Royal Society
The President and Fellows of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge known as the Royal Society, is a learned society. Founded on 28 November 1660, it was granted a royal charter by King Charles II as "The Royal Society", it is the oldest national scientific institution in the world. The society is the United Kingdom's and Commonwealth of Nations' Academy of Sciences and fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, recognising excellence in science, supporting outstanding science, providing scientific advice for policy, fostering international and global co-operation and public engagement; the society is governed by its Council, chaired by the Society's President, according to a set of statutes and standing orders. The members of Council and the President are elected from and by its Fellows, the basic members of the society, who are themselves elected by existing Fellows; as of 2016, there are about 1,600 fellows, allowed to use the postnominal title FRS, with up to 52 new fellows appointed each year.
There are royal fellows, honorary fellows and foreign members, the last of which are allowed to use the postnominal title ForMemRS. The Royal Society President is Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who took up the post on 30 November 2015. Since 1967, the society has been based at 6–9 Carlton House Terrace, a Grade I listed building in central London, used by the Embassy of Germany, London; the Invisible College has been described as a precursor group to the Royal Society of London, consisting of a number of natural philosophers around Robert Boyle. The concept of "invisible college" is mentioned in German Rosicrucian pamphlets in the early 17th century. Ben Jonson in England referenced the idea, related in meaning to Francis Bacon's House of Solomon, in a masque The Fortunate Isles and Their Union from 1624/5; the term accrued currency for the exchanges of correspondence within the Republic of Letters. In letters in 1646 and 1647, Boyle refers to "our invisible college" or "our philosophical college".
The society's common theme was to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation. Three dated letters are the basic documentary evidence: Boyle sent them to Isaac Marcombes, Francis Tallents who at that point was a fellow of Magdalene College and London-based Samuel Hartlib; the Royal Society started from groups of physicians and natural philosophers, meeting at a variety of locations, including Gresham College in London. They were influenced by the "new science", as promoted by Francis Bacon in his New Atlantis, from 1645 onwards. A group known as "The Philosophical Society of Oxford" was run under a set of rules still retained by the Bodleian Library. After the English Restoration, there were regular meetings at Gresham College, it is held that these groups were the inspiration for the foundation of the Royal Society. Another view of the founding, held at the time, was that it was due to the influence of French scientists and the Montmor Academy in 1657, reports of which were sent back to England by English scientists attending.
This view was held by Jean-Baptiste du Hamel, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle and Melchisédech Thévenot at the time and has some grounding in that Henry Oldenburg, the society's first secretary, had attended the Montmor Academy meeting. Robert Hooke, disputed this, writing that: makes Mr Oldenburg to have been the instrument, who inspired the English with a desire to imitate the French, in having Philosophical Clubs, or Meetings. I will not say, that Mr Oldenburg did rather inspire the French to follow the English, or, at least, did help them, hinder us. But'tis well known who were the principal men that began and promoted that design, both in this city and in Oxford, and not only these Philosophic Meetings were. On 28 November 1660, the 1660 committee of 12 announced the formation of a "College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning", which would meet weekly to discuss science and run experiments. At the second meeting, Sir Robert Moray announced that the King approved of the gatherings, a royal charter was signed on 15 July 1662 which created the "Royal Society of London", with Lord Brouncker serving as the first president.
A second royal charter was signed on 23 April 1663, with the king noted as the founder and with the name of "the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge". This initial royal favour has continued and, since every monarch has been the patron of the society; the society's early meetings included experiments performed first by Hooke and by Denis Papin, appointed in 1684. These experiments varied in their subject area, were both important in some cases and trivial in others; the society published an English translation of Essays of Natural Experiments Made in the Accademia del Cimento, under the Protection of the Most Serene Prince Leopold of Tuscany in 1684, an Italian book documenting experiments at the Accademia del Cimento. Although meeting at Gresham College, the Society temporarily moved to Arundel House in 1666 after the Great Fire of London, which did not harm Gresham but did lead to its appropriation by the Lord Mayor; the Society r
Germantown, Philadelphia
Germantown is an area in Northwest Philadelphia. Founded by German Quaker and Mennonite families in 1683 as an independent borough, it was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854; the area, about six miles northwest from the city center, now consists of two neighborhoods:'Germantown' and'East Germantown'. Germantown has played a significant role in American history. Today the area remains rich in historic sites and buildings from the colonial era, some of which are open to the public. Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest from Windrim and Roberts Avenues. Germantown has been bounded on the southwest by Wissahickon Avenue, on the southeast by Roberts Avenue, on the east by Wister Street and Stenton Avenue, but its northwest border has expanded and contracted over the years; when first incorporated as a borough in 1689, Germantown was separated from the rural Germantown Township by Washington Lane. Today, the western part of the former borough is the neighborhood known as'Germantown' and the eastern part is the neighborhood of'East Germantown'.
While the boundary between the two neighborhoods is not well-defined and has varied over time, these days'Germantown' refers to the part of the former borough that lies west of Germantown Avenue, up through West Johnson Street, and'East Germantown' to the part that lies east of Germantown Avenue, up through East Upsal Street. The neighborhood of Mount Airy lies to the northwest and West Oak Lane to the northeast, Logan to the east, Nicetown–Tioga to the south, East Falls to the southwest; the majority of Germantown is covered by the 19144 zip code, but the area north of Chew Avenue falls in the 19138 zip code. Germantown was founded on October 6, 1683, by German settlers: thirteen Quaker and Mennonite families from Krefeld. Today the founding day of Germantown is remembered as German-American Day, a holiday in the United States, observed annually on October 6. On August 12, 1689, William Penn at London signed a charter constituting some of the inhabitants a corporation by the name of "the bailiff and commonalty of Germantown, in the county of Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania."
Francis Daniel Pastorius was the first bailiff. Jacob Telner, Derick Isacks op den Graeff and his brother Abraham Isacks op den Graeff, Reynier Tyson, Tennis Coender were burgesses, besides six committeemen, they had authority to hold "the general court of the corporation of Germantowne", to make laws for the government of the settlement, to hold a court of record. This court went into operation in 1690, continued its services for sixteen years. Sometimes, to distinguish Germantown from the upper portion of German township, outside the borough, the township portion was called Upper Germantown. In 1688, five years after its founding, Germantown became the birthplace of the anti-slavery movement in America. Pastorius, Gerret Hendericks, Derick Updegraeff and Abraham Updengraef gathered at Thones Kunders's house and wrote a two-page condemnation of slavery and sent it to the governing bodies of their Quaker church, the Society of Friends; the petition was based upon the Bible's Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Though the Quaker establishment took no immediate action, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery was a clear and forceful argument against slavery and initiated the process of banning slavery in the Society of Friends and Pennsylvania. In 1723, Germantown became the site of the first Church of the Brethren congregation in the New World; when Philadelphia was occupied by the British during the American Revolutionary War, British units were housed in Germantown. In the Battle of Germantown, on October 4, 1777, the Continental Army attacked this garrison. During the battle, a party of citizens fired on the British troops, as they marched up the avenue, mortally wounded British Brigadier General Agnew; the Americans withdrew after firing on one another in the confusion of the battle, leading to the determination that the battle resulted in a defeat of the Americans. However, the battle is sometimes considered a victory by Americans; the American loss was 673 and the British loss was 575, but along with the Army's success under Brigadier General Horatio Gates at Saratoga on October 17 when John Burgoyne surrendered, the battle led to the official recognition of the Americans by France, which formed an alliance with the Americans afterward.
During his presidency, George Washington and his family lodged at the Deshler-Morris House in Germantown to escape the city and the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. The first bank of the United States was located here during his administration. Germantown proper, the adjacent German Township, were incorporated into the City of Philadelphia in 1854 by the Act of Consolidation. Italians began settling Germantown in 1880, comprised an active and vibrant part of the community; the significant changes that occurred in Philadelphia's demographics at the start of the 20th century caused major shifts in Germantown's ethnic makeup as well. When the first wave of the Great Migration brought more than 140,000 African Americans to the city from the South, long-established Philadelphians started to move to the outskirts
Province of Pennsylvania
The Province of Pennsylvania known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was founded in English North America by William Penn on March 4, 1681 as dictated in a royal charter granted by King Charles II. The name Pennsylvania, which translates as "Penn's Woods", was created by combining the Penn surname with the Latin word sylvania, meaning "forest land"; the Province of Pennsylvania was one of the two major Restoration colonies, the other being the Province of Carolina. The proprietary colony's charter remained in the hands of the Penn family until the American Revolution, when the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was created and became one of the original thirteen states. "The lower counties on Delaware", a separate colony within the province, would breakaway during the American Revolution as "the Delaware State" and be one of the original thirteen states. The colonial government, established in 1682 by Penn's Frame of Government, consisted of an appointed Governor, the proprietor, a 72-member Provincial Council, a larger General Assembly.
The General Assembly known as the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, was the largest and most representative branch of government, but had little power. Succeeding Frames of Government were produced in 1683, 1696 and 1701; the fourth Frame was known as the Charter of Privileges and remained in effect until the American Revolution. At that time, the Provincial Assembly was deemed too moderate by the revolutionaries, who ignored the Assembly and held a convention which produced the Constitution of 1776 for the newly established commonwealth, creating a new General Assembly in the process. William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, he was an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Le nape Indians. Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was developed. Penn, despite having the land grant from the King, embarked on an effort to purchase the lands from Native Americans.
Much of the land near present-day Philadelphia was held by the Delaware who would expect payment in exchange for a quitclaim to vacate the territory. Penn and his representatives negotiated a series of treaties with the Delaware and other tribes that had an interest in the land in his royal grant; the initial treaties were conducted between 1682 and 1684 for tracts between New Jersey and the former Swedish / Dutch colonies in present-day Delaware. The province was thus divided first into three counties, plus the three "lower counties on Delaware Bay"; the easternmost, Bucks County, Philadelphia County and Chester County, the westernmost. "The lower counties on Delaware," a separate colony within the province, constituted the same three counties that constitute the present State of Delaware: New Castle, the northernmost, the southernmost, Kent, which fell between New Castle and Sussex County. Their borders remain unchanged to this day, it was not until several decades into the next century that additional treaties with the Native Americans were concluded.
The Proprietors of the colony made treaties in 1718, 1732, 1737, 1749, 1754 and 1754 pushing the boundaries of the colony north and west. By the time the French and Indian War began in 1754, the Assembly had established the additional counties of Lancaster, Cumberland and Northampton. After the war was concluded, an additional treaty was made in 1768, that abided by the limits of the Royal Proclamation of 1763; this proclamation line was not intended to be a permanent boundary between the colonists and native American lands, but rather a temporary boundary which could be extended further west in an orderly manner but only by the royal government and not private individuals such as the Proprietors. This altered the original royal land grant to Penn; the next acquisitions by Pennsylvania were to take place as an independent commonwealth or state and no longer as a colony. The Assembly establish additional counties from the land prior to the War for American Independence; these counties were Bedford and Westmoreland.
William Penn and his fellow Quakers imprinted their religious values on the early Pennsylvanian government. The Charter of Privileges extended religious freedom to all monotheists and government was open to all Christians; until the French and Indian War Pennsylvania had no public debt. It encouraged the rapid growth of Philadelphia into America's most important city, of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country hinterlands, where German religions and political refugees prospered on the fertile soil and spirit of cultural creativeness. Among the first groups were the Mennonites, who founded Germantown in 1683. 1751 was an auspicious year for the colony. Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the British American colonies, The Academy and College of Philadelphia, the predecessor to the private University of Pennsylvania, both opened. Benjamin Franklin founded both of these institutions along with Philadelphia's Union Fire Company fifteen years earlier in 1736. In 1751, the Pennsylvania State House ordered a new bell which would become known as the Liberty Bell for the new bell tower being built in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia.
William Penn had mandated fair dealings with Native Americans. This led to better r
Andrew Ellicott
Andrew Ellicott was a U. S. surveyor who helped map many of the territories west of the Appalachians, surveyed the boundaries of the District of Columbia and completed Pierre Charles L'Enfant's work on the plan for Washington, D. C. and served as a teacher in survey methods for Meriwether Lewis. Andrew Ellicott was born in Buckingham Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania as the first of nine children of Joseph Ellicott and his wife Judith; the Quaker family lived in modest conditions. Young Andrew was educated at the local Quaker school, where Robert Patterson, who became a professor and vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, was his teacher for some time. Andrew showed some mathematical talent, too. In 1770, his father, together with his uncles Andrew and John, purchased land on the falls of the Patapsco River and west of Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay. There they set up a new milling business, founding the town of Ellicott's Mills in 1772. Three years Andrew married Sarah Brown of Newtown, with whom he would have ten children, one of which died as a child.
When the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, Andrew enlisted as a commissioned officer in the Elk Ridge Battalion of the newly organized Maryland state militia despite his Quaker upbringing. During the course of the war, he rose to the rank of major, a title he would keep as an honorific throughout his life. After the war, Ellicott returned home to Ellicott's Mills until he was appointed, in 1784, a member of the survey group tasked with extending the survey of the Mason-Dixon line for the borders between Pennsylvania / Delaware with Maryland, abandoned in 1767 and been stalled during the war. In this survey, he worked alongside David Rittenhouse and Bishop James Madison, making first connections with the scientific society of Philadelphia. Following the death of their second son, the Ellicotts moved to Baltimore in 1785, where Andrew taught mathematics at the Baltimore Academy and was elected to the General Assembly of Maryland in 1786; the same year, he was called upon for a survey to define the western border of Pennsylvania with the Ohio Country.
This "Ellicott Line" became the principal meridian for the surveys of the future Northwest Territory of the United States. His work in Pennsylvania intensified his ties with Rittenhouse and other members of the American Philosophical Society and led to encounters with Benjamin Franklin and Simeon De Witt; when he was subsequently appointed to lead other surveys in Pennsylvania, the family moved again in 1789 to Philadelphia. By recommendation of Franklin, Ellicott got a position with the newly established government under the Constitution and was tasked by first President George Washington to survey the lands between Lake Erie and Pennsylvania to determine the border between Western New York and U. S. federal territory, resulting in the Erie Triangle. This survey, during which he made the first topographical study of the Niagara River including the Niagara Falls, gained Ellicott a reputation for superb accuracy in surveys. From 1791 to 1792, at the request of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Ellicott worked under the direction of the three commissioners that President George Washington had appointed, surveying the boundaries of the federal Territory of Columbia, which would become the District of Columbia in 1801, containing the Federal City then becoming known as "Washington City".
He was assisted in this survey first by the free African-American astronomer Benjamin Banneker and by Ellicott's brothers, Joseph Ellicott and Benjamin Ellicott. Ellicott's team put into place forty boundary stones 1 mile apart from each other that marked the borders of the Territory of Columbia of 100 square miles. Most of these stones remain in their original positions; as engravings on many of the stones still show, Ellicott's team placed those that marked the southwestern /southeastern border with Virginia in 1791, those that marked the northwestern / northeastern border with Maryland in 1792. On January 1, 1793, Ellicott submitted to the three commissioners "a report of his first map of the four lines of experiment, showing a half mile on each side, including the district of territory, with a survey of the different waters within the territory"; the Library of Congress has attributed to 1793 Ellicott's earliest map of the Territory of Columbia that the Library holds within its collections.
During 1791–1792, Ellicott surveyed the future city of Washington, located within a small area at the center of the Territory of Columbia along the northern bank of the Potomac River at the confluence with its Eastern Branch. Ellicott served under the Commissioners' supervision in this effort, he first worked with Pierre Charles L'Enfant, who had prepared the initial plans for the future capital city during the early months of 1791 and had presented one of these early plans to President Washington in August of that year. During a contentious period in February 1792, Ellicott informed the Commissioners that L'Enfant had not been able to have the city plan engraved and printed as a map on paper and had refused to provide him with an original plan that L'Enfant was holding. Ellicott, with the aid of his brother, Benjamin Ellicott revised the plan, despite L'Enfant's protests. Ellicott stated in his let
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743 and located in Philadelphia, is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, library resources, community outreach. Considered the first learned society in the United States, it has played an important role in American cultural and intellectual life for over 270 years. Through research grants, published journals, the American Philosophical Society Museum, an extensive library, regular meetings, the society continues to advance a variety of disciplines in the humanities and the sciences. Philosophical Hall, now a museum, is located just east of Independence Hall in Independence National Historical Park; the Philosophical Society, as it was called, was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin, James Alexander, Francis Hopkinson, John Bartram, Philip Syng, Jr. and others as an offshoot of an earlier club, the Junto.
It was founded two years after the University of Pennsylvania, with which it remains tied. Since its inception, the society attracted America's finest minds. Early members included George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James McHenry, Thomas Paine, David Rittenhouse, Nicholas Biddle, Owen Biddle, Benjamin Rush, James Madison, Michael Hillegas, John Marshall, John Andrews; the society recruited members from other countries, including Alexander von Humboldt, the Marquis de Lafayette, Baron von Steuben, Tadeusz Kościuszko, Princess Dashkova. By 1746 the society had lapsed into inactivity. In 1767, however, it was revived, on January 2, 1769, it united with the American Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge under the name American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge. Benjamin Franklin was elected the first president. During this time, the society maintained a standing Committee on American Improvements; the canal, proposed by Thomas Gilpin, Sr. would not become reality until the 1820s.
After the American Revolution, the society looked for leadership to Francis Hopkinson, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. Under his influence, the society received land from the government of Pennsylvania, along with a plot of land in Philadelphia where Philosophical Hall now stands. Illustrious names have continually been added to the membership roster, reflecting the society's scope. Charles Darwin, Robert Frost, Louis Pasteur, Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, John James Audubon, Linus Pauling, Margaret Mead, Maria Mitchell, Thomas Edison became members of the society; the society continues to attract names of high renown today, with a current membership list of 920 members, including 772 resident members and 148 foreign members representing more than two dozen countries. Many members of the Society of the Cincinnati were among the APS's first board members and contributors. In 1786, the society established the Magellanic Premium, a prize for achievement in "navigation, astronomy, or natural philosophy," the oldest scientific prize awarded by an American institution, which it still awards.
Other awards include the Barzun Prize for cultural history, Judson Daland Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Investigation, the Benjamin Franklin Medal, the Lashley Award for neurobiology, the Lewis Award, the Thomas Jefferson Medal for distinguished achievement in the arts, humanities, or social sciences. The APS has published the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society since 1771. Five issues appear each year; the Proceedings have appeared since 1838: they publish the papers delivered at the biannual meetings of the society. The society has published the collected papers of Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Henry, William Penn, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Jane Aitken bound some 400 volumes for the society. Philosophical Hall, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 104 South Fifth Street, between Chestnut and Walnut Streets south of Old City Hall, was built in 1785–89 to house the society and was designed by Samuel Vaughan in the Federal style. A third floor was added in 1890, to accommodate the expanding library, but was removed in 1948–50 when the building was restored to its original appearance for the creation of Independence National Historical Park.
In 2001, it was opened to the public as The American Philosophical Society Museum, hosting revolving, thematic exhibitions that explore the intersections of history and science. The museum features works of art, scientific instruments, original manuscripts, rare books, natural history specimens, curiosities of all kinds from the APS's own collections, along with objects on loan from other institutions. In 1789–90, the Library Company of Philadelphia built its headquarters directly across 5th Street from APS. LCP sold its building in 1884, demolished for the expansion of the Drexel & Company Building in 1887; this building itself was demolished in the mid-1950s, during the creation of Independence National Historical Park. APS built a library on the site in 1958, recreated the facade of the old LCP building. According to historical ghost stories, Benjamin Franklin's spirit haunts the library, his statue at the front of the building "comes to life and dances in the streets." APS restored the former Farmers' & Mechanics' Bank building at 425–29 Chestnut Street, built in 1854–
Newton's laws of motion
Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that, laid the foundation for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between a body and the forces acting upon it, its motion in response to those forces. More the first law defines the force qualitatively, the second law offers a quantitative measure of the force, the third asserts that a single isolated force doesn't exist; these three laws have been expressed in several ways, over nearly three centuries, can be summarised as follows: The three laws of motion were first compiled by Isaac Newton in his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published in 1687. Newton used them to investigate the motion of many physical objects and systems. For example, in the third volume of the text, Newton showed that these laws of motion, combined with his law of universal gravitation, explained Kepler's laws of planetary motion. A fourth law is also described in the bibliography, which states that forces add up like vectors, that is, that forces obey the principle of superposition.
Newton's laws are applied to objects which are idealised as single point masses, in the sense that the size and shape of the object's body are neglected to focus on its motion more easily. This can be done when the object is small compared to the distances involved in its analysis, or the deformation and rotation of the body are of no importance. In this way a planet can be idealised as a particle for analysis of its orbital motion around a star. In their original form, Newton's laws of motion are not adequate to characterise the motion of rigid bodies and deformable bodies. Leonhard Euler in 1750 introduced a generalisation of Newton's laws of motion for rigid bodies called Euler's laws of motion applied as well for deformable bodies assumed as a continuum. If a body is represented as an assemblage of discrete particles, each governed by Newton's laws of motion Euler's laws can be derived from Newton's laws. Euler's laws can, however, be taken as axioms describing the laws of motion for extended bodies, independently of any particle structure.
Newton's laws hold only with respect to a certain set of frames of reference called Newtonian or inertial reference frames. Some authors interpret the first law as defining. Other authors do treat the first law as a corollary of the second; the explicit concept of an inertial frame of reference was not developed until long after Newton's death. In the given interpretation mass, acceleration and force are assumed to be externally defined quantities; this is the most common, but not the only interpretation of the way one can consider the laws to be a definition of these quantities. Newtonian mechanics has been superseded by special relativity, but it is still useful as an approximation when the speeds involved are much slower than the speed of light; the first law states that if the net force is zero the velocity of the object is constant. Velocity is a vector quantity which expresses both the object's speed and the direction of its motion; the first law can be stated mathematically when the mass is a non-zero constant, as, ∑ F = 0 ⇔ d v d t = 0.
An object, at rest will stay at rest unless a force acts upon it. An object, in motion will not change its velocity unless a force acts upon it; this is known as uniform motion. An object continues to do. If it is at rest, it continues in a state of rest. If an object is moving, it continues to move without changing its speed; this is evident in space probes. Changes in motion must be imposed against the tendency of an object to retain its state of motion. In the absence of net forces, a moving object tends to move along a straight line path indefinitely. Newton placed the first law of motion to establish frames of reference for which the other laws are applicable; the first law of motion postulates the existence of at least one frame of reference called a Newtonian or inertial reference frame, relative to which the motion of a particle not subject to forces is a straight line at a constant speed. Newton's first law is referred to as the law of inertia. Thus, a condition necessary for the uniform motion of a particle relative to an inertial reference frame is that the total net force acting on it is zero.
In this sense, the first law can be restated as: In every material universe, the motion of a particle in a preferential reference frame Φ is determined by the action of forces whose total vanished for all times when and only when the velocity of the particle is constant in Φ. That is, a particle at rest or in uniform motion in the preferential frame Φ continues in that state unless compelled by forces to change it. Newton's first and second laws are valid only in an inertial reference frame. Any reference frame, in uniform motion with respect to an inertial frame is an in
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. Uranus is similar in composition to Neptune, both have bulk chemical compositions which differ from that of the larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. For this reason, scientists classify Uranus and Neptune as "ice giants" to distinguish them from the gas giants. Uranus' atmosphere is similar to Jupiter's and Saturn's in its primary composition of hydrogen and helium, but it contains more "ices" such as water and methane, along with traces of other hydrocarbons, it is the coldest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System, with a minimum temperature of 49 K, has a complex, layered cloud structure with water thought to make up the lowest clouds and methane the uppermost layer of clouds. The interior of Uranus is composed of ices and rock. Like the other giant planets, Uranus has a ring system, a magnetosphere, numerous moons; the Uranian system has a unique configuration because its axis of rotation is tilted sideways, nearly into the plane of its solar orbit.
Its north and south poles, lie where most other planets have their equators. In 1986, images from Voyager 2 showed Uranus as an featureless planet in visible light, without the cloud bands or storms associated with the other giant planets. Observations from Earth have shown seasonal change and increased weather activity as Uranus approached its equinox in 2007. Wind speeds can reach 250 metres per second. Uranus is the only planet whose name is derived directly from a figure from Greek mythology, from the Latinised version of the Greek god of the sky Ouranos. Like the classical planets, Uranus is visible to the naked eye, but it was never recognised as a planet by ancient observers because of its dimness and slow orbit. Sir William Herschel announced its discovery on 13 March 1781, expanding the known boundaries of the Solar System for the first time in history and making Uranus the first planet discovered with a telescope. Uranus had been observed on many occasions before its recognition as a planet, but it was mistaken for a star.
The earliest known observation was by Hipparchos, who in 128 BC might have recorded it as a star for his star catalogue, incorporated into Ptolemy's Almagest. The earliest definite sighting was in 1690, when John Flamsteed observed it at least six times, cataloguing it as 34 Tauri; the French astronomer Pierre Charles Le Monnier observed Uranus at least twelve times between 1750 and 1769, including on four consecutive nights. Sir William Herschel observed Uranus on 13 March 1781 from the garden of his house at 19 New King Street in Bath, Somerset and reported it as a comet. Herschel "engaged in a series of observations on the parallax of the fixed stars", using a telescope of his own design. Herschel recorded in his journal: "In the quartile near ζ Tauri... either Nebulous star or a comet." On 17 March he noted: "I looked for the Comet or Nebulous Star and found that it is a Comet, for it has changed its place." When he presented his discovery to the Royal Society, he continued to assert that he had found a comet, but implicitly compared it to a planet: The power I had on when I first saw the comet was 227.
From experience I know that the diameters of the fixed stars are not proportionally magnified with higher powers, as planets are. Moreover, the comet being magnified much beyond what its light would admit of, appeared hazy and ill-defined with these great powers, while the stars preserved that lustre and distinctness which from many thousand observations I knew they would retain; the sequel has shown that my surmises were well-founded, this proving to be the Comet we have observed. Herschel notified the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne of his discovery and received this flummoxed reply from him on 23 April 1781: "I don't know what to call it, it is as to be a regular planet moving in an orbit nearly circular to the sun as a Comet moving in a eccentric ellipsis. I have not yet seen any coma or tail to it."Although Herschel continued to describe his new object as a comet, other astronomers had begun to suspect otherwise. Finnish-Swedish astronomer Anders Johan Lexell, working in Russia, was the first to compute the orbit of the new object.
Its nearly circular orbit led him to a conclusion. Berlin astronomer Johann Elert Bode described Herschel's discovery as "a moving star that can be deemed a hitherto unknown planet-like object circulating beyond the orbit of Saturn". Bode concluded; the object was soon universally accepted as a new planet. By 1783, Herschel acknowledged this to Royal Society president Joseph Banks: "By the observation of the most eminent Astronomers in Europe it appears that the new star, which I had the honour of pointing out to them in March 1781, is a Primary Planet of our Solar System." In recognition of his achievement, King George III gave Herschel an annual stipend of £200 on condition that he move to Windsor so that the Royal Family could look through his telescopes. The name of Uranus references the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus, the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus, wh
Media related to David Rittenhouse at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to David Rittenhouse at Wikiquote
Works related to Historical and biographical sketches/02 David Rittenhouse at Wikisource
. New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
