Hadiah Nobel - Akademi Sains Malaysia

Children may have accidentallY
invented the first telescope
SOME say that children playing in an with many inventions, it is possible that a
Amsterdam optical shop invented the first number ol people independently discovered
telescope. The shop was owned by the Dutch the magnifying etfect of using two lens€s.
spectacle-maker, Hans Lippershey. The Galileo, an ltalian astronomer and physicist
children happened to look through two lenses (1564-1642), made improvements on the
at the same time, and they discovered that telescope. With his homemade telescopes, he
they could see distant objects as though they was the lirst to study and report many
were up close.
astronomical discoveries, such as the fact that
Lippershey is said to have improved on the JuDiter has moons. The double lenses used
children's discovery by putting tvvo lenses in a by the children, the "looke/ made by
tubo, one at each end. He called the invention Lippershey, and the telescopes made by
a "looke/' and sold it in his shoD. This event Galileo are all examples of refracling
occurred some time in the early 1600s. As telescooes.
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THE Greek mathematician, Archimedes was getting into a tub
for a bath when he observed thal the water spilled over tho
sides. He realised lhat there was a relationshiD between his
weight and the amount of water displaced (pushed aside).
He r€alised that the amount of water displaced (pushed aside)
by his body vvas €qual to the volume of his body. While floating
in the tub, he also realised that all objects'lose" weight when
placed in water
Furlh€rmore, the amount ol weight an object apparently loses
when placed in water is equal to ihe weight of the water the
object displaces.
He was so excited that it is said he ran naked through th€
slreets yelling "Eureka!" His joy was because he
had discoverod a means of determining th€
densities of things based on their weight
and weighl loss in water. This technique
was needed to determine whether ths
king's crown was made of pure gold
Archimedes discovered that the crown
was not made of pure gold but was a
mixture of gold and silver.
Archimedes experiment€d f urther and
described what is now called
Archimedes' PrinciDle: a volume of
water as heavy as a particular
objecl must be displaced for the
objecl to float.
Tiny thermometers
in your skin
lN your skin
there are
lemperaturesensitive
nerve endrngs
that act like
trny
thermometers:
they can
detect
differences
between the
temperature inside and outside of your body
Heat is a form ot energy that always flows lrom a
hotter surface to a colder sudace. lf you touch an
object that is warmer than your skin, heat is
transferred from the object to your skin.
Your skin sensors send a message to your braln
thal your skin is receivrng heat. Oependrng on
lhe amount ol heat you receave, your brarn can
delermine whether an obiect is hot or cold.
lf an obiect is colder than your skin, heat is
transterred kom your skin to the object. Your skrn
loses heat, and your brain determines that the
obiect is cold. In other words, whether something
leels cold or hot depends on whether your skin
loses or gains heat.
All materials conduct heat, which means that
molecules bump into each other and transler
heat. But not all materials conduct heat at the
same soeed. Conductors are materials that
conduct heat quickly, and insulators are
materials that conduct heat more slowlv
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