PACCE

Today we cleaned up Rome. I was so surprised at how dirty the city truly was because I am more concentrated on the buildings and trying not to get hit by a crazy driver that I am not paying attention to all the stickers on the poles and the piles of garbage on the ground. I was mainly pulling stickers off the poles and there was an excessive amount of pointless stickers on poles and posts. I find it sad the Romans do not take pride in their city and want to have it clean. I believe they should use cleaning the city as a form of punishment as they do back in America. It was really cool to interact with different people who had different feelings on what we were doing. I had one lady who spoke very broken English say the town was filthy and she was happy we were doing something about it. On the other hand I had an Italian man not so happy that I was cleaning the posts off so it was interesting to get both sides. I was also photographed a lot and several people starred like they had never seen anyone do any cleaning before. It was an amazing experience!

PACCE Project

While scraping I was talking with these two women from America that now live in Italy, and they were telling me of the neighborhoods who do Retake Roma. From their experiences they told me about how this site was not as bad as others they had worked on, along with how the people are loving having their city be clean. It was interesting how Americans who live there started this program while the Italians are starting to come together as a community and are starting to clean.

Day 11ish: History of Medicine

The museum we visited included
A lot of information and exhibits about the history of medicine. It included a lot of different information and exhibits about the conditions the scientists and surgeons had to work under. One thing I read that I found to be most interesting was about a scientist who related the movement of muscles to simple machines and mechanisms. I thought this was a really cool way to connect our human body to nature in a mathematical sense!

History of Medicine Museum

When visiting the medicine museum, I could not believe there was a set of remains of a child from the first to second century with a hole in his head. It is incredible how in that time period a surgeon was able to preform surgery on this boy. Also, it is impressive that the boy was able to survive the surgery for a couple of weeks. This shows how advance the skill levels of the surgeons were at the time period.

History of Physics Museum

Although the presenter was terrible I really enjoyed the the physics museum for its artifacts. I am very impressed that given the tools and machines they had, saficticated experiments could be conducted and advanced conclusions could be drawn. The museum was also able to tell the story of Fermi quite well and provided artifacts that he used himself.

Since our time in Rome we have been able to do a wide variety of activities but I feel that the walking tour has been the best. It was awesome to see the places that Galileo stayed in while he came here for the Inquisition. I don't know why, but I especially found the side area where the cardinals meant to be really insightful.

Aspirations and Broken Dreams

Leonardo da Vinci was truly the definition of a prodigy; his creativity seemed to know no boundaries as his imagination allowed him to do so many incredible drawings and problem solving. I thought the museum was absolutely wonderful and would definitely do it again. It was very fun to look at all the other exhibitions as well, and I was super excited for the nanotechnology stuff , but to my dismay that area was closed........... <\3

Milan Museum

During our visit to Milan at the Museum of Science, I found the exhibits to be quite fascinating.  The models of Leonardo di Vinci's drawings were really fun to look at.  When the guide explained some of the details for a few of the drawings, I learned a lot more about di Vinci than I knew before.  To me the most interesting models were his military ships because they were unlike anything I seen in books on Naval history, it's a shame that they were never built.  Besides the di Vinci wing, the other exhibits were good as well, like the moon rock which is the first thing I've seen from the moon before.  It was a great trip and I was glad to go to the museum.

Milan Museum

I really enjoyed the Milan Museum! Seeing the interpretations of DaVinci's machines was incredible and showed how much of a genius he was and how he has had a lasting effect on the world. I also learned a lot in the basement where they talked about the history of many different manufacturing processes. The cold forming process was my favorite.

Galileo

I found the Galileo Musuem to be very interesting. It is so commonplace for us today to use experimental methods to solve scientific problems, but in Galileo's time it was considered revolutionary. Learning about the struggle Galileo went through to prove his methods worked and how creative he was in using experiments to validate his theories was eye-opening. It really puts into perspective the changes that have developed over time when it comes to science.

My favorite academic thing that we have seen recently is the Palazzo Vecchio (the building that used to be home to the royal family with the prison tower). I didn't know anything about the building before we saw it yesterday, including that it was home to the Medici family. I think that it looks really cool and has a neat history! Plus I went up inside the prison tower and seeing the cells was cool. And of course the view from the top was the best part!

In the galileo museum, we were told that up until galileo no one actually would apply their theories. Aristotles theory of how the arrow flew through the air was clearly untrue,  you just had to watch an arrow slowly fall while in flight. Galileo was practically the father of applied physics.

I thought it was awesome to learn about Galileo in Florence because its where he is from, lived and worked. Seeing some of his original instruments (such as hours telescope) at the museum gave me a deeper appreciation of our book. It was also incredible to me to see Galileo's family crest above the doorway of his son's house.

The museum in Milan is most likely my favorite site of this trip. I loved the variety of scientific areas represented and how I was able to recognize a large amount of the machines and exhibits as things I learned in various classes. I also was confused as to why we had not learned about a lot of the things in middle or high school, and only may have seen some depending on the classes taken for college. I enjoyed the metals area most since I saw exactly what I have learned in class as well as some of the exact things we have in our lab. I loved how they displayed the metal casting and foundry equipment in typical surroundings and the extreme attention to detail in everything. This museum is something I would definitely return to.

Trains in Milan

When looking around the different parts of the museum, the train exhibit stood out by having a display on a horse tram. It was about how horses in the 1860s were being apart of the transportation system. They would travel 16 km in about two hours, and while being the horses would walk the cart would be connected on rails to make the ride more smooth for the passengers. It was interesting how horses were intergrated in the train transportation history for Milan.

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Site 3

The museum in Milan is either my first or second favorite site of the entire trip. Our guide was well rehearsed and knowledgeable plus he seemed passionate about the information he was sharing. I knew I was going to like the museum right after I got the map. I visited the musical instruments, space, metals, nanotechnology, and nutrition. The museum had a few antique Steinway pianos that were taunting me to play them. The string instrument section was the most interesting display. I saw many instruments that I didn't recognize. There was a 7 stringed viola within one of the cases that I wanted to play. The second place I visited was the space section. I could have spent a lot more time in that area because of all of the interactive displays. One of the games was similar to the PC game Kerbal Space Program. You had to make your own spaceship and complete a specific task. I also saw a bit of the moon today! The third place I went was the metals area. I went there for Abby <3 She was happy. I found it interesting, but the visit was mostly for her. The fourth area was the nanotechnology area. It was closed. David was sad. The fifth display was the nutrition area. David and I moped around the displays because he was still sad about the nanotechnology area. However, I still enjoyed the nutrition area. Overall, this might have been my favorite museum of the trip. This site definitely calls for a second trip. 

An Interesting Few days

Looking back on the past few days, I would have to say the most interesting part was seeing Da Vincis drawings come to life in the models. It was interesting to see what could have been and all the awesome ideas he had in his mind. I particularly enjoyed the quote from the guide when he said imagine what Da Vince could have done with engines.

Day ?: Galileo Museum and Leonardo Museum

Both of the men we Studied in the two museums we visited in the past days Were extraordinary torque and continues to impact life today! However, my favorite thing about the Museum in Milan had to be the model ships displayed in the Air and Water Building. I found a ship that was one of the first warships built with sails built by the Austrains, not only were the size and detail of the models super neat but also thinking about that ship in real life! Amazing!

Ampere House and Electricity Museum

I really enjoyed the ampere museum because of the interaction we were able to do. I enjoyed pumping the water uphill via solar panals. During our self guided tour we were able to play with all these nobs to see how things worked. For example, we were able to dial a number on one phone and have the other phone ring and be able to pick the phones up and talk to each other. The extremely cool thing about that was seeing how the call was transfered as you dialed. Very cool museum!

The Museum in Milan

Today we went to the museum in Milan. We learned about Leonardo da Vinci. He was a versatile genius! He studied many different areas of science, including: botony, human anatomy, and engineering. It is amazing how so many ideas were coming from one individual at that time. Even though his ideas were not implemented during his lifetime, today they serve as the foundation for our innovations. The museum itself was amazing! There were many different areas of scinece to observe along with interactive tuitorials and activities!

Amperian Affection

La Maison Ampère was truly a nerd's paradise. Now I may have some bias as an electrical engineering major, but more power to me I say. With that in mind I thought it was super fascinating to walk through the timeline of the developments, applications, and understanding of electricity; its evolution was truly remarkable as the mathematical and conceptual principals have lead to unbelievable amounts of innovation. I also enjoyed the lessons on power and learning just how strong 1 Watt of electricity is by doing the bike simulator.

My favorite site of the trip was the first silk shop that we visited. Because I'm majoring in mechanical engineering, I found this site to be extremely mesmerizing and oddly satisfying. I thought that I was going to be bored out of my mind while learning about something as boring as silk making. I was totally wrong. As soon as I stepped into the shop, my brain immediately tried to figure out how the machines worked. It was really cool to see our guide use the machine. If someone could help me, how did he know which color to use? I usually don't enjoy power points but one he showed was fantastic. He seemed really passionate about his work and it really showed when he was explaining the origins of his art. The portraits of people and detailed woven pieces were the most impressive to me. I can't even shade things correctly with colored pencil. They're creating multiple shades of grey using only two colors of silk. If I were to live in that time and work in that industry... I would want to be the one who created the "punch card". I understand why silk is so expensive now. When I was a kid, I enjoyed silk stuff but my mom would never buy it for me. She said it was too expensive. Now that I'm older... I now know why it's so expensive and I can fully appreciate it and buy it for myself. 

Ampere's House

At the Ampere house we got to see the evolution of physics. How scientisits have observed first magnetic phenomenta of metals, then they found electricity and all other ways in which electric power can be implemented. At this site we also were able to do activities related to electricity and power. We got to ride an electric bike and learned that it would be an ecologically efficient transportation! Also we did experiments with circuits, solar power and calculation of a specific heat.

I felt that the Books and Printing museum was absolutely fascinating. Learning about the origins of the terms uppercase and lowercase was mind blowing.  I also found it interesting to learn about how the various inventions affected the distribution of printed works.

Museum of Books and Printing

For our second day of visiting sites, the Books and Printing museum was by far the most interesting to me.  Being able to see the early bodies of work from the printing press was amazing.  The early text from he Koreans for their official documents was an excellent piece for one of the first exhibits because the Koreans were the first in moveable type.  Followed up by one of the early printing presses from Europe made for a fun time.  Learning about the workers having higher status because of their job was interesting as well.  Overall it was a great time and I had fun.

I enjoyed the book printing museum most, especially learning about the lead cast letters used right after they were made and remelted to be cast again. I also liked how they recognized that Gutenberg did not have the first movable type press, the Chinese did for their official documents, but since Gutenberg`s press was the first to use movable, 26 (ish) letters standard, instead of the several hundred Korean (?) characters, it is recognized as the first movable type printing press. I also enjoyed that we visited some sites in the country/suburbs so we got to see more of the different French cultures (and cats and horses). I really enjoyed the hands on activities at the ampere museum, and it helped me understand what I have learned in class better.

Math is Neat

I really enjoyed the Ampere museum. At first, I thought it was really boring since I don't really know about physics or am interested in it too much. That said, in the second room of the tour Kelsey and I stumbled across some math that we are really familiar with! We thought it was exciting to see stuff that we have learned in our math classes and see how it has been applied to the sciences. So then the tour became a math scavenger hunt for me; I found things like the Laplace transform, second derivatives, geometry and geometry proofs, and the Poisson method! It was pretty neat!

The ampere house was super interesting because I've really only seen any of that in pictures and textbooks so seeing it in person and seeing how it works was crazy. I was surprising excited by the dial phones because I'd never thought about how they work. Seeing everything move as we dialed was super interesting. Basically every button I pushed in that house was awesome and I was geeking out.

I learned so much at the printing museam. I thought it was awesome how our guide showed and tought us about printing from its creation through what it is today. Also it blew my mind when he showed us why we call letters upper and lower case.

So far, the ampere museum had been my favorite site. Ampere was income in the conduction of electricity and the electric motor. The most interesting thing I learned was a bicycle fitted with an electric motor is more efficient and eco friendly than just a human riding a bike.

Day 4: Museum of Books and Printing and Soierie Vivante

Both of the tours we participated in today Were informative and so cool! Every time we visit a new site Involving past technologies I can't help but to appreciate the luxuries and advancements we have today. The most interesting thing I learned however from the printing museum was that during times of war paper became scarce and the French resorted to using wood fibers, potatoes, or even horse manure! Gross!

Silk, Print, and Ampere

I found the ampere house to be awesome! They had a lot of experiments that we have talked about in class only in theory. It also explained a lot of work that I had done in industry. It was a nerds paradise.

Second post

In our Tavels in Lyon and abroad we have learned many interesting things; however, I would say the printing area in Lyon has been the most interesting. It was cool to see the progression of printing throughout the ages. Even though I disagree with the guide because I think that the Koreans were the first to invent the press, I did find in interesting to see how the Guttenberg press worked. In addition, I enjoyed the insight how the printers would have enjoyed special rights in society because they could read, I had never thought of that before.

I thought that the ampere museum was amazing. I loved all of the different experiments that they let us do. It was a great way to learn more about electricity.

Books and Printing

At the books and printing museum I thought it was really neat that the terms uppercase and lowercase developed simply due to the placement of the larger and lower letters in a case. Being that the larger letters happened to be in the upper portion of the case they were called uppercase and vise versa for the lower case which I never knew that was why we called the letters upper and lower case so that was just really interesting to me. I also can now fully appreciate the technology we have today that allows for fast easy printing whereas back then so much time and effort went into printing simply one page.

Books and Printing

In the exhibit of the printer from Gutenberg, I had found the process of how they printed at that time intriguing. For the application of transferring ink to the cases was done with a duck skin brush was most shocking from the visit. However, also learning most print shops were set up around water due to having an apprentice run back and forth from the shop to clean off the letter in the water was interesting fact I learned at the museum.

I had a great time at the silk museums today. I never realized how much tI'm and effort was put into creating one piece of fabric. Even now that we have mechanicalized the industry, there is still a lot of effort that must be put into it. I will never tonk of silk the same way again.

Silk

My favorite site of the trip was the first silk shop that we visited. Because I'm majoring in mechanical engineering, I found this site to be extremely mesmerizing and oddly satisfying. I thought that I was going to be bored out of my mind while learning about something as boring as silk making. I was totally wrong. As soon as I stepped into the shop, my brain immediately tried to figure out how the machines worked. It was really cool to see our guide use the machine. If someone could help me, how did he know which color to use? I usually don't enjoy power points but one he showed was fantastic. He seemed really passionate about his work and it really showed when he was explaining the origins of his art. The portraits of people and detailed woven pieces were the most impressive to me. I can't even shade things correctly with colored pencil. They're creating multiple shades of grey using only two colors of silk. If I were to live in that time and work in that industry... I would want to be the one who created the "punch card". I understand why silk is so expensive now. When I was a kid, I enjoyed silk stuff but my mom would never buy it for me. She said it was too expensive. Now that I'm older... I now know why it's so expensive and I can fully appreciate it and buy it for myself. 

Silk industry

What I found most interesting was the silk tour and specifically the machine itself. The mechanics of it were fascinating, especially because everything is so technologically advanced now that it was super cool to see something so physically complex and the entire process. It's amazing that they were able to make everything without making a mistake because it seems like that would be impossible with so many strings and components to it. Also, the fact that anyone had enough concentration and determination to do that job and revolve they're life around it is unimaginable to me.

Silk and Lumiere

I found it very interesting that Lyon was the right spot to be the hub of silk industry and innovation. It seems it would be easier and more cost effective to have vertical integration and export a more complete product. I was also surprised to learn how the Jacquard machine works. Seems genius.

During our tour of the weaving museum, the guide mentioned that most plain buildings with large windows were once home to professional silk weavers. Looking

Throughout the day on Wednesday I Learned Many interesting things. One of the biggest things the Lumiere brothers Was That Were Involved in things --other than the movie industry. I enjoyed learning about the Advancements in the medical field and the housing strange addiction. It makes me wonder what the industry Would Have beens like today If They Would Have stuck with it and made a full company around it.

I thought it was cool seeing the luminar brothers house, I couldn't believe it was the smallest of their 22 houses.

One of the things that I have learned these past few site visits was the impact that international politics has on developing ideas. Both the silk industry and cinema in France were highly competitive with other countries; Italy and America respectively. I wonder if the constant competition to outpace other countries helped spur on these industries, or if having free trade of ideas would have led to quicker progress.

I also think that the most interesting thing we saw yesterday was the silk museum. I really enjoyed comparing our tour guide's information to my research, since I wrote about this topic for my paper. Most interesting was that he never mentioned how France usually obtained their raw silk from Piedmont, Italy. That was a major part of their history! I think it wasn't mentioned because it was a sore subject for France. Maybe they don't want people to know about sending spies over there?! We're in on their secret, though... :) if anyone wants to know any other comparisons I found between our tour and my research, just ask!

day 2

I loved learning about the silk industry and how much work actually goes into making such a small amount of silk. I thought it was interesting how buildings were built with especially large windows to allow the weavers to see with as much natural light possible, and how you can look around Lyon and see how many buildings seem to have been built for silk weavers to live and work in. I also enjoyed learning how much of a battle took place with Americans and French inventors and filmmakers, I hadn't realized there had been so much struggle for receiving credit.

Silk Industry

The thing I learned today from our two tours that I found most interesting and shocking was how long it took to produce silk. It took a full 8 hours to produce just 35 cm and for 18 meters it would take them 18 months. This is crazy to imagine and it would clearly take a lot of patience that I do not have!

Day 2: Silk Museum and Lumiere

The most interesting thing I Learned from our tours of the Silk Museum as well as the tour of the Lumiere Institute would have to be the silk weaving machine itself. Not only was the machine and concept itself was complex but also the parts needed to assemble it. 18 MONTHS!!??? To piece a machine together??? That's crazy I work in a mill over the summer and any time we are changing jobs and it takes over 3 hours I get frustrated. The patience and endurance the silk weavers had is very much valued and appreciated for a commodity we very much take for granted today.

Could there be anything cooler than silk production? (May 20)

After visiting the Maison des Canuts I can definately say that the textile machines perfectly display the creativity and complexity of human mind. I was absolutely astounded by the process of the machine as well as the tasks the weaver has to perform in order to create beautiful designs. Also seeing the different applications of the weaving techniques was totally impressive. I really thought that the Lumière Institute was super awesome, and it was cool to walk through the evolution of film making. The Lumière Brothers were definitely some pretty incredible people.

Day 2

Being able to see first hand how silk was turned into a beautiful piece of art using methods dating back over centuries was impressive enough. Going one step futher on how impressive this method is seeing the machines and getting to see how silk is transformed into a scarf or a wall hanging. When going into a store and seeing a piece of item with silk used, I will fully appreciate the amount of work it took to make an article of clothing.

Day Two Sights

The textile machines were pretty cool, too difficult for me to use, but neat.  Also the am punt of silkworms the silk industry would have uses, the numbers I heard today are significantly higher than what I thought it took.  Learning about the Lumiere brothers was interesting as well, they were very talented men with their photography enhancements and other inventions.  Their house was also a nice sight even if it was the smallest house they had built.  Overall, these were some neat sights to see, looking forward to see more.

May 20!

Today I was amazed to see how the silk is being made and that the old technique is still used today and highly valued. I also have learned that silk comes from cacoons. I thought it was very interesting that a specie of butterflies became extinct due to human exploitation of them. I hope people are more aware of conservation of organisms and their habitats today.  In the Lumiere Institute I was surprised to learn that the brothers have done so much more research and discoveries in other fields other than cinema. It was interesting to see the first type of a prosthetic hand built for soldiers built by one of the brothers.