SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
• Many Greek philosophers and thinkers wrote about planets in an effort to explain heavenly bodies' movements and impact on the world as they knew it. Many of these philosophers agreed that planets rotated in a circular motion, which caused days and nights, among other things.
• Claudius Ptolemy, a great philosopher and astronomer, claimed that the planets, as well as the sun and moon, revolved around the Earth in a circular motion. Ptolemy's geocentric model was universally accepted and considered one of the most important discoveries of the period.

  
• Geocentrism


  The belief that the Earth is the center of the universe
• Nicolaus Copernicus


  A Polish mathematician and astronomer who disputed the Ptolemaic model in the 16th century and proposed a new theory known as heliocentrism

  
• Heliocentrism


  The sun, not the Earth, was the center of the Solar System

  
• Copernicus was also punished as a heretic since his theories contradicted religious doctrine. Astronomers noticed after some time that the Copernican model simplified planet orbits. Other works that backed up this paradigm began to appear as well.
• It was eventually accepted by the public during the so-called "Birth of Modern Astronomy" period.
• This period saw the start of the scientific revolution, which resulted in a shift in society's attitudes and ideas.
• Darwinian Revolution
• Darwin's book The Origin of Species was published in 1589.
• This book is regarded as one of the most important works in the field of science.