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MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/

Author:

John O'Connor and Edmund Robertson, School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, University of St. Andrews

Excerpt:

One of the commonest questions which the readers of this archive ask is: Who discovered zero? Why then have we not written an article on zero as one of the first in the archive? The reason is basically because of the difficulty of answering the question in a satisfactory form. If someone had come up with the concept of zero which everyone then saw as a brilliant innovation to enter mathematics from that time on, the question would have a satisfactory answer even if we did not know which genius invented it. The historical record, however, shows quite a different path towards the concept. Zero makes shadowy appearances only to vanish again almost as if mathematicians were searching for it yet did not recognise its fundamental significance even when they saw it.

Annotation:

The MacTutor Archive hosts thousands of biographical sketches of important mathematicians. Many of the biographies include links to documents and other materials related to mathematicans. Searches can be performed alphabetically or chronologically. In addition to the biographies, the site also includes a number of essays that are grouped by culture and topic. Thus the chronology of Pi or the history of zero can be found under "Arab Mathematics" and "Number Theory" among other categories. This is one of the most-linked to history of science sites on the web because it contains so much information.

19th Century Scientific American Online

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.history.rochester.edu/Scientific_American/index.html

Author:

Electronic Historical Publications

Excerpt:

This month's inventor may look like a 19th century pirate. But you cannot judge this book by its cover. His invention was first, but Congress decided his invention was too important to be monopolized by a single man. One of our previous inventors, patented his invention a year after this month's inventor and his marketing skills beat out our mystery man

Annotation:

Snippets from the first two volumes of Scientific American magazine. Very little information available and what is is of a frivolous nature. Not for research. Site has not been updates since 1997.

Apollo Lunar Surface Journal

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/

Author:

Eric M. Jones

Excerpt:

Sending humans to the Moon was arguably the most difficult technological undertaking in all of history. For sure, the best of America's scientists and engineers were taxed to the limit in order to accomplish nine manned flights to the Moon, six of which involved landing on the crater-filled lunar surface. The scientific results of the Apollo program were staggering. Much that was learned during Apollo required scientists to revise their basic understanding and theories about the Moon's formation and history. And the samples and data collected during Apollo will keep those scientists busy for decades to come.

Annotation:

This site documents the NASA Apollo missions to the moon from 1969-1972. The site includes mission summaries, crew bios, flight plans, communication transcripts, and more. Special features of the site are video and audio files, and supplemental commentary by most of the Apollo astronauts. Technical descriptions of the tools and equipment help readers understand the astronauts' work. This site offers a large collection of materials concerning the nuts and bolts of the Apollo flights with some supplemental historical background added for context. The site navigation is a little cluttered but the available information gives an important window into the workings of NASA and the Apollo missions.

Redstone Arsenal Historical Information

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/welcome.html

Author:

U.S. Army

Excerpt:

One of the most forgotten chapters in US history is the one that tells the story of how this country got into the space business. Though other DoD agencies were working (and sometimes with the Army) on rockets and missiles, it was the Army that distinguished itself by being the first in space. In 1990, the (then) US Army Missile Command's Historical Office was instrumental in coordinating a DA-level recognition of those long-forgotten accomplishments. These articles provide excellent background on those pioneering days at Redstone Arsenal.

Annotation:

This site offers a wide range of historical information pertaining to the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville Alabama. This information focuses on the history of the arsenal, its role in certain conflicts such as World War II and the first Gulf War, and also the contribution of the arsenal to specific military programs, especially the development of missiles and early space flight. The site includes some interesting images, oral histories, scanned military documents, and desciptions of activities at the arsenal during various time periods. The site is a little jumbled, but the information is worth wading through for those interested in the history of the military and military technology.

RMS Titanic, Inc. Online

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.titanic-online.com/

Author:

RMS Titanic, Inc.

Annotation:

collection of photographs and brief historical synopsis provided by the official guardians of the Titanic wreck.

Time 100: The Most Important People of the 20th Century

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.time.com/time/time100/

Author:

Time Magazine

Excerpt:

One century, 100 remarkable people. TIME has profiled those individuals who - for better or worse - most influenced the last 100 years. They are considered in five fields of endeavor, culminating with Person of the Century: Albert Einstein.

Annotation:

Time proposes the following to be the most important figures in science and thinking during the twentieth century: Leo Baekeland; Tim Berners-Lee; Rachel Carson; Francis Crick; James Watson; Albert Einstein; Philo Farnsworth; Enrico Fermi; Alexander Fleming; Sigmund Freud; Robert Goddard; Kurt Gödel; Edwin Hubble; John Maynard Keynes; Louis, Mary and Richard Leakey; Jean Piaget; Jonas Salk; William Shockley; Alan Turing; Ludwig Wittgenstein; and Wilbur and Orville Wright. They additionally identify twenty individuals as the twentieth century's most important Leaders and Revolutionaries; Artists and Entertainers; Builders and Titans; and Heroes and Icons. Each entry contains a biography and assessment of the individual's accomplishments, as well as links to related stories from Time's archives.

Built in America: Historic Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record: 1933-Present

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hhhtml/hhhome.html

Author:

Library of Congress

Excerpt:

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collections are among the largest and most heavily used in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. The collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types and engineering technologies including examples as diverse as the Pueblo of Acoma, houses, windmills, one-room schools, the Golden Gate Bridge, and buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Annotation:

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collection includes digital images of measured drawings, large-format photographs, and written histories for 10,000 historic structures and sites dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. These collections display building types and engineering technologies from a farmhouse to a pickle factory, from churches to the Golden Gate Bridge. New material is added monthly. A gallery of images includes 36 photographs and 18 drawings of 50 structures, one from each state in the U.S. The site is searchable by geographic location, keyword, and a subject index that is organized by structure type. For each structure, the site provides from one to ten drawings, from one to 30 photographs, and from one to 50 pages of HABS text in facsimile detailing the structure’s history, significance, and current physical condition. Useful for a specialized audience, for architectural historians, or for those looking for illustrations and examples.

Charles Babbage Institute: Center for the History of Computing

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.cbi.umn.edu/index.html

Author:

University of Minnesota

Excerpt:

The Charles Babbage Institute is an historical archives and research center of the University of Minnesota. CBI is dedicated to promoting study of the history of information technology and information processing and their impact on society. CBI preserves relevant historical documentation in all media, conducts and fosters research in history and archival methods, offers graduate fellowships, and sponsors symposia, conferences, and publications.

Annotation:

Excellent resource for serious research in computer technology fields. The archival collections, including large photographic files, are indexed with strong abstracts, and are both browsable and searchable. However, PDF files of their "research-grade" oral history collection are available online. These recount the experiences of over three hundred individuals whose work developed computers, software, and networking. The site also contains essays on Charles Babbage and the computing industry in Minnesota, as well as PDF files of the CBI Newsletter. The Cray Research Virtual Museum displays many of the large scale computers built by Seymour Cray in the 1950s and 1960s. Links are made to other websites, bibliographies, and research collections and tools.

Aerodrome: Aces and Aircraft of World War I

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:19.

URL:

http://www.theaerodrome.com/

Author:

The Aerodrome

Excerpt:

Ordered to copy the Nieuport 17, the Albatros company developed the impressive D.I. Unlike other fighters at the time, its fuselage was covered with sheets of plywood rather than stretched fabric. This gave the D.I great strength and rigidity. Despite poor visibility to the front and above, Oswald Boelcke used this plane to achieve 11 victories in 16 days. The Albatros D.I reestablished German air superiority and made the British "pusher" designs obsolete.

Annotation:

The Areodrome site offers lists of World War I aces, their combat stats, and a chronology of kills and events. The site offers little historical background or narative text; however, the site is useful for short desciptions of many kinds of WWI aircraft, and short bios of specific aces, which include military honors, time, date, and location of their kills, and what aircraft they flew. The site is not searchable, but all of the records are indexed and linked to make the site very easy to navigate.

Whole Cloth: Discovering Science and Technology Through American Textile History

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/08/2007 - 20:18.

URL:

http://www.si.edu/lemelson/centerpieces/whole_cloth

Author:

Society for the History of Technology

Excerpt:

The Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center was founded in 1995 at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, through a generous gift from the Lemelson Foundation. The Center's mission is to document, interpret, and disseminate information about invention and innovation, to encourage inventive creativity in young people, and to foster an appreciation for the central role invention and innovation play in the history of the United States.

Annotation:

This site, developed by the Society for the History of Technology, teaches the history of the production and consumption of textiles. Three completed "modular units," Early Industrialization, True Colors, and Synthetic Fibers, link the history of textile technology to issues of race and gender in American history. Five more units will be available soon. Web teaching materials include teacher and student essays, lesson plans, slide shows, videos, and documents. Other collaborators on the project include the National Science Foundation; the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; and the Center for Children and Technology. The site is designed for middle and high school students and social studies teachers.