ENGR/HIST 109, S21
Essay 1, Due: Friday, April 16, Midnight
Please follow the Instructions carefully. You may lose points for not following the directions.
1. Answer only ONE question from the following 3 questions.
2. It is an Explanatory / Expository essay, not a research paper.
3. Your answer must be in a short essay form, about > 600 >900 words.
4. Be explicit and explain the concept clearly. Answer all questions and sub-questions.
5. Avoid general/irrelevant statements. Avoid flabby sentences. Do not employ general expressions such as
“Technology had a deep impact on our life.”
6. Try to keep a logical track in your explanations: Start with a short but clear reference to the background
of the topic, then explain the topic as clear as you can, and finally, specify its importance/influence.
7. Do not use any quotations. Everything must be based on your own understanding of the reading
materials and in your own words.
8. Essay should have a title (or prompt number) and carry your name, and course number.
9. Run the text through SafeAssign on iLearn (Blackboard), under Assignments, Essay 1, by Friday, April
16, Midnight.
10. Submission by email is not acknowledged. No late submissions is accepted.
Topics:
1. Explain the Military Revolution in pre-modern Europe (after the introduction of the gunpowder) and
its social, political and technological consequences.
- Explain the main developments in European military technology from manufacturing firearms to
redesigning fortifications and troop training.
- In our assigned reading the author mentions two major outcomes of the Military Revolution:
centralization of the political systems in Europe, and initiation of a wave of European colonialism.
- Describe all scientific and technological developments in the 15th and 16th centuries that led to
explorations over the seas, introduced colonialism and made Europeans the dominant power in the
world.
- What were the global results of new technological capabilities of Europeans?

2. Why is the content of Galileo’s Discourses on Two New Sciences (1638) so important in history of
science and technology?
- Explain Galileo’s major achievements in the science of kinematics.
- Explain Galileo’s contribution to the material science.
- How do the authors of the assigned reading describe the role of experimentation in Galileo’s
science?

3. Majority of historians believe that the Scientific Revolution started with a revolution in astronomy and
cosmology, with the work of Nicolas Copernicus in the mid-16th century. Copernicus tried to find a
solution for long lasting problems in the geocentric model of the universe.
- What were the main problems in the geocentric astronomy?
- Explain how did Copernicus solve the long-lasting problems of Ptolemaic astronomy?
- What were his main innovations? How did he explained the problem of parallax? Explain each
explicitly.












































学霸联盟