Last week we talked about Celtic or Gaelic, which is probably the oldest surviving language in Britain. It was eventually largely displaced by Teutonic, or Germanic. This was the predominant language of Shakespeare’s time, with Gaelic surviving in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Southwest England. Here’s a simplified indication of how…
Archive: October 2022
How did English get to England? (1) Celtic (Gaelic)
Probably the oldest surviving language in Britain is Gaelic which is a branch of Celtic. Celtic was widely spoken in Western Europe including Britain, France, Poland, Austria, Germany and Czechoslovaki. The maps are only indicative, but the one below gives an indication of where the Celts lived originally. The…
Why is the sky blue and the sunset red?
Light acts as a flow of particles called photons, but it also acts as a wave. And it is the wave nature of light that determines colour. Red is low frequency (it has a long wavelength, the distance between peaks)- While blue is high frequency (it has a short…
The thermometer and the barometer
The simple thermometer – for measuring temperature. As liquids heat up, they expand. This property is used in simple thermometers. The bulb contains most of the mercury (or alcohol) and the tube heading north is actually very thin and holds only a little of the liquid. As the temperature…