Great Courses Understanding Inventions that Changed the World 6 DVDs+Book NEW!!!

Description: The Great Courses: Understanding Inventions that Changed the World 6 DVDs+Book NEW!!! Condition is Brand New sealed with the factory shrinkwrap. No faults at all. This will be packed very carefully and shipped US Media Mail with Tracking. We are happy to combine items to save you money on shipping. For example, we can send you three typical DVDs for the price of 1. Just put your selection in your shopping cart and press the Request Total button (top right) and we will get back to you with the lowest combined shipping price. Remember Media Mail starts at $4.63 for the first pound weight (or fraction), but then only 75 cents for each additional pound (or fraction). And visit our sister store on eBay (GutenburgReads) to see the more than 700 interesting items we are selling. About This Course: The Teaching Company, creators of The Great Courses series of university-level lectures, sells this 36 lecture series with a streaming video and a downloadable PDF file of the course guidebook for $339.95. They also offer the course on 6 DVDs with a 280 page printed guidebook for $469.95. However we have managed to source a rare example of a brand new copy of this course on original, pristine DVDs (all 6 of them) and a brand new printed copy of the Course Guidebook. Of course owning the physical copy of the course materials means you can share the course with your family and friends and, when you no longer need or want the course materials you can sell them (on eBay, for example). And our price for this rare and pristine find? Just $49.95, saving you over $400 for something else. That is worth repeating. You could buy the set of all 6 pristine DVDs with their unblemished DVD tall case, and the new guidebook from us for less than one tenth of that and save over $400 for something else. Course Overview: Were surrounded by inventions. Consider the clocks, appliances, and transportation that coordinate our days. Or the televisions, cell phones, and social media that connect us to each other. And the shopping malls, department stores, and catalogs that define the modern retailing experience. Where did all these inventions come from? How do they work? And how do they reflecteven definethe values of our culture? From prehistoric times to the 21st century, inventions have changed the world, enabling humans to produce more food and energy and to establish social order and cultural meaning. In fact, great inventions have marked a number of key turning points in human history, transforming society and our daily lives. For instance: The invention of clocks redefined our sense of time, life, and labor. Telescopes and microscopes led to the scientific method of observation. Access to clean water has perhaps saved more lives than any other technology in the history of the world. Coal power gave rise to iron and steel, the basic materials of the Industrial Revolution. The integrated circuit opened the floodgates for our world of modern electronics. Now, you can learn the remarkable stories surrounding such monumental inventionsand how consequential these inventions were to historyin Understanding the Inventions That Changed the World. Taught by Professor W. Bernard Carlson of the University of Virginia, who is an expert on the role of innovation in history, these 36 enlightening lectures give you a broad survey of material history, from the ancient pottery wheel to the Internet and social media. Along with recounting the famous inventions you might expect, such as the steam engine, the airplane, and the atomic bomb, this course explores a number of surprising innovations, including beer, pagodas, and the operating room. Youll see how each invention is not only a product of engineering know-how, but a result of social and cultural conditions as well. Youll meet some of the inventors and companies responsible for these innovations, and youll investigate what inspired these ideas. Youll also get an inside look at the sometimes spirited competition between innovators to see who could developand marketthe best, most cost-effective product. From ancient China to 21st-century America, from the English coal mines to the high-tech companies of Silicon Valley, this course takes you around the world and across the ages to show you some of the most innovative moments in human civilization. This unique approach to history will boost your technology literacy and give you a completely new appreciation for the everyday objects around you. Discover the Mechanics of Great Inventions Material form has shaped the course of human history. In many ways, ours is a story of producing moremore calories, more work, more goodswith the same finite resources. Remarkably, while the materials and production techniques have changed over the centuries, from bronze to semiconductors and from the waterwheel to the assembly line, the process of invention remains largely the same. Youll discover some key methods that have informed innovation for thousands of years: Close observation: The great inventors pay attention to details. Close observation allowed ancient metallurgists to develop copper tools and bronze weapons. This same technique allowed 20th-century scientists to develop semiconductors, which are responsible for all of todays electronics. Invention by analogy: Inventors often borrow an existing idea and adapt it to another purpose. For instance, ancient potters created coiled pots modeled on the woven baskets already in existence. Similarly, Thomas Edison dreamed up motion pictures as a visual equivalent of the sound recordings played on a phonograph. Thinking in terms of systems: Inventions dont exist in a vacuum. Edisons incandescent light bulb required a network of wires and generators. Likewise, cable television and cellular telephones require networks of computers, cables, satellites, and devices in order to work. Many inventors you study succeeded because they didn't design one machine but an entire system of coordinated devices. Cultural contact: The story of inventions is the story of cultural contact, from the way merchants developed currencies and alphabets to facilitate trade between different societies, to the 21st-century political revolutions spurred on by social media and the introduction of new ideas into closed societies. Youll compare and contrast how different cultures approach technical problems, and youll see how ideas spread around the globe. Some of the great innovations youll explore are vernacular inventions, meaning they are the product of a group or community rather than a single individual. But with modern inventions in particular, we often know the individual responsible. In addition to studying how invention happens, youll enjoy learning about the personalities of notable figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Prince Henry the Navigator, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, and Grace Hopper. Explore the Turning Points in Human History We often think of history in terms of great eventsthe invasions and battles and rulers of the world. But history is also a result of the interplay between individuals and technology. From bronze armor to the crossbow, and from gunpowder to nuclear weapons, the materials of war have shaped the nature of battle and, often, determined the victor. Professor Carlson gives you an intriguing look at some of the key points in our historical narrative from a wholly unique vantage point: Early civilizations: Ancient humans are often classified as primitive, but in fact their inventions show they were capable of devising and controlling remarkably complex technical processes, such as the smelting of copper from ore and the brewing of beer from grains. The shift into the modern era: From the waterwheel, our first major energy source beyond the muscle power of humans, to Prince Henrys navigation techniques to get ships around the Horn of Africa, youll look at the inventions that moved humans out of the ancient world and into the modern. The Industrial Revolution: Coal, steel, steam engines, and railroadssee how inventors and entrepreneurs used these technologies to increase speed, scale, and coordination, all of which led to dramatic improvements in productivity in the 19th century. The Mass Century: The 20th century brought an unprecedented volume of goods, servicesand threatsto the masses. Examine the inventions that allowed for mass production, mass consumption, mass media, and mass destruction. The Information Age: Its a brave new world, where messages are translated into binary code and transmitted instantly around the globe. Learn about personal computing, the Internet, search engines, and programming that make it possible. In studying these turning points, youll also explore the icons of industry and discover the origins of some of our most recognizable brands, including Ford Motor Company; General Electric; Sears, Roebuck & Co.; Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P); Hoover, Maytag, and Whirlpool; NBC, CBS, and ABC; Proctor & Gamble; Texas Instruments; Intel; Apple; and Google. Youll Never Look at the World the Same Way Again These lectures feature an array of charts, diagrams, and demonstrations that will help you understand the science that underpins the worlds great inventions. Scientists, engineers, and laypeople alike will delight in finding out how all the wheels, gears, engines, and circuits operate, and youll come away with a solid understanding of what it took to create these inventionsboth from an engineering stance and from a sociocultural perspective. Professor Carlson clearly explains the key concepts, from the chemistry of distillation to the physics of electric currents to the principles behind computer programming. A witty storyteller, he packs the course with fascinating nuggets of information you cant get anywhere else. Youll find out where U.S. time zones came from, why Clarence Birdseyes name fills your grocery stores frozen foods aisle, and how 4G cellular signals actually work. A dazzling introduction to the history of technology and innovation, Understanding the Inventions That Changed the World will change the way you see the worldand it will transform the way you think about business, economics, science, technology, and the course of human history. By the way: Welcome to the new ebay storefront for The Shepherd's Center of Winston-Salem. The store will be operated by experienced ebay sellers who have been selling some of our best donations for several years now through their own storefronts. Now we are using these same experienced sellers to sell to you directly. For the philanthropists out there, the vast majority of the items sold by us (Gutenburg Reads and others), are for the benefit of The Shepherd's Center of Greater Winston-Salem, whose mission is to help house-bound seniors live full and independent lives in their own homes. The center provides transportation to medical appointments and grocery shopping, assistance with minor repairs around the house, and companionship through visits. The citizens of Winston-Salem generously donate books, music, movies, and more to us to help us achieve our mission. And now, you can buy useful items from us directly, and you will be helping the less fortunate in our city.

Price: 49.95 USD

Location: Winston-Salem, North Carolina

End Time: 2025-01-14T19:08:00.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5.38 USD