WOULD WE HAVE THESE THINGS IF IT WASN'T FOR ANCIENT GREECE
Added on: 20th Jun 2016
VENDING MACHINE
Vending machines might look like modern marvels, but
they are actually pretty old. Greek inventor Hero of Alexandria
made one around 215 B.C. which dispensed holy water to temple
worshipers. A coin was dropped into a slot and came to rest on
a metal pan, where its weight pushed the pan down to open a
valve and dispense water. Once the coin’s weight made the pan
tilt at a severe angle, the coin would slide off and return the pan
to an upright position, shutting the valve off.
THERMOMETER
The original technology behind the thermometer is quite old, dating
back almost two thousand years. It was the Greeks of Alexandria
who first figured out how air expands when exposed to high
temperatures. It was Philo of Byzantium who first applied this
technique to determine air temperature, and Galileo later
improved on it by introducing the concept of a “scale”
to quantify the process.
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE
Greek architects created the three major architectural orders of
antiquity (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian) that continue to influence
the world to this day. Greek architecture provided not only
many of the staple features of modern Western architecture,
but has also given the world magnificent buildings which have
literally stood the test of time and continue to inspire admiration,
the Parthenon being a prime example.
THEATRE
The city-state of Athens is where theatre was born. It was part of a
broader culture of theatricality and performance in classical
Greece that included festivals, religious rituals, athletics, music,
poetry, weddings, and even funerals. In fact, even the word
theatre is derived from the Greek word theatron,
which means “a place for viewing.”
ROBOTS
What is known as “the automatic servant of Philon” was the first
operating robot. It was a human-like robot in the form of a
maid that held a jug of wine in her right hand. When the
visitor placed a cup in the palm of her left hand, she
automatically poured wine and then poured water
into the cup, mixing it when desired.
WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
Arguably the three most famous, influential philosophers of all time;
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, are widely considered the fathers
of Western philosophy and freethinking. Even the term
philosophy derives from the Greek word (philosophia),
which was probably first coined by Pythagoras and means
“love of wisdom” or “friend of wisdom.” Through philosophy
the Greeks became the first people in recorded history
to try to interpret the world, nature, reality, and existence
from a human perspective.
THE FIRST ANALOG COMPUTER/CALCULATOR
Okay, we admit we might be stretching it a little by calling
“the Antikythera mechanism” an analogue computer,
but the fact remains that it is the earliest preserved portable
astronomical calculator in recorded history. It could display
the positions of the sun, the moon, and most probably
the four planets besides Earth known to antiquity: Mercury,
Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. It was also used to predict solar
and lunar eclipses and kept an accurate calendar of many years.
LOGIC
According to some historians, logic is an even more important
Ancient Greek contribution than philosophy. Logic was first
developed by Aristotle. Aristotelian logic became widely accepted
in science and mathematics and remained in wide use in
most parts of the world until the early nineteenth century.
Aristotle’s system of logic was responsible for the introduction
of hypothetical syllogism, temporal modal logic, and inductive
logic, as well as influential terms such as terms, predicables,
syllogisms, and propositions.
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