A Ton of Crap (44 page)

The Writing System
In the sixteenth century, Finnish bishop Mikael Agricola created the first comprehensive Finnish writing system. The orthography was based on Latin, Swedish, and German, and Agricola created the system to translate the Bible. Agricola’s system was revised to make a more phonemic system at a later time, and certain phonemes were lost.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

The Battle of Trenton
Following a defeat, General George Washington decided to plan a surprise attack on the British and Hessian soldiers on Christmas day of 1776. Washington led 2,500 soldiers across the Delaware River in a great snowstorm under treacherous conditions to reach Trenton, New Jersey. While the British soldiers slept, Washington and his men attacked, taking 1,000 prisoners and killing over 100 men without a single American killed.

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a form of exaggeration used to elicit a strong response. Hyperboles are not to be taken literally and are often used for humor. For example, “He is older than the dinosaurs” and “I’m a million times smarter than you” are both hyperboles. There is great exaggeration to these sentences. Hyperbole is very common in media and advertising.

FIBONACCI SEQUENCE

The Fibonacci Sequence in Music
The Fibonacci sequence can also be found in music. In any octave, thirteen notes can be played. A scale is made up of eight notes, and the third and fifth notes in the scale are the foundation of the chords. These are based on a whole tone, which is two tones away from the root tone, which happens to be the first note.

GALILEO GALILEI

Jupiter
By January of 1610, Galileo’s telescope was now 30-power. As Galileo fixed his telescope on the stars, he began to focus on Jupiter, noticing three bright stars in a straight line near the planet. When looking the following evening, the three stars had moved to the west of the planet, while still maintaining the straight line. Over time, Galileo came to the conclusion that these were satellites of Jupiter that rotated around the planet. The implications meant that if satellites rotated around another planet, perhaps the Earth was not the center of the universe as many believed.

FINNISH

Modernization of Finnish
In the nineteenth century, there was a great need to improve the Finnish language. Since Agricola’s writing system first appeared, written Finnish was almost solely used for things pertaining to religion. As support for a national language grew, efforts were made to modernize and improve the language. By the end of the nineteenth century, Finnish, with Swedish, became the official language of journalism, literature, science, and administration.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

The Battle of Saratoga
The Battle of Saratoga is considered to be one of the major victories in the Revolutionary War and a turning point for the Americans. The British army wished to control the Hudson River and cut New England off from the other colonies. British troops had planned to join with other troops along the way to quell the colonists; however, intervention from the Americans prevented this. On September 19, 1777, the first battle of Saratoga occurred, and on October 7, the second battle occurred, resulting in the surrender of the British troops.

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Oxymoron
An oxymoron pairs two opposite or contradicting ideas together to create a new meaning or paradoxical image. For example, in “bittersweet chocolate”
bitter
and
sweet
are opposites of each other, and yet when put together, they take on a whole new meaning. Other examples of oxymora include
deafening silence
,
jumbo shrimp
, and
freezer burn
.

FIBONACCI SEQUENCE

The Man Behind Fibonacci
The Fibonacci sequence was named after the Italian Leonardo Pisano Bogollo, who lived from 1170 to 1250. His nickname was Fibonacci, meaning “son of Banacci.” Though the sequence was described earlier by Indian mathematicians, it was Leonardo Pisano Bogollo who helped spread the sequence to Western Europe. He also helped spread the Hindu-Arabic numerals (the current system used today) across Europe, replacing the Roman Numeral system.

GALILEO GALILEI

Galileo and the Church
Galileo continued to discover things about the various planets, and his findings started to contradict the beliefs of the Church. Galileo was, in fact, quite religious and believed in the Bible, but he believed they were wrong in this matter and that the Bible should not be taken so literally. This led to charges of heresy from the Church. He was eventually found innocent; however, sixteen years later he was put under house arrest until his death for a book he had written expressing Copernican theory.

FINNISH