The Pascaline, an early digital calculator invented by Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal was the quintessential Renaissance man. After all, how many people have a computer language, a religious argument, a triangle, a mathematical theorem, a law of physics and a unit of pressure named after them? Here was a man who could not only pose a philosophical wager, but also invent the system for calculating its odds and a digital calculator with which to tally the results.
It is unusual for a prodigy to stray so widely and successfully from their first area of excellence, but, as Pascal put it, “The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of.”
NASA spin-off technologies find their way into our lives in unexpected ways. Shock-absorbing memory squeezed its way into Tempur-Pedic mattresses, football helmet padding, shoe insoles, hospital beds, prosthetics, cars, amusement parks and modern art, while an invention designed to decrease airplane drag made a huge splash in the competitive swimming arena. Find out how as I answer the question…
Why did NASA invent the ribbed swimsuit?
In 2007, astronaut Lisa Nowak thrust NASA “diapers” into the media spotlight when police in Orlando, Fla., charged her with the attempted kidnapping of U.S. Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman. Although the space agency’s absorption garments were soon the butt of late night talk show monologues everywhere, they were also an elegant solution to an unpleasant engineering challenge—so elegant, in fact, that the story of the moonstruck astronaut inspired at least one company to ape NASA’s design.
American inventor Eli Whitney devised innovations that transformed the antebellum North and South. They also set the young nation on the road to civil war.
Motorcycles are not merely part of the iconography of culture. They are also among the many inventions woven into the fabric of history, and they reflect the spirit of freedom and adventure of the historical figures who rode them. How well do you know your motorcycles in history?
