GLG 121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Jeremiah Dixon, Edmond Halley, James Hutton
21 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
The term geology was first used professionally in publications by jean-andre deluc and horace-benedict de saussure: term was not well received until it was used in encyclopedia 1751. Before geologists, there were naturalists : aristotle is regarded as the first geologist. The shape of earth"s orbit (1600s: edmond halley. In 1684 he travelled to cambridge to meet newton when trying to figure out the shape of earth"s orbit: isaac newton. The mass of earth (1700s: charles mason. Mason commissioned maskelyne to test plum bob. Paired with jeremiah dixon to settle a dispute mason-dixon line between md and pa was established because of their agreement: charles hutton. Maskelyne commissioned hutton to help with calculating the mass of earth. Successfully calculated mass of earth at 5000 million million tons. Newton"s guess of earth"s mass 110 years prior was close to correct. James hutton (1726-1797: father of modern geology, founded the oyster club. Apply current events (or trends) to the past.
