Vikram Sarabhai

Vikram Sarabhai was born on 12 August 1919 in the city of Ahmedabad , Gujarat State in western India. The Sarabhai family was an important and rich business family. His father Ambalal Sarabhai was an affluent industrialist and owned many mills in Gujarat. Vikram Sarabhai was one of the eight children of Ambalal and Sarla Devi.

To educate her eight children, Sarla Devi established a private school on the lines of the Montessori method, propounded by Maria Montessori, which was gaining fame at that time. As the Sarabhai family was involved in the Indian freedom struggle, many leaders of the freedom struggle like Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru used to frequent the Sarabhai house. This is said to have greatly influenced the young Vikram Sarabhai and played an important role in the growth of his personality.

Sarabhai matriculated from the Gujarat College in Ahmedabad after passing the Intermediate Science examination. After that he moved to England and joined the St. John's College, University of Cambridge. He received the Tripos in Natural Sciences from Cambridge in 1940. With the escalation of the Second World War, Sarabhai returned to India and joined the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and began research in cosmic rays under the guidance of Sir C. V. Raman, a Nobel Prize winner. He returned to Cambridge after the war in 1945 and was awarded a PhD degree in 1947 for his thesis titled Cosmic Ray investigation in Tropical Latitudes.

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.

Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison originated the concept and implementation of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories - a crucial development in the modern industrialized world. His first power plant was on Manhattan Island, New York.

Charles Babbage

Sketch by Henri Claudet, 1860s [1]
Born	26 December 1791(1791-12-26) London, England
Died	18 October 1871 (aged 79) Marylebone, London, England
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	Mathematics, analytic philosophy, computer science
Institutions	Trinity College, Cambridge
Alma mater	Peterhouse, Cambridge
Known for	Mathematics, computing
Religious stance	Christian

Charles Darwin-(1809-82)

Darwin is the first of the evolutionary biologists, the originator of the concept of natural selection. His principal works, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) marked a new epoch. His works were violently attacked and energetically defended, then; and, it seems, yet today.

Charles Robert Darwin was born at Shrewsbury. His father was a doctor and his mother was the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood. Darwin first studied medicine at Edinburgh. Will as they might, it soon became clear to the family, and particularly to young Charles, that he was not cut out for a medical career; he was transferred to Cambridge (Christ's Church, 1828), there to train for the ministry. While at Cambridge, Darwin befriended a biology professor (John Stevens Henslow, 1796-1861) and his interest in zoology and geography grew. Eventually, Darwin came under the eye of a geology professor, Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873). Just after a field trip to Wales with Sedgwick -- during which Darwin was to learn much from "Sedgewick's on-the-spot tutorials" and was to develop "intellectual muscle as he burnt off the flab"1 -- he was to learn, that, through the efforts of Professor Henslow, that he had secured an invitation to go aboard the Beagle, which, apparently, was being outfitted by the admiralty for an extended voyage to the south seas. In a letter, Henslow was to advise that "you are the very man they are in search of." Desmond and Moore were to write:

"The admirals were scouting out someone to accompany Capt. Robert FitzRoy on his two-year survey of coastal South America. FitzRoy, only twenty-six himself, wanted a young companion, a well-bred 'gentlemen' who could relieve the isolation of command, someone to share the captain's table. Better still if he were a naturalist, for there would be unprecedented opportunities. The ship was equipped for 'scientific purposes' and a 'man of zeal & spirit' could do wonders, Henslow enthused. Charles might not be a 'finished naturalist,' but 'taking plenty of Books' would help, and he was the obvious choice."2

Needless to say, though there was some anxious moments, Darwin was accepted by those responsible for the voyage. The plans for the cruise of the Beagle were extended, in that it was to take place over the best part of five years (1831-36) and was to take in the southern islands, the South American coast and Australia. While aboard the vessel, Darwin served as a geologist, botanist, zoologist, and general man of science. It was rare to have aboard a sailing vessel of the early 19th century a person who could read and write, let alone one, such as Darwin, who could appreciate the necessity of applying scientific principles to the business of gathering data and carrying out research on it. I am sure that the telling of Darwin's travels and observations, while aboard the Beagle, would be an interesting topic in itself, but for my purposes here, I need only say, that Darwin gained an experience which would prove to be a substantial foundation for his life's work; the almost immediate result was the publication of his findings in 1840, Zoology of the Beagle.

Sir Isaac Newton

Godfrey Kneller's 1689 portrait of Isaac Newton (aged 46)
Born	4 January 1643(1643-01-04) [OS: 25 December 1642][1] Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth Lincolnshire, England
Died	31 March 1727 (aged 84) [OS: 20 March 1726][1] Kensington, Middlesex, England
Residence	England
Citizenship	English
Nationality	English (British from 1707)
Fields	Physics, mathematics, astronomy, natural philosophy, alchemy, theology
Institutions	University of Cambridge Royal Society
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Academic advisors	Isaac Barrow Benjamin Pulleyn[2][3]
Notable students	Roger Cotes William Whiston John Wickins[4] Humphrey Newton[4]
Known for	Newtonian mechanics Universal gravitation Calculus Optics
Influences	Henry More
Influenced	Nicolas Fatio de Duillier John Keill
Religious stance	Monotheism; for details see article
Signature
Notes His mother was Hannah Ayscough. His half-niece was Catherine Barton.

The Wright brothers, Orville (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were two Americans who are generally credited^[1][2][3] with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight on 17 December 1903. They are also officially credited worldwide through the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the standard setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics, as "the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight". In the two years afterward, the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed wing flight possible.

The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of "three axis-control", which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium.^[4] This method became standard and remains standard on fixed wing aircraft of all kinds.^[5][6] From the beginning of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on unlocking the secrets of control to conquer "the flying problem", rather than developing more powerful engines as some other experimenters did. Their careful wind tunnel tests produced better aeronautical data than any before, enabling them to design and build wings and propellers more effective than any before.^[7][8] Their U.S. patent 821,393 claims the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulates a flying machine's surfaces.^[9]

They gained the mechanical skills essential for their success by working for years in their shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery. Their work with bicycles in particular influenced their belief that an unstable vehicle like a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice.^[10] Their bicycle shop employee Charlie Taylor became an important part of the team, building their first aircraft engine in close collaboration with the brothers.

The Wright brothers' status as inventors of the airplane has been subject to counter-claims by various parties. Much controversy persists over the many competing claims of early aviators.

Rudolf Diesel

Diesel was born in Paris, France in 1858^[1] as the second of three children to Theodor and Elise Diesel. Diesel's parents were immigrants living in France according to a biographical book by John F. Moon. Theodor Diesel, a bookbinder by trade, had left his home town of Augsburg, Kingdom of Bavaria, in 1848. He met his wife, Elise Strobel, daughter of a Nuremberg merchant, in Paris in 1855 and himself became a leathergoods manufacturer there.

Diesel spent his early childhood in France, but as a result of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the family was forced to leave and emigrated to London. Before the end of the war, however, Diesel's mother sent 12-year-old Rudolf to Augsburg to live with his aunt and uncle, Barbara and Christoph Barnickel, so that he might learn to speak German and visit the Königliche Kreis-Gewerbsschule or Royal County Trade School, where his uncle taught mathematics.

At age 14, Rudolf wrote to his parents that he wanted to become an engineer, and after finishing his basic education at the top of his class in 1873, he enrolled at the newly-founded Industrial School of Augsburg. Later, in 1875, he received a merit scholarship from the Royal Bavarian Polytechnic in Munich which he accepted against the will of his perennially cash-strapped parents who would rather have seen him begin earning money.

In Munich, one of his professors was Carl von Linde. Diesel was unable to graduate with his class in July 1879 because of a bout of typhoid. While he waited for the next exam date, he gathered practical engineering experience at the Gebrüder Sulzer Maschinenfabrik in Winterthur, Switzerland. Diesel graduated with highest academic honors from his Munich alma mater in January 1880 and returned to Paris, where he assisted his former Munich professor Carl von Linde with the design and construction of a modern refrigeration and ice plant. Diesel became the director of the plant a scant year later.

In 1883, Diesel married Martha Flasche, and continued to work for Linde, garnering numerous patents in both Germany and France.

In early 1890, Diesel moved his wife and their now three children Rudolf junior, Heddy and Eugen, to Berlin to assume management of Linde's corporate research and development department and to join several other corporate boards there. Because he was not allowed to use the patents he developed while an employee of Linde's for his own purposes, Diesel sought to expand into an area outside refrigeration. He first toyed with steam, his research into fuel efficiency leading him to build a steam engine using ammonia vapor. During tests, this machine exploded with almost fatal consequences and resulted in many months in the hospital and a great deal of ill health and eyesight problems. He also began designing an engine based on the Carnot cycle, and in 1893, soon after Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz had invented the automobile in 1887, Diesel published a treatise entitled Theorie und Construktion eines rationellen Wärmemotors zum Ersatz der Dampfmaschine und der heute bekannten Verbrennungsmotoren or Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat-engine to Replace the Steam Engine and Combustion Engines Known Today and formed the basis for his work on and invention of the diesel engine.

abdul kalam

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam born October 15, 1931, Tamil Nadu, India, usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam^, was the eleventh President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007.^[2] Due to his unconventional working style, he is also popularly known as the People's President^[3][4]. Before his term as India's president, he distinguished himself as engineering visionary and was awarded India's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna in 1997 for his work with DRDO and his role as scientific advisor to the Indian government. He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology^[5]. In India he is considered a progressive mentor, innovator and visionary. Kalam played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear test in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974^[6]. He is a professor at Anna University (Chennai) and adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India.

MOMENTUM

The word for the general concept of mōmentum was used in the Roman Republic primarily to mean "a movement, motion (as an indwelling force ...)." A fish was able to change velocity (velocitas) through the mōmentum of its tail.^[1] The word is formed by an accretion of suffices on the stem of Latin movēre, "to move." A movi-men- is the result of the movēre just as frag-men- is the result of frangere, "to break." Extension by -to- obtains mōvimentum and fragmentum, the former contracting to mōmentum.^[2]

mōmentum was not merely the motion, which was mōtus, but was the power residing in a moving object, captured by today's mathematical definitions. A mōtus, "movement", was a stage in any sort of change,^[3] while velocitas, "swiftness", captured only speed. The Romans, due to limitations inherent in the Roman numeral system,^{[clarification needed]} were unable to go further with the perception.^{[citation needed]}

The concept of momentum in classical mechanics was originated by a number of great thinkers and experimentalists. The first of these was Ibn Sina (Avicenna) circa 1000, during the Islamic Renaissance who referred to impetus as proportional to weight times velocity.^[4] René Descartes later referred to mass times velocity as the fundamental force of motion. Galileo in his Two New Sciences used the Italian word "impeto."

The question has been much debated as to what Isaac Newton's contribution to the concept was. The answer is apparently nothing, except to state more fully and with better mathematics what was already known. The first and second of Newton's Laws of Motion had already been stated by John Wallis in his 1670 work, Mechanica slive De Motu, Tractatus Geometricus: "the initial state of the body, either of rest or of motion, will persist" and "If the force is greater than the resistance, motion will result".^[5] Wallis uses momentum and vis for force.

Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, when it was first published in 1686, showed a similar casting around for words to use for the mathematical momentum. His Definition II^[6] defines quantitas motus, "quantity of motion", as "arising from the velocity and quantity of matter conjointly", which identifies it as momentum.^[7] Thus when in Law II he refers to mutatio motus, "change of motion", being proportional to the force impressed, he is generally taken to mean momentum and not motion.^[8]

It remained only to assign a standard term to the quantity of motion. The first use of "momentum" in its proper mathematical sense is not clear but by the time of Jenning's Miscellanea in 1721, four years before the final edition of Newton's Principia Mathematica, momentum M or "quantity of motion" was being defined for students as "a rectangle", the product of Q and V where Q is "quantity of material" and V is "velocity", s/t.^[9]