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September E-News: Newton’s Apple… The Real Story!

It is one of the most famous anecdotes in the history of science. The young Sir Isaac Newton is sitting in his garden when an apple falls on his head and, in that moment he understands that the very same force that brought the apple crashing toward the ground also keeps the moon falling toward the Earth and the Earth falling toward the sun: gravity. The story is almost certainly embellished, both by Newton and the generations of storytellers who came after him. But thanks to modern day technology, anyone with access to the internet can see for themselves the first-hand account of how a falling apple inspired the understanding of gravitational force.

Like all the best myths from history, the apple-falling tale seems to have at least a little grounding in reality. Squirreled away in the archives of London’s Royal Society was a manuscript containing the truth about the apple. This manuscript eventually became a biography of Sir Isaac Newton entitled Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s Life written by William Stukeley, an archaeologist and one of Newton’s first biographers. Newton told the apple story to Stukeley, who relayed it as such:

“After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank thea, under the shade of some apple trees…he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasion’d by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself…”

You can read the full manuscript here at the Newton Project, which is a non-profit group dedicated to making his unpublished and published works freely available online. While the manuscript is far from being a NY Times Best Seller, it does offer some pretty incredible insight into the development of 23-year oldNewton’s theories on motion & gravitational forces. Later in life,Newton would go on to make history by presenting his three laws of motion in a book. Today, we continue to use these laws to explain the motion of everything from apples to rockets.

So it turns out the apple story is true – for the most part. The apple may not have hit Newton in the head, but I’ll still picture it that way. Meanwhile, three and a half centuries and an Albert Einstein later, physicists still don’t fully understand gravity. Looks like we’re gonna need a bigger apple!

Learn More about the Incredible Sir Isaac Newton with these great resources!

Interactive Newton Games & Quiz

Newton Activity Sheets & Other Classroom Resources

SurfnetKids – Discover Isaac Newton

How did Isaac Newton Discover the Laws of Motion?

High Touch High Tech is the leader in innovative hands-on science and nature experiences for children, serving over 4 million children annually with 27 franchise locations across the United States, Canada, Turkey, Singapore and South Korea.

To learn more about franchise opportunities with High Touch High Tech, visit us online at ScienceMadeFunFranchise.net.

From Shamrocks & Shenanigans – Traditions of St. Patrick’s Day!

clover-445255_1280 — Image Source: Pixabay.com

Today, St. Patrick’s Day is a transcontinental celebration of Irish culture, filled with festive food and traditions. Amidst the millions of people that don green to celebrate the Irish few know the reasoning behind many popular St. Patrick’s Day traditions. Have you ever wondered why we wear green, tell stories of leprechauns, display shamrocks and pinch our friends on St. Patrick’s Day? Read on to discover how these modern day St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans came to be.

Why green?

According to some accounts, blue was the first color associated with St. Patrick’s Day, but that started to change in the 17th century. Green is one of the colors in Ireland’s tri-color flag, and it has been used in the flags of several Irish revolutionary groups throughout history. Ireland is the “Emerald Isle,” so named for its lush green landscape. Green is also the color of spring, the shamrock, and the Chicago River, which the Midwestern city has dyed green on St. Patrick’s Day for the past 40-odd years.

Corned beef or bacon?

This St. Patrick’s Day, millions of people will sit down to an authentic Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage. Or so they think. In fact, only half of it is really Irish. Though cabbage has historically been a staple of the Irish diet (along with potatoes), it was traditionally eaten with Irish bacon, not corned beef. Irish immigrants in America could not afford the bacon, so they substituted it with corned beef.

Pinch me, I’m Irish

Forgot to wear green on St. Patty’s Day? Don’t be surprised if you get pinched. No surprise, it’s an entirely American tradition that probably started in the early 1700s. St. Patrick’s revelers thought wearing green made one invisible to leprechauns, fairy creatures who would pinch anyone they could see (anyone not wearing green). People began pinching those who didn’t wear green as a reminder that leprechauns would sneak up and pinch green-abstainers.

Leprechauns, Pots of Gold & Rainbows

Just what does a mythical leprechaun look like and why are they so special? A leprechaun looks like a little old man and dresses like a shoemaker with a cocked hat and leather apron. According to Irish folklore, leprechauns were cranky tricksters who you wouldn’t want to mess with. They live alone and pass the time by mending the shoes of Irish fairies. According to the legend, the fairies pay the leprechauns for their work with golden coins, which the “little people” collect in large pots–the famous “pots of gold” often associated with leprechauns. The legend says that if you catch a leprechaun, you can force him to tell you where he hid his pot of gold. Supposedly, this pot of gold is hidden at the end of a rainbow. Because you can never find the “end” of a rainbow, you can’t get the pot of gold. To get the gold, you first get to catch the little Leprechaun.

The cheerful, friendly ‘Lil elf most Americans associate with St. Paddy’s Day stems from a 1959 Walt Disney film called Darby O’Gill & the Little People. The Americanized, good-natured leprechaun soon became a symbol of St. Patrick’s Day and Ireland in general.

Shamrocks & the Four-Leaf Clover

According to Irish legend, St. Patrick chose a three leaved clover or shamrock as a symbol of the church’s Holy Trinity because of its three leaflets bound by a common stalk. A shamrock is not a four leaf clover, contrary to popular belief.

Although clovers are most often found in nature with three leaves, rare four-leaf clovers do exist. Finding one is thought to bring someone extreme luck. The folklore for four-leaf clovers differs from that of the Shamrock due to the fact that it has no religious allusions associated with it. It is believed that each leaf of a four-leaf clover represents something different: first is hope, the second is faith, the third is love, and the fourth is happiness. The good luck attached with the four leaf clover predates Christianity in Ireland back to the ancient Druid priests.

You don’t have to be Irish to have some hands-on fun on this holiday, exercise your green thumb this St. Patrick’s Day & learns to grow shamrocks indoors!

Kiss Me I’m Irish

The popular “Kiss Me, I’m Irish,” saying is a reference to The Blarney Stone. The Blarney Stone is the “Stone of Eloquence” in Blarney Castle. Legend holds that kissing the stone brings good luck and gives you the ability to never be lost for words, becoming a smooth talker so-to-speak. If you can’t make it to Ireland to kiss the actual stone, convention says the next-best option is to kiss an Irishman.

No Snakes In Ireland?

Another St. Patrick myth is the claim that he banished snakes from Ireland. It’s true no snakes exist on the island today, but they never did. Ireland, after all, is surrounded by icy ocean waters—much too cold to allow snakes to migrate from Britain or anywhere else. But since snakes often represent evil in literature, when Patrick drives the snakes out of Ireland, it is symbolically saying he drove the old, evil, pagan ways out of Ireland and brought in a new age. The snake myth was likely spread by well-meaning monks centuries after St. Patrick’s death.

The Luck o’ the Irish

Want to get lucky this St. Patrick’s Day? If so, follow these rules:

1. Find a four-leaf clover.

2. Wear green (so you don’t get pinched).

3. Kiss the blarney stone.

4. Catch a Leprechaun if you can.

There are many traditions associated with Saint Patrick’s Day. Regardless of your actual heritage, we all embrace our inner Irishman (or woman) on St. Patrick’s Day. Looking for more ways to have FUN this holiday? Check out these FUN games & resources!

Quiz Your Noodle – National Geographic St. Patty’s Day Quiz

Clover Puzzler

Funny Fill-In (Mad Lib)

St. Patrick’s Day: Celebrating Irish Scientists & Inventors

Ask most people what they think are Ireland’s greatest contributions to the world and they would probably come up with suggestions such as great music, great writers and great food. It’s unlikely that scientists would be high on the list, but Ireland has given us many great inventors, innovators & scientists. Their work covers a broad spectrum from developing medical treatments to pioneering new technologies and revolutionizing the way we work, rest and play. This month, we want to celebrate the Irish natives that have achieved greatness in the scientific field and highlight those achievements which have made such an impact on our modern world.

Robert Boyle is known as being one of the original modern chemists and made many key contributions in the scientific revolution of the 1600’s. He said that all matter is made up of tiny particles joined together, that it is not continuous. His most famous discovery, which examined the pressure-volume relationship in laboratory conditions, now bears his name (Boyle’s Law) and was to prove fundamental to our understanding of gases and atmospheric pressure. boyle

William Thompson is also known as Lord Kelvin is noted for his infamous curiosity & investigation of heat. His interest in the measurement of temperature and thermodynamics led to his creation of the absolute scale of temperature- The Kelvin Scale or Absolute Scale. This scale is still used today by scientists across the world.

In 1932, Earnest Walton in collaboration with John Cockcroft, became the first people in history to artificially split the atom, thus ushering the nuclear age. Up until their discovery of ‘splitting the atom’, scientists thought that the atom was the smallest thing possible and could not be split. In 1951 they were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics – making Walton Ireland’s first and only Nobel science laureate.

Throughout the centuries, Ireland has proven itself to be a nation filled with innovation, producing many successful engineers that have revolutionized the way we live. From the hypodermic needle to the perforated stamp, their contributions have made a lasting impact in the military, medical, transportation and tourism fields.

John Philip Holland is accredited with being the inventor of the modern submarine. He had a keen interest in science and was inspired by the book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This inspiration led him to wonder the possibility of constructing submersible boats. In 1898 the Holland submarine was launched. Armed with one torpedo tube and a pneumatic gun, his innovation changed military tactics worldwide.

The first hypodermic needle was created in Dublin’s Mental Health hospital in 1844. Physician Francis Rynd improvised the needle & hypodermic injection in order to give a local anesthetic to a woman who was suffering with an agonizing pain in her face.

The modern tractor was invented by an innovative self-taught mechanic, Harry Ferguson deemed the “Mad Mechanic”. It was lighter, more effective and safer than earlier tractors, and helped to revolutionize farming. Ferguson also invented four-wheel-drive, anti-skid braking, and was the first Irish man to fly in 1909.

Another Irish invention includes perforated stamps, invented in the 1850s by a Dublin printer, Henry Archer – before then, each stamp had to be cut from a sheet.

Ireland’s scientific achievements are being honored & celebrated this year as Dublin was chosen to be the European City of Science for 2012. The scientific celebration kicks off during Dublin’s famous St. Patrick’s Festival. The St. Patrick’s Day parade will feature floats & displays seeking to answer some of science’s most engaging questions, such as “How is a rainbow formed?”, “What makes the weather change?”, and “How is electricity made?” The City of Science title will remain throughout the year and will globally recognize Ireland for all of their scientific accomplishments.

Discover more about Dublin’s City of Science 2012

More Irish Inventors

More Irish Scientists