Satellites (space satellites)

Whether you guys know it or not, we all, on a daily basis use some sort of technology that uses satellites to either send or receive information. Your telephones, TVs and computers (internet) are the most popular technologies that need satellites to function. Personally, I don't think any of us would be able to live without any of these high tech technologies and we should really appreciate the invention of satellites. The first satellite sent to space was on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched ‘Sputnik I’. It was the size of a basketball and it only weighed about 183 pounds. That launch lead in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments that changed the world.  

After the launch of Sputnik I, the United-States was worried that if the Soviet Union was able to launch a satellite to space, then they are able to send military missiles carrying nuclear weapons. Then the Soviet Union struck again with Sputnik II and this encouraged the U.S to work harder and advance in technology. Finally, in 1958 the U.S launched their first satellite that they named Explorer I. This satellite is credited for discovering the magnetic radiation belts around the earth. They continued the Explorer program because it was a successful and liable lightweight, scientifically useful spacecraft. All these great launches marked the beginning of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Act). We also have a robot on mars that’s being controlled from earth and this robot is there exploring this inhabited planet. This robot is called the mars rover.

Now we have incredible high tech telescopes (more specifically the Hubble space telescope) in space that can take pictures that reach more than 100 million light years away. NASA is always adding and replacing parts on the space station to make it better. With NASA inventing all these new and improved parts to add to the satellites, our social networking and communication will only get better and more advanced.

 

Thanks to these fascinating inventions, we can communicate with our friends without having to be near them, we can get millions of search results when we are browsing the web for information in just a couple of seconds and much more amazing perks that come from this incredible invention.   

Wheels

Wheels

The wheel is probably the most important mechanical invention of all time and yet not many question how or when the wheel was invented. Wheels aren’t only used for vehicles; they are also used for industrial machines and waterwheels to make energy, watch mechanisms, jet engines and computer disk drives. They all have the same principle, which is to move in a circular motion.

The first use of the wheel was for transportation and this dates back almost 3500 BC and the first wheel invented was a potter wheel but until this day we don’t know exactly who invented it. There was always a regular growth in the advancement of inventing new and innovative designs of wheels. There is a huge difference between the first wheel ever invented and the wheels that we see now because of the advancement in technology.

The wheel is a very old invention and until today they are still being used and re-designed to make them more suitable for our environments. What’s interesting is that it doesn’t matter if they change the design of the wheel or make them more high tech, at the end of the day a wheel is a wheel and the function remains the same.

What amazes me the most about car tires is that they took it to another level! They now invented a new tire that’s called ‘Tweel’. It’s the new and improved tire that doesn’t contain any air which means that you’ll never have a flat tire again and you won’t have to worry about going on bumps or holes on roads because the tire is flexible but very strong.

We can really see how far the evolution of the wheel has gotten and I can’t wait to see what they’re going to invent to improve the ‘tweel’ but personally I don’t see how that’s possible because this wheel is amazing and it’s going to make all the regular tire companies loose business.

Do you ever wonder how life would be without technology? Inventions date back to thousands of years before BC and now inventions/technologies are actually advancing so fast that we can’t keep up with them.   It’s amazing how fast we are evolving with technology; I can picture us being in flying cars in just a couple more decades.  The inventions that I’ll be talking about aren’t all necessarily technologies; I’ll be also talking about small inventions that made a big impact in our world.

Let’s take a car for an example, when you look at a car, one of the first things you notice is the interior or even the exterior of the car. We never take the time to look at the tires of the car, and when we even get close to looking at the tires we are actually looking at the rims. If you think about it, the only reason why we have all these nice cars and that we were able to advance in the technology in cars is because of the invention of the wheel. Cars can’t function without wheels.

Another thing I’ll be talking about is satellites.  Can you guys even imagine this world without satellites? Who knows maybe it would be better for us because we wouldn’t have to be writing these blogs right now.  In all seriousness though, I can’t imagine living in this world without social networking and social media. These two play a big part in our lives right now and I don’t think anyone can imagine living without watching TV, talking on the phone with our friends or even ‘Tweeting’.

Stay tuned for more inventions that changed the world and I promise you guys will learn a lot and find all these inventions interesting. I’ll be posting inventions that you guys use on a daily bases without realizing their importance in our world and how they were invented. I’ll try to post a new blog every week!

Timeline of the inventions that changed the world