Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla, a man born in the wrong century

Stefan Djuric

0.1 When did this person live and die?

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 and later passed away on January 7, 1943, living through the automobile age.

0.2 Where were they born, where did they work?

Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia while the Austrian empire inhabited it. He was a Serb at heart, and his father was a Serbian Orthodox Priest. He was innovative from the start and had yearned to become an American Citizen, which was a popular dream at the time. He became a citizen and worked in the United States, even though he did not stay in one place for very long.

1.2 What did they accomplish in their field?

Tesla was known throughout the world as a very innovative person, inventor, physicist, and engineer. He was also sometimes given the title “mad scientist” when he made claims about various undeveloped ideas that had people amazed. He discovered many new technologies and has been called the “father of the 20^th century.” He began work in the states by creating his alternating current induction motor. He also started work on one of his most amazing works, the Tesla coil. He also made great discoveries about X-rays and how to make them utilizing his coil. Electronic transmission without wires was also one of his dreams that he would give the world. Resonant frequencies almost got him into trouble as he found the frequency of the buildings surrounding his New York City apartment. They began to shake and the police got involved. He was unaware that his neighboring buildings were shaking, so he continued until he found the frequency of his own building, and after realizing the danger that the machine had, he was forced to terminate the experiment by use of his hammer.

1.3 What did other scientists think of them during their lifetime?

Tesla was seen as a crazy, bright man with fresh ideas. His biggest rival was Edison, who is probably the biggest reason that Tesla is not famous in the US as ahead of his time. Tesla was really a man that was ahead of his time, and Edison could not compare with him. They had a famous battle in which Edison supported direct current, and Tesla supported and designed the modern ways in which we use electronics today, with alternating current. Alternating current is way more powerful and efficient when compared with direct current. They continued to challenge each other throughout their careers.

2.1 What challenges did they overcome in their personal lives?

Nikola was the fourth of five children, which in turn caused him to strive to be better than his siblings. He also could not focus in school and stopped going to lectures at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz. While he spent time in Slovenia, he started to be the victim of a nervous breakdown. He was mentally unstable at times, probably a result of his genius/brilliance. He was also experiencing hallucinations, which made people, think less and less of him.

2.4 What kind of love life did this person have?

Tesla never ended up marrying or really having time for a woman in his life. He was focused on his work and new upcoming ideas a lot more than the feel of a woman. That fact might also play a part in his inevitable insanity and hallucinations.

3.3 What were some of the biggest issues people were worried about at that time?

The early 1900’s were a boring and depressing time. The rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor. If one had a job, they would probably have that job their whole life. There weren’t many major issues at the time.

3.4 What was this person’s standing in society and reputation during his/her lifetime?

He was a persuasive person that could get people to believe in him. He was able to follow his ideas with wealthy investors money and support. He had a reputation for being crazy, and for having wacky new ideas. He invented the new era of technology and people at the time really didn’t know that what he was doing was really completely changing the future and the technology of modern times.

4.1 Did this person’s work influence their family life, or vice versa?

After Tesla’s father passed away, he lost all contact with his family. He cared more for his work than his family. He was always preoccupied with a new idea or plan that took all of his time. He probably wouldn’t have bothered to visit them anyway.

4.2 Did this person’s work influence their love life, or vice versa?

Tesla’s work was his only love. He loved expanding his genius mind more than he could love any woman. He might have had health problems as a result of the lack of a companion. He really never considered a spouse.

Journal 5/16

1. We have learned that magnets have a positive and negative side to them that either attract or repel. So if something is a magnet than it should attract an opposite charge and repel a like charge. We could use the tape from the desks and get 2 pieces with opposite charges and see what the rod does when placed near the tape.

2. If gretchen's idea is right than it will repel one piece and attract the other piece of tape.

3. The rod attracts both pieces of tape.

4. She is wrong because the rod is attracted to both a positive and negatively charged object.

Journal 5/02

- A pin has a dull end and a sharp end because the dull end has a larger surface area so it won't have as much pressure on your finger so you can push harder and the harder you push, the more pressure is on the sharper point that has a lot more pressure with the much smaller surface area.

- A tank has such large treads because of the weight of the tank, it is very difficult for it to be maneuvered around. The large treads have a large area in contact with the ground so therfore less pressure which makes it easier for the tank to move and take turns. The weight of the tank is spread out over so much area that it wont indent the ground as much as if it had 4 normal wheels.

- People sleep on mattresses because the mattress conforms to your body and therefore has way more contact with your body verses the flat floor. All the pressure of your bodyweight is distributed over most of your body when on a mattress, while on the floor all the pressure goes to the areas only in contact and the floor has much less area in contact.

Journal 4/25

Matter is made up of tiny particles and they are constantly moving because like we did in class, they disperse randomly. When we sprayed a fragrant from a single point, people then smelled it from different positions in the room showing that the particles move randomly and are always moving.

I know that air is made up of moving particles because it is everywhere and will always move randomly. Also it has empty space in between the particles because if not, then the fragrant would not have anyplace to go and the alcohol would not go into the empty space either.

Liquids have less empty space between particles because of the fact that things disperse very different in water and in the air. Air carries things quicker than in water because of the more empty space in between particles.

The particles move faster when warm because they expand and create more empty space allowing the particles to move faster and the opposite for cold particles.

Journal 3/28

There is elastic potential energy in the spring that is compressed against the car.

In the final state there is kinetic energy in the car, and spring, and there is internal energy in the car as all of the energy exchanged was not perfectly changed.

There is no work done on the system as there is nothing outside the system that alters the amount of work it can do.

The amount of energy never changes, it is only converted to another kind of energy.

Journal 3/14

A small object can have a large momentum as long as the speed is very high. A bullet is very light but has a lot of momentum because of the enormous speed when shot out of a gun. However if you merely toss the bullet by hand, the momentum is very small when compared with the shot bullet.

A heavy object can have a small momentum but the heavier the object gets the greater the momentum. A very heavy object will still have more momentum than something light moving at the same speed but the heavy object will be much harder to move. So yes, a large object can indeed have a small momentum. If a 200lb block is moving at 0.0005m/s it has a very small momentum when compared with a bullet that weighs .5lb moving at 200m/s.

The mini cooper would have to be moving faster to have the same momentum. The cadillac would have to be slower because of the fact that momentum equals mass x velocity. The cadillac has a larger mass so the velocity would have to be slower than the mini cooper to have the same momentum. If the mini weighed in at 1500lbs and was moving 2m/s, the momentum would be equal to the 3000lb cadillac only when it is moving at a velocity of 1m/s. So therefore if we witnessed the cars with the same momentum, the mini would be moving faster than the cadillac.

Journal 3/07

Some goals that i have are to become self-sufficient and to make enough money to support my family and my parents. Education will help me reach those goals by allowing me to get a good job. They gave to prepare me for the skills necessary to do well in my field.

I expect to be in college still learning about design and mechanical engineering. I will rely on school to keep me focused and to prep me for a job. I will probably care more about school than ever before.

In ten years i expect to be employed and on my way to success. I hope to have a good job designing something for some company somewhere. I hope to live my job and have fun doing it. I want to be able to say that I love my job and actually make me eager to work.

In 20 years i hope to have some good money saved to help support my family and to give back to my parents for all their help. I hope to live in europe as i cannot really be happy in the US.

I would send the message that family is the most important thing in life and to never lose sight of that.