Modern astronomy
There were four main contributors to modern astronomy: Sir Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Tycho Brahe. Brahe advocated for the new standards for having a more precise observation even though he did not personally believe in the view of heliocentric. All of his contributions were huge for astronomy because he was able to create new instruments along with being able to calibrate them. He would check the accuracy of his instruments on a regular basis so it helped him to revolutionize instruments for astronomy. Kepler was an assistant for Brahe until he died in 1601. This helped him to become his successor as the Imperial Mathematician, one of the most prestigious titles in Europe for mathematics. Kepler was responsible for the Kepler’s Laws of Plantery Motion (Van Helden, 1995).
One of the most famous inventions of Galileo was the telescope that was invented in 1609. He modeled the telescope after other parts of Europe that could magnify objects and figured out how to magnify the objects twenty times closer. With this telescope, he was able to discover four bright moons of Jupiter, sunspots, some of the features of the moon, and the phases of Venus. All of his discoveries helped to prove that the Earth and other planets did revolve around the Sun. Before the Copernican system that he came up with, it was believed that the universe was geocentric. This mean that the Sun would revolve around the Earth (Wilde, n.d.).
One of the greatest scientists was Sir Isaac Newton because he was able to take his ideas along with the ideas of other scientists to combine them for a more unified picture of how the universe works. He was responsible for the Law of Universal Gravitation that helped show how the Kepler’s Law of Planetary Motion worked. The three laws explained the way that objects could move. The First Law is that an object if it is not being pushed or pulled by a force is going to remain still or move at a steady speed in a straight line. The Second Law talks about how the force will act on a particular object. The Third Law is when the object is pulled or pushed, it will pull or push equally in the direction opposite (Bellis, n.d.).
The geocentric view of the world was based on the way that people interpreted what they saw. Once there were better ways of tracking and recording what the people were actually seeing, then the views of the universe started to change. All of the observations and data from these astronomers showed that it was possible to use science to explain how and why certain things work. Even though the scientific method was not an easy or quick thing to come by because it takes some time to absorb. It was often criticized by other scientists and other people who have different points of view. Sometimes people’s views are going to be based on the personal, political, or religious views of the person.
Relationship of geography
Geography is the generalized discipline instead of being a specialized one. This is because it is where all of the natural sciences come from and will share a common bond. Geography and Earth Science can encompass all of the other sciences so that people can better understand the Earth and its neighbors in space. The biggest strength of geography is that it is mostly about how the things different on the surface of Earth. Therefore, it is not defined by the methods that is uses to study all of the disciplines. The holistic approach of geography is a strength and weakness for it (Rosenberg, 2013).
Weather vs. Climate
Weather is the conditions that happen in the atmosphere that happen at a given time in a particular area while climate is the weather conditions that happen day to day. The biggest different between them is the measure of time. Weather is the conditions that happen over a short period of time in the atmosphere and the climate is how the atmosphere is going to behave over a long period of time.
The greenhouse effect is when the greenhouse gases will allow the shortwave solar radiation to pass through the surface of the Earth but it will not allow the long wave radiation from the surface of the Earth to pass easily through to space. The shortwave is absorbed by the surface of the Earth to raise the temperature of the surface. The heat on the surface will give off the long wave radiation which allows the greenhouse gases to be absorbed and will reflect back on the surface of the Earth. Global warming is the belief that the activities of humans will cause a rise in greenhouse gases so it helps to explain the warming climate of the Earth (Climate, 2011).
The Corolis Effect
Because of the atmosphere, the pressure of the gradient force will be balanced out by the gravitational force so that it has the ability to maintain the hydrostatic equilibrium. For example, in the atmosphere of the Earth, the air pressure will decrease when the altitudes of the Earth’s surface increases. This will provide a pressure force that will counteract the force of the gravity on the atmosphere.
The Coriolis Effect is the larger scale of dynamics for the ocean and its atmosphere. In oceanography and meteorology, it is very convenient to post a rotating frame of reference where the Earth is stationary. In the combination of the Coriolis and centrifugal forces are introducted to each other, provisional postulation happens. They are important because it is determined by the Rossby numbers that are applicable. When tornados have high Rossby numbers, the centrifugal forces that are associated with the tornado are going to be substantial while the Coriolis forces are going to be more negligible.
When there is a frictional force, the high pressure systems will rotate in a direction that the Coriolis force will direct more inwards and balanced by the radial pressure gradient. The direction will be clockwise in the northern hemisphere and in the southern hemisphere, it is going to be counter-clockwise. The low pressure systems will rotate in the opposite direction in order for the Coriolis forces to be directed outward. This will balance out the radial pressure gradient inward. The slight imbalance between the pressure gradient accounts and Coriolis forces for the radially inward acceleration of the circular motion of the system.
Mediterranean climate
The climates for Csa and Cfa are similar because they are both found on the sides of the warm or hot summers, mild winter, and the winds from the west are the dominant forces in the winter. They are different because the Csa is centered on the western side at 35 degrees and Cfa is centered on the eastern side at 30 degrees. The Csa is going to get an annual precipitation of 38-64cm and the Cfa will get a larger amount of 100 – 165 cm annually.
During the El Nino cycle, the trade winds in the South Pacific between Australia and South America are going to weaken or reverse the direction that will allow the warmer western water to keep the cold water from coming up. This is the result in the areas that are always changing since they receive little or no precipitation to suddenly receiving more than they can handle. The opposite happens in the area where they do not normally receive a lot of precipitation and will experience a drought. The ENSO will bring the winter storms to California and Arizona.
References
Bellis, M. (n.d.). Isaac Newton and the Invention of the Telescope. Isaac Newton and the
Invention of the Telescope. Retrieved on March 23, 2016, from http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blnewton.htm.
Coriolis Effect. (n.d.). In Coriolis Effect. Retrieved on March 23, 2016, from
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/coriolis_effect.html4.
Rosenberg, M. (2013). Geography 101. Retrieved on March 23, 2016, from
http://geography.about.com/od/studygeography/a/geog101.htm
Van Helden, A. (1995). The Galileo Project | Science | Johannes Kepler. The Galileo Project |
Science | Johannes Kepler. Retrieved from http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/kepler.html
Wilde, M. (n.d.). The Galileo Project | Biography | Text Version. The Galileo Project |
Biography | Text Version. Retrieved on March 23, 2016, from http://galileo.rice.edu/bio/tov.html
