preview

How Did Socrates Use Solar Power?

Decent Essays

The use of solar goes back to the time of the ancient greeks. In fact, many other tribes of that era used solar to dry clothes, crops and food. In the Ruins of Ninevah in ancient Assyria, burning glasses like magnifying lenses were found, these were used to start a fire by concentrating light from the sun into a beam. In addition, the ancient greeks lived in homes made of adobe, a brick made from sun- dried earth and straw. Adobe absorbs and stores the sun's heat during the day, to keep the home cool. Then at night, the adobe, releases the heat to warm the house. The Anasazi Indians used solar power to heat their homes by building them to face south where the sun rose so their home would be warm in the morning and cool in the afternoon. Yet they were not the first to discover this, In fact, …show more content…

The ancient romans and chinese also designed and placed home based on these principles of heating and cooling, but Socrates was the first to discover this. He noted that the sun is high in the sky in the summer so he stated that the awnings or other structures of a home could be constructed to allow winter sunshine but block out the sun in the summer. Socrates inspired Vitruvius, the creator of the bathhouses in ancient greece to design them is a similar passive heating design. The bathhouses were placed so that it would have passive solar heating and be warmed in the late afternoon especially in the winter. In addition, black tiles were used to make designs so that the sun would heat them, and once the water was poured over the tiles it would become warmed. An early 19th century invention inspired by these early geniuses that’s still used today is the green house. Not only does it make it possible to grow plants in the winter, but it also uses solar power to gather the sun's energy to help plants grow and capture light energy and retain heat while holding in humidity used to water the

Get Access