The Importance of Latin in the Curriculum Essay -- Latin Language Educ

The Importance of Latin in the Curriculum My memories of Latin in high school are less than fond. I remember slouching in my chair, staring blankly at my desk as I tried to remember the form of the word agricola (farmer) in the ablative plural. Much of the class consisted of mundane activities like this. We translated endless Bible passages from Latin, translated what seemed like the entire body of Greek mythological literature, and read hundreds of lines from The Aneid, The Odyssey, and The Iliad. I signed up for Latin because I was considering going into medicine, and I had heard that doctors need to know Latin. As high school progressed, though, a medical career seemed less and less likely so it appeared I had no real use for Latin, except that I knew the meaning of phrases like carpe diem and semper ubi sub ubi (always wear underwear). When someone would ask me why I took Latin, I would either mumble something about how Latin is the foundation on which all modern languages are based, or I would laugh and agree w ith them that it was a waste of my time, and that it’s a dead language. And it is a dead language, at least in spoken form. Regardless of what Dan Quayle thinks, Latin is not the official language of Latin America. Latin has dropped from being the language spoken by almost the entire known Western world to an obscure language known mainly in scholarly circles. After the fall of the Roman Empire to Germanic invaders in 476 AD, Latin began a shift from being the common tongue to a language used mainly by upper-class and learned people (Hammond 243). Because the Church used Latin extensively, it became, along with ancient Greek, â€Å"the sheath in which the sword of the Spirit is lodged,† as Martin Luth... ...s managed to escape from the wrath of the approaching Greek army. Works Cited â€Å"Amo, Amas, Latin – How Schools Are Using the Ancient Tongue to Teach English.† Time 11 December, 2000: 61. Culham, Phyllis, and Edmunds, Lowell, ed. Classics: A Discipline and Profession In Crisis. Lanham: University Press of America, 1989. Davis, Sally. Latin in American Schools: Teaching the Ancient World. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991. Hammond, Mason. Latin: A Historical and Linguistic Handbook. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1976. Kopff, E. Christian. The Devil Knows Latin: Why America Needs the Classical Tradition. Wilmington: ISI Books, 1999. Smith, Sharwood. On Teaching Classics. London, Henley and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977. Waquet, Francoise. Latin Or The Empire Of A Sign. Trans. John Howe. New York: Verso, 2001

Properties of Hydrates Essay

Purpose: The purpose of the â€Å"Properties of Hydrates† lab is to study hydrates, and be able to identify them. This lab also focuses on observing the reversibility of hydration reactions by hydrolysis, and also testing substances for efflorescence of deliquescence. Procedure: A.Identification 1. Place 0.5 grams of each compound (Nickel Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Tetraborate, Sucrose, Calcium Carbonate, and Barium Chloride) in a small dry test tube. 2. Heat gently with a burner flame and observe carefully. If droplets of water appear on the test tube it may be a hydrate. Note the nature and color of the residue. 3. Let the tube cool, and try to dissolve the residue in a few cm3 of water, warming if necessary. A true hydrate will dissolve in water, producing a color similar to that of the original hydrate. A carbohydrate will give off water, but tends to char. The residue will also often be a caramel color. B.Reversibility 1. Gently heat a few crystals of about 0.3 grams of hydrated Cobalt(II) Chloride, CoCl2 x 6H2O in an evaporating dish until the color change appears to be complete 2. Dissolve the residue in the evaporating dish in a few cm3 of water from the wash bottle 3. Heat the residue to a boiling and carefully boil it to dryness. Note any color changes. 4. Put the evaporating dish on the lab bench and let it cool. C.Deliquescence and Efflorescence 1. Place a few crystals of Na2CO3 x 10H2O, CaCl2, KAl(SO4)2 x 12 H20, and CuSO4 in an a separate evaporating dish next to the CoCl2 prepared in part B. 2. To see weather the samples gained or lost mass, weigh each of them on a top-loading balance and record to the nearest hundredth. 3. Weight them again after an hour to detect ANY changes in mass. 4. Observe the samples occasionally. Note any structures in color and structure  and degree of wetness. D. Percent of Water in Hydrate 1. Clean crucible and its cover, and also make sure that crucible tongs are clean. Put over fire, and let cool. 2. Weight the crucible to the nearest thousandth. Handel with tongs 3. Obtain a sample of an unknown hydrate, and place about 1 gram in the crucible. 4. Weight the crucible, cover and sample on the balance. 5. Put the crucible on the clay triangle, with the cover off center to allow water vapor to escape. 6. Heat again, gently at first, and then with the bottom red for about 10 minutes. 7. Center the crucible cover, and let it cool to room temperature. 8. Weight the cooled crucible and with its cover and contents. 9. Examine the solid residue. 10. Add water until the crucible it two thirds full. Warm gently if the residue doesn’t readily dissolve. 11. Does the residue appear to be soluble? Waste Disposal: Dispose of the Copper mixture, and the Aluminum mixture in the correct bowl under the waste hood. All of the acids and bases can be disposed of down the sink. If the compound isn’t water soluble put in the organic container. Chemical Principles in the Laboratory: Experiment 6 Conclusion: The purpose of the Properties of Hydrates lab was to be able to identify if a substance was a hydrate or not. In lab, experiments where conducted to see if a compound was a hydrate or not. In order for the compound to be deemed as a hydrate it had to: 1. Release water upon heating 2. The anhydrous residue had to be water soluble 3. Exhibit reversibility If, and only if the compound showed that it could exhibit all three of these  properties, could it be distinguished a hydrate. In part â€Å"A† of the experiment, Nickel Chloride and Sodium Tetraborate were the only two compounds that were true hydrates. Both of these showed water residue when heating, where soluble in water after heating, and converted back to it original color after performing the first two experiments. Some of the other compounds had positive results for one or two test but not all three. For example, Sucrose, when heated, water residue appeared on the test tube, and was soluble in water, but the compound didn’t show reversibility. In part â€Å"B† of the experiment, CoCl2*6H2O was heated, dissolved, and then heated again to show that it was a true hydrate. When the Cobalt Chloride was heated, it turned from the color of fuchsia pink, to a light blue. And then after being dissolved into water, the compound turned back to its original color of fuchsia pink, demonstrating reversibility. The color change in this compound shows that by adding water to the anhydrous residue, that the same bonds that were broken my dehydrating the compound where reformed when adding water. In part â€Å"C†, four compound, plus the Cobalt Chloride mentioned above were tested for deliquescence, and efflorescence. Only one compound turned about to be efflorescent, which means that it lost water, which was Sodium Carbonate. The compounds mass before sitting out was 50.645g, after being exposed to the conditions of the laboratory for an hour, the sample weight 50.603g losing approximately 0.042g over the period of an hour. The Calcium Chloride (gained 0.258g), Copper Sulfate (gained 0.007g) and Cobalt Chloride (gained 0.068g) where all deliquescent, meaning that again mass while sitting in the laboratory. The Potassium Aluminum sulfate, exhibited stability while sitting out for an hour, neither gaining nor losing mass. For part â€Å"D† of the experiment, the percent of water in the unknown hydrate was %12.290. The closet percent of the given facts of the unknown was Barium chloride (BaCl2*2H2O), which has %14.8 water in it. This percent was found by using the formula below: % water in hydrate=(mass of water in hydrate/mass of the entire hydrate) The wide range of difference between the percent of the given and the unknown could have been due to the fact that there was wood debris in the unknown sample . This could have thrown off the amount of water present in the sample, and messed up the amount of water able to evaporate.

Who Was the Ruler Known as King Porus of Paurava

King Porus of Paurava was an important ruler in the Indian subcontinent during the 4th century BCE. Porus fiercely battled Alexander the Great, and not only survived that battle, but made an honorable peace with him and gained an even larger rule in Punjab in what is today Pakistan. Curiously, his story is written in numerous Greek sources (Plutarch, Arrian, Diodorus, and Ptolemy, among others) but barely mentioned in Indian sources, a fact which leads some historians to wonder about the peaceful ending. Who Was Porus? Porus, also spelled Poros and Puru in Sanskrit, was one of the last members of the dynasty of Puru, a clan known both in India and Iran and said to have originated from Central Asia. The clan families were members of the Parvatiya (mountaineers) mentioned by Greek writers. Porus ruled over the land between the Hydaspes (Jhelum) and the Acesines rivers in the Punjab region and he first appears in Greek sources in connection with Alexander. The Persian Achaemenid ruler Darius III asked Poros for help defending himself against Alexander after his third disastrous loss at Gaugamela and Arbela in 330 BCE. Instead, Dariuss men, sick of losing so many battles, killed him and joined Alexanders forces. Battle of the Hydaspes River Detail of Mosaic Alexander the Great at the Battle of Issus, Pompeii. Getty Images / Leemage/Corbis In June 326 BCE, Alexander decided to leave Bactria and cross the Jhelum River into Poruss realm. Several of Poruss rivals joined Alexander in his imperial move into the continent; but Alexander was held up at riversedge because it was the rainy season and the river was swollen and turbulent. It didnt stop him for long. Word reached Porus that Alexander had found a place to cross; he sent his son to investigate, but the son and his 2,000 men and 120 chariots were destroyed. Porus went to meet Alexander himself, bringing 50,000 men, 3,000 calvaries, 1,000 chariots, and 130 war elephants against Alexanders 31,000 (but the numbers vary widely from source to source). Monsoons proved more of an obstacle to the Indian bowmen (who could not use the muddy ground to gain purchase for their longbows) than to the Macedonians who crossed the swollen Hydaspes on pontoons. Alexanders troops gained the upper hand; even the Indian elephants were said to have stampeded their own troops. Aftermath Chandraguptas footprints. Romana Klee/Flickr According to the Greek reports, the wounded but unbowed King Porus surrendered to Alexander, who made him a satrap (basically a Greek regent) with control over his own kingdom. Alexander continued to advance into India, gaining regions controlled by 15 of Poruss rivals and 5,000 sizable cities and villages. He also founded two cities of Greek soldiers: Nikaia and Boukephala, the last named after his horse Bucephalus, who had died in the battle. Poruss troops helped Alexander crush the Kathaioi, and Porus was given control over much of the area to the east of his old kingdom. Alexanders advance stopped at the kingdom of Magadha, and he left the subcontinent, leaving Porus as the head of the satrapy in Punjab as far east as the Beas and Sutlej rivers. It didnt last long. Porus and his rival Chandragupta led a revolt against the remnants of Greek rule, and Porus himself was assassinated between 321 and 315 BCE. Chandragupta would go on to establish the Great Mauryan Empire. Ancient Writers Ancient writers about Porus and Alexander the Great at the Hydaspes, who were, unfortunately, not contemporaries of Alexander, are: Arrian (probably best, based on the eyewitness account of Ptolemy), Plutarch, Q. Curtius Rufus, Diodorus, and Marcus Junianus Justinus (Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus). Indian scholars such as Buddha Prakash have wondered if the story of Poruss loss and surrender might have been a more equal decision than the Greek sources would have us beliieve. During the battle against Porus, Alexanders men encountered poison on the tusks of the elephants. Military History of Ancient India says the tusks were tipped with poison-coated swords, and Adrienne Mayor identifies the poison as Russells viper venom, as she writes in The Uses of Snake Venom in Antiquity. Porus himself was said to have been killed by physical contact with a poisoned girl. Sources De Beauvoir Priaulx, Osmond. On the Indian Embassy to Augustus. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 17 (1860): 309-21. Print.Garzilli, Enrica. First Greek and Latin Documents on Sahagamana and Some Connected Problems (Part 1). Indo-Iranian Journal 40.3 (1997): 205-43. Print.Prakash, Buddha. Poros. Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 32.1/4 (1951): 198-233. Print.Warraich, Tauqeer Ahmad. First Europeans in Ancient Pakistan and Their Impact on Its Society. Pakistan Vision 15.191-219 (2014). Print.