There was perhaps nothing at the beginning. Around 14 billion years ago, there was suddenly stuff - matter and energy - what we call the universe. Matter and energy responds to external factors like temperature, force and such, but cannot do things by itself. Changes in the universe caused stuff to constantly change - from solid to liquid and gas on heating, and from gas to liquid and solid on cooling. Matter also changed in another way, which involves atoms and elements.
Matter, we now know, is stuff that has mass (or weight). Matter is made of atoms, small particles that were thought to be the smallest particles ever - people thought they could not be divided further, hence the name (atom in greek means 'cannot be further broken into smaller pieces'). Then people found that atoms are themselves made of smaller things.
These smaller things that make up atoms had a property which was named charge, which could be positive, negative or zero. Based on these, there were three kinds of smaller things - protons, which have a positive charge of 1 unit, electrons, which have a negative charge of 1 unit and neutrons which have a charge of zero. All these three particles have weight, with protons and neutrons being about the same weight, and both are much heavier than electrons.
Each atom is made of a very small central heavy thing called the nucleus which contains the protons and neutrons. Around this small nucleus, electrons are moving around. Most of an atom is empty. Also, an atom has the same number of electrons and protons, so the total charge of an atom is always zero. Now, all of matter is made of just 118 types of atoms, called the elements. The thing that distinguishes one element from another is the number of protons (which is the same as the number of electrons). So, the simplest element has one proton and one electron. This is what we know as hydrogen. The next element has two protons and two electrons and is called Helium. This number of protons or electrons in the atom of an element is called that element's atomic number. So, the atomic number of hydrogen is 1. Each element may have zero, one or more neutrons in its nucleus. Other common elements are Carbon (which is found in coal, diamonds and in all living organisms) with an atomic number of 6, Oxygen, with an atomic number of 8, and so on. Each element has a symbol (like a nickname). Hydrogen is H, Helium is He, Carbon is C and Oxygen is O.
Atoms combined to form molecules. For example, two hydrogen atoms combine to form a hydrogen molecule. One atom of carbon combined with two atoms of Oxygen is called Carbon dioxide, two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen combine to form water, sugar is made of 12 carbon atoms, 22 hydrogen atoms and 11 oxygen atoms combined in a specific way.
While some of the elements can have atoms existing by themselves, most of the stuff we see around us is made of molecules of more than one atom combined. A molecule could be simple like hydrogen or carbon dioxide, with just a few atoms in it, or it could be a combination of several atoms, even thousands of atoms!
As we saw before, in the early universe, matter was changing physically (between solids, liquids and gases). Also, simpler elements like hydrogen and helium gave birth to more complex elements like carbon and oxygen. Since this involved changing the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, these were called nuclear reactions. Matter was also changing chemically - where molecules would combine to form other molecules or a larger molecule would break down into smaller molecules - these were called chemical reactions.
With all these changes, more and more complex elements were formed by nuclear reactions and more and more complex molecules were being formed by chemical reactions.
Sometime around 3.5 billion years ago, something fantastic happened - the molecules combined to form something new - stuff that could do things by itself - this was the beginning of life.
As living organisms grew, they could combine with each other to form more living organisms. Slowly, over millions of years, more and more complex living organisms emerged - and perhaps one of the most complex living organisms are human beings.
Humans are different in many ways, but one of the most important differences about humans is the complex way that they can think. They were able to figure out all these things above (from how the universe began to how life began to how things change - physically, nuclearly and chemically). They were able to use the things they learnt to create new things - while nature has provided us with so many different elements, molecules, energy and forms of life, humans have been able to create fantastic things based on the power of their mind - from cars to chess to computers to the internet to petrol to tablet computers to medicines to new kinds of living organisms, to all the wonderful inventions we see and use every day.
All this was made possible by the study of how things work around us - and applying what we learned to create new things. This study of how things work is called science - science is divided into physics which is the study of matter and energy, chemistry which is the study of chemical reactions (how molecules combine and break down) and biology which is the study of living organisms. One of the goals of science is to simplify all knowledge into simple principles - called laws of science. The most important tool to learn science and apply it is mathematics.
The study of how we use science to make new things is called engineering or technology. Civil engineering refers to creating structures, like buildings and bridges and roads and railway lines. Mechanical Engineering deals with creating machines like cars and fridges. Electrical engineering deals with creating things like fans, lights and other things that run on electricity. Electronics engineering deals with creating digital machines like computers, phones and tablets. Computer engineering deals with creating programs like games and applications on computers. Medicine is a field of engineering used to study living things and learning how to fix things when they go wrong.
Just as we learnt that all the topics in math are actually related to each other, we will also find that all the topics in science are related to each other. Physics is used in biology. Some areas are common between physics and chemistry. For example, chemistry deals with how heat can be used to change one type of molecule into another type. Physics deals with how moving atoms faster and faster creates heat energy. Biology uses these things to create medicines (which are also molecules) to cure diseases.
This ends factoid #4 on science and engineering.
Matter, we now know, is stuff that has mass (or weight). Matter is made of atoms, small particles that were thought to be the smallest particles ever - people thought they could not be divided further, hence the name (atom in greek means 'cannot be further broken into smaller pieces'). Then people found that atoms are themselves made of smaller things.
These smaller things that make up atoms had a property which was named charge, which could be positive, negative or zero. Based on these, there were three kinds of smaller things - protons, which have a positive charge of 1 unit, electrons, which have a negative charge of 1 unit and neutrons which have a charge of zero. All these three particles have weight, with protons and neutrons being about the same weight, and both are much heavier than electrons.
Each atom is made of a very small central heavy thing called the nucleus which contains the protons and neutrons. Around this small nucleus, electrons are moving around. Most of an atom is empty. Also, an atom has the same number of electrons and protons, so the total charge of an atom is always zero. Now, all of matter is made of just 118 types of atoms, called the elements. The thing that distinguishes one element from another is the number of protons (which is the same as the number of electrons). So, the simplest element has one proton and one electron. This is what we know as hydrogen. The next element has two protons and two electrons and is called Helium. This number of protons or electrons in the atom of an element is called that element's atomic number. So, the atomic number of hydrogen is 1. Each element may have zero, one or more neutrons in its nucleus. Other common elements are Carbon (which is found in coal, diamonds and in all living organisms) with an atomic number of 6, Oxygen, with an atomic number of 8, and so on. Each element has a symbol (like a nickname). Hydrogen is H, Helium is He, Carbon is C and Oxygen is O.
Atoms combined to form molecules. For example, two hydrogen atoms combine to form a hydrogen molecule. One atom of carbon combined with two atoms of Oxygen is called Carbon dioxide, two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen combine to form water, sugar is made of 12 carbon atoms, 22 hydrogen atoms and 11 oxygen atoms combined in a specific way.
While some of the elements can have atoms existing by themselves, most of the stuff we see around us is made of molecules of more than one atom combined. A molecule could be simple like hydrogen or carbon dioxide, with just a few atoms in it, or it could be a combination of several atoms, even thousands of atoms!
As we saw before, in the early universe, matter was changing physically (between solids, liquids and gases). Also, simpler elements like hydrogen and helium gave birth to more complex elements like carbon and oxygen. Since this involved changing the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, these were called nuclear reactions. Matter was also changing chemically - where molecules would combine to form other molecules or a larger molecule would break down into smaller molecules - these were called chemical reactions.
With all these changes, more and more complex elements were formed by nuclear reactions and more and more complex molecules were being formed by chemical reactions.
Sometime around 3.5 billion years ago, something fantastic happened - the molecules combined to form something new - stuff that could do things by itself - this was the beginning of life.
As living organisms grew, they could combine with each other to form more living organisms. Slowly, over millions of years, more and more complex living organisms emerged - and perhaps one of the most complex living organisms are human beings.
Humans are different in many ways, but one of the most important differences about humans is the complex way that they can think. They were able to figure out all these things above (from how the universe began to how life began to how things change - physically, nuclearly and chemically). They were able to use the things they learnt to create new things - while nature has provided us with so many different elements, molecules, energy and forms of life, humans have been able to create fantastic things based on the power of their mind - from cars to chess to computers to the internet to petrol to tablet computers to medicines to new kinds of living organisms, to all the wonderful inventions we see and use every day.
All this was made possible by the study of how things work around us - and applying what we learned to create new things. This study of how things work is called science - science is divided into physics which is the study of matter and energy, chemistry which is the study of chemical reactions (how molecules combine and break down) and biology which is the study of living organisms. One of the goals of science is to simplify all knowledge into simple principles - called laws of science. The most important tool to learn science and apply it is mathematics.
The study of how we use science to make new things is called engineering or technology. Civil engineering refers to creating structures, like buildings and bridges and roads and railway lines. Mechanical Engineering deals with creating machines like cars and fridges. Electrical engineering deals with creating things like fans, lights and other things that run on electricity. Electronics engineering deals with creating digital machines like computers, phones and tablets. Computer engineering deals with creating programs like games and applications on computers. Medicine is a field of engineering used to study living things and learning how to fix things when they go wrong.
Just as we learnt that all the topics in math are actually related to each other, we will also find that all the topics in science are related to each other. Physics is used in biology. Some areas are common between physics and chemistry. For example, chemistry deals with how heat can be used to change one type of molecule into another type. Physics deals with how moving atoms faster and faster creates heat energy. Biology uses these things to create medicines (which are also molecules) to cure diseases.
This ends factoid #4 on science and engineering.
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