Week 25 History Essay

           This week I learned about Gottfried Leibniz, the piano, the thermometer, and the seismometer. First I will write about Gottfried Leibniz. Gottfried Leibniz was a German mathematician, scientist, engineer, and philosopher who lived during the 16 and 1700s. He is most known for his work in developing the mechanical calculator and his Law of Continuity and Transcendental Law of Homogeneity. He started college at 15, had 4 degrees by the time he was 20, and is the last polymath in history. Next I learned about the piano, which is a musical, stringed instrument with a keyboard. It was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco in about 1700. He was an Italian instrument maker. Pianos are very important in music today. Next is the thermometer, which is a glass tube filled with mercury, and is used to tell the temperature or show temperature-changes. It was invented by Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in the 1700s. We still use thermometers based on the Fahrenheit scale of temperature today. The last invention I learned about this week was the seismometer. The seismometer is an instrument that is used to measure the motion of the ground from earthquakes, volcanoes, and natural movement of the earth. It was invented by a Scottish physicist named James David Forbes, but the word seismometer came from the Greek words seismos and metron, which mean shaking or quake and measure. My favorite invention this week was the piano, because I love music, and I had no idea there were so many kinds of pianos.