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Little Big History: Evolution of the Car

Diana C. Reyes

Professor J. Dan May


Big History FYE Sec. 9

4 December 2014
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Have you ever walked 60 miles in one day? Probably not, considering that the average

person would get closer to 20 or 25 miles in a day (only a third of the distance), but we can thank

the invention of the automobile for allowing us to travel those 60 brutal miles in under an hour.

In today's day and age we are surrounded by so much new technology that we may sometimes

forget to appreciate those technological advances that have been around for a longer length of

time. Thanks to cars we are able to go through our day to day lives while saving precious

commuting time. In order to pay tribute to those that help us cruise so leisurely through life, such

as my own 2010 Volkswagen Jetta, I present you with the creation story of Jenna, whose bits and

pieces can be traced back to the beginning of the universe.

The Big Bang marked the start of the universe. All matter was compressed into almost

nothingness, and then about 13.8 billion years ago, everything began to rapidly expand during a

period known as inflation. Matter and energy were released into the universe. Matter is anything

that takes up space therefore having mass, such as a log, and if you were to light that log on fire

it would give off heat, a form of energy. This is due to the conservation of energy, where matter

can not be created or destroyed. It is the cause for the movement of matter. Space and time were

also created here, as everything expanded and time started keeping track of when everything

took place. The first element appeared, hydrogen, and it continues to be the most abundant

element in the universe today, found in all aspects of life. The second most abundant and the

second to appear was helium. After some expanding and cooling came "The Flash", also known

as cosmic background radiation, which released photons which are light particles that also act as

waves, and that sent out the first microwaves as the start of the electromagnetic spectrum. After

this came the dark age, which was simply a long period of time where nothing new occurred.
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The next big thing to happen was marked by the birth of stars. Now this is where most

of the elements that make up our everyday lives started to appear. Dense nebulas of hydrogen

and helium began to form due to the forces of gravity and dark matter, and this led to the fusion

of two hydrogen protons. As their nuclei fused, a bit of their matter was lost and turned into

energy. A lot of energy in fact, which came off in the form of heat and as it got hotter and hotter

a glimmer appeared in the darkness. It was the first star being formed. This continued to happen

until thousands, if not more, stars lit up the universe. The larger stars started out as red giants,

but were hot enough to continue to burn through the heavier elements of the periodic table, all

the way to #26 commonly known as iron. Now these larger stars have so much energy that they

can't cool down, so when their fuel runs out they just collapse on themselves and then rebound,

causing a super nova. Super nova's are important because they are so hot that the amount of

energy released is enough to create the rest of the elements up to uranium, which are then

scattered into the universe. All the elements and the bonds they make are used in everything that

we use today, so lets go back to the example of my car. Jenna is made up of many types of metal

such as aluminum, iron, and even combinations of metals called alloys (steel being a common

alloy, made from iron and nickel) which are generally used for the car's wheels. This means that

Jenna, like her automotive counterparts, was born from the stars.

The following important formation in the universe was the birth of our sun, which was

formed 4.53 billion years ago. The gravitational force played an important part in the formation

of our solar system, because it was responsible for some planetesimals to assume an elliptical

orbit. What occurred was that the elements with the most mass would collect closer to the sun,

and the less dense elements would be pushed out into further orbit. Then the process of accretion,

which is when stellar objects grow in size through collisions with other large objects, led to the
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formation of the planets in our solar system. The heavier, rocky elements became known as the

terrestrial planets which are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars; and the other elements formed the

gas giants known as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Another important thing to know is

that the formation of our Earth took place 4.45 billion years ago. Just like the other terrestrial

planets, Earth's surface is 90% made up of silicates(rock-forming minerals made up of silicon

and oxygen). Another important fact is that Earth's core is made up of liquid iron, which

scientists believe is responsible for the formation of our magnetic field and our atmosphere.

Soon after our planet formed, another celestial body the size of Mars smashed into it, causing the

Earth to tilt on it's axis, a tilt which has had massive influence on our way of life. The pieces of

the celestial body that were left over from the collision eventually fell into orbit around the Earth

and accreted to become our moon, which is now responsible for the ocean's tides. It was during

this era of formation that the elements blasted into space by super novas came to land on and

shape the planet. All the elements that make up Earth, from iron to nickel to copper, will be

harvested in the future and used to build Jenna.

Before Jenna can be built, however, life must first emerge and evolve to be able to use

and make tools. After the first few billions years since Earth's formation, the simplest forms of

life began to emerge (at 3.8 billion years ago). Life is made up of single atoms that joined

together to form molecules, which in turn joined to form cells which then became the first living

organisms. To fill in the gap between life and non-life, there are viruses, which can only spread

their genetic information by injecting it into living cells. Scientists have created a new tree of life

branching from Bacteria, which is made up of single-celled organisms, Archaea, which is also

single-celled life that only exists in the most radical conditions, and Eukaryota, which is mostly

made up of multi-cellular organisms (although a few are single-celled) which have nuclei and
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membrane-bound organelles. Plants and animals emerged from the Eukaryota. The one thing that

all this new life had in common was the ability to use movement in order to get to the necessary

materials to sustain itself. Plants began to develop clever ways to spread their seedlings, and so

the animals that relied on those plants could also expand their territory. How does this tie back to

my car Jenna? Locomotion had already been an important aspect of living things, but it was our

need to cover larger distances in a shorter amount of time that led the car to be an extension of

ourselves.

Darwin's theory of evolution states that all life must have come from some other form of

life, and that we all derive from a common ancestor. Over the course of billions of years, humans

have evolved, almost simultaneously with other creatures, until branching off and evolving into

Homo Sapiens. Hominines split from the last universal common ancestor(LUCA) with

Chimpanzees about 8 million years ago beginning with Australopithecus afarensis. Lucy, as she

is more commonly known, is believed to be the our oldest ancestor after LUCA from which

Homo Sapiens are descended. There seems to be enough evidence to suggest that she walked

bipedally, and by comparing her bones with those of the newer generation of hominine we can

see that the foraman magma had begun to shift slowly to the center of the skull, which directly

correlates to how erect each species walked. It has been agreed upon that Homo erectus, a mere

million years down the line from Lucy, was fully bipedal; and that suggests that migration was

finally an option. Homo erectus spread to many corners of the earth, soon to evolve into Homo

Sapiens, almost anatomically modern humans. The key aspects of this time period are that these

proto-humans were the first to not only use tools, but to manufacture tools out of other tools. The

most important tool they learned to work with was fire, which allowed them to cook their food.

The ability to use fire was a huge step, as a higher caloric intake and more free time led to the
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extra amount of energy that was then used to increase brain size and function. As for Jenna,

putting her together may have been difficult had it not been for the various tools that were

required to build her. It was not until life formed and evolved that humans became capable of

handling and making tools for their survival, which would lead to the formation of new

technology in the future.

Homo sapiens were mainly hunter-gathers for centuries but our ancestors began living in

Agrarian civilizations from 3500 to 2000 BC. As people gained specialized skills through

collective learning, new technologies emerged to facilitate daily jobs. An important innovation of

the time was irrigation, which was used to care for crops. . Agriculture paved the way to

growing civilizations since populations no longer had to move around for their food, and thus

people shifted from a nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle. Because of larger populations, they were

able to specialize and form a more organized society. It was about this time that the wheel was

invented. It would not be for centuries to come until people realized the wheel's true potential.

This wheel is not only used as the basic wheels to make the car go 'round, but it an also be

modified and manipulated to fit other purposes, such as the gears and bolts that are hidden within

Jenna's interior.

As new technology continued to emerge, the wheel would lead to the invention of

carriages, carts, and finally, the automobile. However, before the first car could be invented, the

machinery that provides it with it's very own beating heart, the internal combustion engine,

would have to be invented. The first to process such technology was Christian Huygens, a

physicist, in 1680. His efforts would not prove fruitful until the industrial revolution, where

people gained the knowledge and ability to process fossil fuels. It wasn't until 1859 that a French

engineer designed the gasoline-powered engine. All the rest of Jenna that isn't made from the
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metals and organic materials came from man-made petroleum based products such as plastics

and synthetic materials. This includes the polyester cloth seats, and the knobs all over the

dashboard. Jenna may not be made of the highest grade materials, but I am thankful to have her

just the same.

What will come of Jenna years from now? I can't hold on to her forever, and even if I can

get her to reach 200,000 miles, what will happen to her lifeless body? In the past it has been

customary to simply send cars out to junk yards to live out their days as crushed metal cubes.

However, recently people have been more conscious that much of what cars have left can still be

reused to fix or build newer cars, so for all we know her spunky 2.5 liter engine could be under

the hood of a newer and faster vehicle. There are even experiments for different types of cars

such as electric or hydrogen powered that may be the future of the automobile industry. Or cars

themselves could become an obsolete invention that no one will care to think about 100 years

from now. We do not know, but I do know that I will continue to cherish my Jenna and thank her

for all the memories that she has made possible. She has been the best first car a girl could have

ever dreamed of.


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Works Cited

Hoitt, Andrea. Thinking Small: The Long, Strange Trip of the Volkswagen Beetle. New York:

Ballantine Books, 2012. Internet resource.

Milestones of History: 100 Decisive Events in the History of Mankind. New York: Norton, 1971.

Print.

Sachs, Wolfgang. For the Love of the Automobile: Looking Back into the History of Our

Desires. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Internet resource.

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