ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


History of Technology Videos 160 videos

History of Technology 1: Windmills
283 Views

What's the deal with wind? And why does it have to be so...windy?

History of Technology 2: Wheels
213 Views

How did people move stuff around before the wheel was invented? More importantly, why didn't they take a break for a few minutes from moving stuff...

See All

History of Technology 1: Early Humans and Energy 162 Views


Share It!


Description:

This lesson is surprisingly not going to be about early human's addiction to Starbucks and Red Bull. Hit play to find out more about early humans and energy. 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:01

No Ever help the buddy move into a new apartment

00:05

on the fourth floor Well it's hard sway work But

00:07

is it possible Of course the human body could do

00:10

amazing things even if it isn't worth a cold Pizza

00:13

are friends Give us in Thanks Now imagine a world

00:15

where all work was the hard sweaty type and thankyou

00:19

Pizzas were nowhere to be found Food stuff of nightmares

00:22

right Well not really Back in the hunter gatherer and

00:25

early agricultural areas fire and muscles where are on ly

00:29

sources of energy Back then they didn't even have elevators

00:32

but on the bright side there weren't really any floors

00:35

either to worry about Well from about two point six

00:37

million bc until about ten thousand b c e almost

00:41

every task required human effort But keep in mind there

00:44

was no internet back then which meant no cat videos

00:47

to be distracted by So we still accomplished plenty of

00:50

things In that time period we migrated out of africa

00:53

and around the world developed languages transitioned toe agriculture built

00:57

the first urban spaces and stop getting eaten by hyenas

01:01

all the time Last one was kind of a big

01:03

deal But it was all based on the energy we

01:05

got from food Early humans a lot of fruits nuts

01:08

and pieces of dead animals They found laying around the

01:12

breakfast of champions there Right Well we got a little

01:15

energy from fire to get way back then Chemical and

01:19

thermal energy where the on ly stops in town Right

01:22

from the beginning though human beings were trying to escape

01:25

the limitations of their paltry energy sources After plenty of

01:29

experimentation and more than a few smashed fingers people figured

01:32

out how to make tools out of stone and tools

01:35

like people who use their energy way more efficiently Why

01:38

shred an animal with our fingernails when we can use

01:40

a sharp rock right Well both options are gross but

01:43

fingernails would take forever and ever to clean well before

01:47

we go feeling too bad for those poor paleolithic people

01:50

in their lumps of rock let's talk more about fire

01:53

cave people couldn't use fire to power stolen refrigerators or

01:56

tvs or anything but it doesn't mean it was useless

02:00

At some point between eight hundred thousand and two hundred

02:03

thousand Years ago human beings mastered the art of building

02:06

A fire which is impressive right Ever tried building a

02:09

fire without any tools Yeah thanks Don't try those survival

02:13

shows If it came down to it we freeze to

02:15

death huddled over a pile of damp tweaks Anyway trees

02:19

spend their whole lives transforming sunshine into wood when we

02:23

burn That would were basically releasing a few dozen years

02:26

or maybe even centuries of stored sunlight As thermal energy

02:31

may think of fire today is something nice and cozy

02:33

that lets us roast marshmallows to the first level of

02:36

roundness But for early humans fire meant a lot more

02:40

They also roasted little wieners Aside from that one of

02:43

the major uses of fire was light A light source

02:46

at night prolonged work hours and kept predators away Remember

02:50

the giant hyenas They were real Oh fire was also

02:53

great is a heat source early humans wouldn't have made

02:56

it through one harsh winter without fire And even with

02:59

fired christmas in the alps couldn't have been fun though

03:02

it does sound like a festive lifetime original movie Well

03:05

early agriculture also benefited from fire Needs some farmland No

03:10

worries Just burn down the forest Well fire could clear

03:13

Unwanted undergrowth let food plants grow and replenish the soils

03:17

with ash While these techniques are currently being used to

03:20

destroy vast swaths of the amazon rainforest but way back

03:25

in the day it seemed like there was plenty of

03:26

force to go around Remember that old oprah thing about

03:29

giving away the cars You know you get some rain

03:31

forest and you get some rain forest hindsight's twenty five

03:35

Anyway fire was also helpful in creating tools Our early

03:39

ancestors eventually unlock new skill levels and learned how to

03:43

use fire to harden the points of their wooden tools

03:47

And last but not least fire was used for cooking

03:51

It expanded the possible range of foods that human beings

03:54

could eat well Tough plans and raw meat became a

03:57

lot more edible after they were cooked And best of

04:00

all it became less likely that eating old raw namath

04:03

would lead Teo you know somebody keeling over mammoth food 00:04:07.508 --> [endTime] poisoning Really

Related Videos

GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government
39794 Views

GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government

Fake News
11938 Views

How do you tell fake news from real news?

Jane Eyre Summary
123033 Views

When you're about to marry the love of your life, not many things could stop you. However, finding out that your future hubby is keeping his crazy...

What is Shmoop?
91411 Views

Here at Shmoop, we work for kids, not just the bottom line. Founded by David Siminoff and his wife Ellen Siminoff, Shmoop was originally conceived...

ACT Math 4.5 Elementary Algebra
492 Views

ACT Math: Elementary Algebra Drill 4, Problem 5. What is the solution to the problem shown?