Climate and Polar Maritime Air Essay Example for Free

Climate and Polar Maritime Air Essay To what extent is the climate of the British Isles a product of the air masses that affect it? Climate is defined as the weather averaged over a 30 year period, with weather being determined by temperature, humidity, wind and precipitation. The climate in the British Isles is described as cool temperate western maritime climate, although there are regional differences in climate across the British Isles; with average temperatures ranging from -0.2 to 20.9 degrees Celsius. The climate of the British Isles is influenced by the movement of five major air masses. However, it is also influenced by other factors, including its topography, ocean currents, latitude, and weather systems. Firstly, it can be argued that air masses play a large part in the overall climate of the British Isles. Air masses are large bodies of air with reasonably uniform temperature, pressure and humidity throughout. There are five main air masses that influence the climate: tropical maritime(TM), polar maritime (PM), tropical continental (TC), polar continental (PC) and arctic maritime (AM). The direction of the air masses can be seen in the diagram below. Tropical Maritime brings warm moist air from the Atlantic Ocean. This warm air hits areas of high relief in western England and Wales, causing the air to rise, which means clouds form. Areas of high relief in the west of England include Dartmoor and Exmoor. The air is very moist as it is from the ocean, so there is lots of precipitation. This wind is warm, which means that is has a warming affect in the winter, however in the Summer because the land has a lower specific heat capacity, it heats up more than the Atlantic ocean. Therefore it has a cooling affect in summer. Tropical Continental air masses bring hot and dry air in summer. This causes high temperatures with very little precipitation, and is the reason for heat waves in the British Isles. For example the heat wave in July 2013, where temperatures reached 33.5 °C . Polar Maritime air masses bring cold moist winds as they originate from a north westerly direction, over the Atlantic Ocean. This therefore causes very cold wet weather in the British Isles, especially in the westerly parts of the British Isles where there is high relief causing precipitation. Polar Maritime air is dominant over the winter season. Polar Continental air masses originate from high latitudes such as Siberia so therefore bring very cold conditions with them, however as they come from land not ocean, the air masses bring dry conditions. Arctic air  masses originate over the Arctic Ocean where high pressure dominates. The air masses bring extremely cold temperatures, however is only dominant in winter, and sometimes in spring. However this air mass is more likely to affect the climate in Scotland, and northern England, as it has come from a northernly direction. Overall this shows that air masses do play a significant role in the overall climate of the British Isles, however some air masses are more dominant than others in different seasons, and some air masses are dominant in different areas of the British Isles. The climate of the British Isles is also greatly affected by weather systems such as depressions. Mid Latitude depressions are formed over the Atlantic Ocean on the Polar front. They move in an easterly direction across the British Isles. The depressions are low pressure systems that are formed when moist, warm â„ ¢ air meets drier, colder PM air. The warm, moist air is forced upwards, by the colder denser air. The Coriolis effect causes the air to rotate in an anticlockwise direction. The jet stream is also involved as it moves the depression from west to east. The climate associated with depressions is strong winds, clouds and precipitation. However the climate is dependent on which air mass is over the British Isles. Polar maritime air brings average temperatures for the season in winter, around 5 °C-8 °C in January, but cooler temperatures for the summer season, at around 16 °C to 18 °C in July. This air mass also brings lots of precipitation. Tropical maritime air brings humid and mild weather in winter, with temperatures averaging at around 12 °C-14 °C in January. Tropical maritime can also bring thunderstorms , due to the humidity and low pressure. An example of when a depression has greatly affected the British Isles was the Great Storm in 1987. This fast moving depression caused wind speeds of up to 81mph. The British Isles experienced lots of rainfall, and there was even an increase in temperature by 6 °C in places, where the warm front was situated. This shows how depressions can have great impacts on the climate of the British Isles, however this large depression is not common, so does not usually affect the climate. Overall, depressions have a great impact on the climate of the British Isles both in winter and summer, however it can be argued that air masses play an important role in the formation of depressions, so this also shows that air masses indirectly affect the climate. The British  Isles has a latitude between 50 °N and 60 °N. This has a great impact on the climate that it experiences, meaning that the latitude is another factor that will influence the climate of the British Isles. The latitude of an area will affect how much insolation it will receive. This is due to the angle of incidence, which can be see in the diagram below. A larger angle of incidence will mean that the insolation from the sun will only disperse over a small area, whereas a small angle of incidence means the same amount of insolation will be spread over a larger area. At a 30 ° angle, a one wile wide ray of insolation will be dispersed over a two mile radius, whereas an angle of incidence of 90 ° with the same ray of insolation will be dispersed over a one mile radius. Higher latitude have smaller angles of incidence, meaning that they will receive less insolation. Therefore the latitude of the British Isles means that there will be temperate conditions. It is not likely that the British Isles will experience a very hot climate due to the fact that id does not receive enough insolation to heat up the surrounding air and ground. This can be seen if you compare the average yearly temperatures of the British Isles compared to Somalia, which is found at a lower latitude of 2.03 °. The British Isles has an average temperatures ranging from 8.5-11 °C. In contrast Somalia has temperatures around 24-31 °C. This demonstrates how that latitude of an area can greatly impact the temperature, which means it affects the overall climate of the area. This shows that latitude is a factor other than air masses that will impact the climate of the British Isles. Altitude is another factor that influences the climate of the British Isles. On average the air temperature falls by 0.65 °C every 100m rise in altitude. This is due to the fall in pressure as the altitude increases, meaning molecules have less kinetic energy. For example Ben Nevis has a height f 1,344 metres, and has an average annual temperatures of -5 °C, compared to the British Isles which has an average annual temperature of around 8.5-11 °C. This shows that altitude has a direct impact on the temperature of the British Isles, so areas of high altitude in the west of the British Isles, such as Cambrian will have lower temperatures. The altitude of the British Isles will also cause precipitation, as when moist air masses move across areas of high relief, the air masses are forced upwards, where the  cool condense and form clouds. For example in Wales the Cambrian mountains receive over 100mm rainfall per month all year round. This is due to the tropical maritime and polar maritime winds bringing moist air. Overall this shows that altitude can have a large impact on the climate of the British Isles, however air masses are also involved in this, which demonstrates that air masses still play a significant role in the overall climate. Lastly, ocean currents are another factor that have a large impact on the climate of the British Isles. The most significant ocean current is the Gulf Stream, which . Gulf Streams are influenced In conclusion, the climate of the British Isles is a product of air masses so a large extent. Although there are many other factors that also affect the climate, air masses are also involved in these factors, such as the formation of depressions, or the movement of ocean currents. Therefore air masses so also indirectly influence the climate of the British Isles, meaning that they play the most significant role in affecting the climate.

TEMPEST Essay -- essays research papers

The Other in the Tempest In order to understand the characters in a play, we have to be able to distinguish what exactly makes them different. In the case of The Tempest, Caliban, the sub-human slave is governed largely by his senses, making him the animal that he is portrayed to be and Prospero is governed by sound mind, making him human. Caliban responds to nature as his instinct is to follow it. Prospero, on the other hand, follows the art of justifiable rule. Even though it is easy to start assessing The Tempest in view of a colonialist gaze, I have chosen instead to concentrate on viewing Caliban as the monster he is portrayed to be, due to other characters that are not human, but are treated in a more humane fashion than Caliban. Before we meet Caliban, we meet Ariel, Prospero’s trusting spirit. Even though Ariel is not human either, he is treated kindly and lovingly by his master who calls him â€Å"my quaint Ariel.† Caliban, on the other hand, is called a â€Å"tortoise† and a â €Å"poisonous slave† by Prospero. As Caliban enters in Act 1 Scene 2, we realise his fury at both Prospero and Miranda. He is rude and insulting and Prospero replies with threats of torture. Prospero justifies his punishment of Caliban by his anger at the attempted rape of his daughter, something Caliban shows no remorse for. Miranda distinguishes herself from Caliban by calling him â€Å"a thing most brutish† and inadvertently, a thing that has only bad natures. She calls his speech â€Å"gabble,† but doesn’t stop to wonder whether it was she that didn’t understand him because she didn’t know how to speak his language. Surely Caliban communicated verbally with his mother for the twelve years before Prospero killed her? It seems that Prospero and Miranda expect Caliban to be grateful for the knowledge of their language, but Caliban has just learned â€Å"how to curse† and justifies his anger by claiming rights to the island. Even thou gh they obviously detest each other, Prospero needs him, as he tells Miranda: â€Å"We cannot miss him: he does make our fire/Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices/That profit us†¦,† Caliban stays on because he is afraid of Prospero’s â€Å"art†¦of such power,† making Prospero the feared conqueror ad dictator. Prospero is the â€Å"right duke of Milan† and Caliban is the â€Å"savage and deformed slave.† They represent two different extremes on the social spectrum: that of the natural ruler,... ...e will let Stephano rule- showing himself to be naturally ruled, not ruler. At the end of the play, when he recognises that his choice of Stephano as ruler was foolish, it is not mental reasoning that has led him to this conclusion, but the evidence of his senses and experience. Caliban had mid enough to function as part of society, but training him to become part of that society cannot be abstract, like Prospero’s failed attempt at educating him with Miranda – Caliban’s education must be practical and hammered home with his own senses. If the senses represent something natural and the mind represents an art like knowledge or in Prospero’s case, magic, then we can say that Caliban represents Nature and Prospero Art. While the need for control over nature is asserted continually, the ending suggests that art must ultimately come to terms with nature (hence Prospero’s â€Å"this thing of darkness I/Acknowledge mine†); for while Caliban†™s limitations are apparent, his wish to improve himself is promising, and his new relationship with Prospero seems to be more stable and more reassuring than the resentment-filled and extremely uneasy jailer-prisoner/master-slave relationship shown earlier

Part Four Chapter VII

VII It was a bright, balmy morning, and the computing lab at Winterdown Comprehensive became stuffy as lunchtime approached, the dirty windows speckling the dusty monitors with distracting spots of light. Even though there was no Fats or Gaia here to distract him, Andrew Price could not concentrate. He could think of nothing but what he had overheard his parents discussing the previous evening. They had been talking, quite seriously, about moving to Reading, where Ruth's sister and brother-in-law lived. With his ear turned towards the open kitchen door, Andrew had hovered in the tiny dark hall and listened: Simon, it appeared, had been offered a job, or the possibility of a job, by the uncle whom Andrew and Paul barely knew, because Simon disliked him so much. ‘It's less money,' Simon had said. ‘You don't know that. He hasn't said – ‘ ‘Bound to be. And it'll be more expensive all round, living there.' Ruth made a noncommital noise. Scarcely daring to breathe in the hall, Andrew could tell, by the mere fact that his mother was not rushing to agree with Simon, that she wanted to go. Andrew found it impossible to imagine his parents in any house but Hilltop House, or against any backdrop but Pagford. He had taken it for granted that they would remain there for ever. He, Andrew, would leave one day for London, but Simon and Ruth would remain rooted to the hillside like trees, until they died. He had crept back upstairs to his bedroom and stared out of the window at the twinkling lights of Pagford, cupped in the deep black hollow between the hills. He felt as though he had never seen the view before. Somewhere down there, Fats was smoking in his attic room, probably looking at porn on his computer. Gaia was there too, absorbed in the mysterious rites of her gender. It occurred to Andrew that she had been through this; she had been torn away from the place she knew and transplanted. They had something profoundly in common at last; there was almost melancholy pleasure in the idea that, in leaving, he would share something with her. But she had not caused her own displacement. With a squirming unease in his guts, he had picked up his mobile and texted Fats: Si-Pie offered job in Reading. Might take it. Fats had still not responded, and Andrew had not seen him all morning, because they shared none of their classes. He had not seen Fats for the previous two weekends either, because he had been working at the Copper Kettle. Their longest conversation, recently, had concerned Fats' posting about Cubby on the council website. ‘I think Tessa suspects,' Fats had told Andrew casually. ‘She keeps looking at me like she knows.' ‘What're you gonna say?' Andrew had muttered, scared. He knew Fats' desire for glory and credit, and he knew Fats' passion for wielding the truth as a weapon, but he was not sure that his friend understood that his own pivotal role in the activities of the Ghost of Barry Fairbrother must never be revealed. It had never been easy to explain to Fats the reality of having Simon as a father, and, somehow, Fats was becoming more difficult to explain things to. When his IT teacher had passed by out of sight, Andrew looked up Reading on the internet. It was huge compared with Pagford. It had an annual music festival. It was only forty miles from London. He contemplated the train service. Perhaps he would go up to the capital at weekends, the way he currently took the bus to Yarvil. But the whole thing seemed unreal: Pagford was all he had ever known; he still could not imagine his family existing anywhere else. At lunchtime Andrew headed straight out of school, looking for Fats. He lit up a cigarette just out of sight of the grounds, and was delighted to hear, as he was slipping his lighter casually back into his pocket, a female voice that said, ‘Hey'. Gaia and Sukhvinder caught up with him. ‘All right,' he said, blowing smoke away from Gaia's beautiful face. The three of them had something these days that nobody else had. Two weekends' work at the cafe had created a fragile bond between them. They knew Howard's stock phrases, and had endured Maureen's prurient interest in all of their home lives; they had smirked together at her wrinkled knees in the too-short waitress's dress and had exchanged, like traders in a foreign land, small nuggets of personal information. Thus the girls knew that Andrew's father had been sacked; Andrew and Sukhvinder knew that Gaia was working to save for a train ticket back to Hackney; and he and Gaia knew that Sukhvinder's mother hated her working for Howard Mollison. ‘Where's your Fat friend?' she asked, as the three of them fell into step together. ‘Dunno,' said Andrew. ‘Haven't seen him.' ‘No loss,' said Gaia. ‘How many of those do you smoke a day?' ‘Don't count,' said Andrew, elated by her interest. ‘D'you want one?' ‘No,' said Gaia. ‘I don't like smoking.' He wondered instantly whether the dislike extended to kissing people who smoked. Niamh Fairbrother had not complained when he had stuck his tongue into her mouth at the school disco. ‘Doesn't Marco smoke?' asked Sukhvinder. ‘No, he's always in training,' said Gaia. Andrew had become almost inured to the thought of Marco de Luca by now. There were advantages to Gaia being safeguarded, as it were, by an allegiance beyond Pagford. The power of the photographs of them together on her Facebook page had been blunted by his familiarity with them. He did not think it was his own wishful thinking that the messages she and Marco left for each other were becoming less frequent and less friendly. He could not know what was happening by telephone or email, but he was sure that Gaia's air, when he was mentioned, was dispirited. ‘Oh, there he is,' said Gaia. It was not the handsome Marco who had come into view, but Fats Wall, who was talking to Dane Tully outside the newsagent's. Sukhvinder braked, but Gaia grabbed her upper arm. ‘You can walk where you like,' she said, tugging her gently onwards, her flecked green eyes narrowing as they approached the place where Fats and Dane were smoking. ‘All right, Arf,' called Fats, as the three of them came close. ‘Fats,' said Andrew. Trying to head off trouble, especially Fats bullying Sukhvinder in front of Gaia, he asked, ‘Did you get my text?' ‘What text?' said Fats. ‘Oh yeah – that thing about Si? You leaving, then, are you?' It was said with a cavalier indifference that Andrew could only attribute to the presence of Dane Tully. ‘Yeah, maybe,' said Andrew. ‘Where are you going?' asked Gaia. ‘My old man's been offered a job in Reading,' said Andrew. ‘Oh, that's where my dad lives!' said Gaia in surprise. ‘We could hang out when I go and stay. The festival's awesome. D'you wanna get a sandwich, then, Sooks?' Andrew was so stupefied by her voluntary offer to spend time with him, that she had disappeared into the newsagent's before he could gather his wits and agree. For a moment, the dirty bus stop, the newsagent's, even Dane Tully, tattooed and shabby in a T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, seemed to glow with an almost celestial light. ‘Well, I got things to do,' said Fats. Dane sniggered. Before Andrew could say anything or offer to accompany him, he had loped away. Fats was sure that Andrew would be nonplussed and hurt by his cool attitude, and he was glad of it. Fats did not ask himself why he was glad, or why a general desire to cause pain had become his overriding emotion in the last few days. He had lately decided that questioning your own motives was inauthentic; a refinement of his personal philosophy that had made it altogether easier to follow. As he headed into the Fields, Fats thought about what had happened at home the previous evening, when his mother had entered his bedroom for the first time since Cubby had punched him. (‘That message about your father on the Parish Council website,' she had said. ‘I've got to ask you this, Stuart, and I wish – Stuart, did you write it?' It had taken her a few days to summon the courage to accuse him, and he was prepared. ‘No,' he said. Perhaps it would have been more authentic to say yes, but he had preferred not to, and he did not see why he should have to justify himself. ‘You didn't?' she repeated, with no change of tone or expression. ‘No,' he repeated. ‘Because very, very few people know what Dad †¦ what he worries about.' ‘Well, it wasn't me.' ‘The post went up the same evening that Dad and you had the row, and Dad hit – ‘ ‘I've told you, I didn't do it.' ‘You know he's ill, Stuart.' ‘Yeah, so you keep telling me.' ‘I keep telling you because it's true! He can't help it – he's got a serious mental illness that causes him untold distress and misery.' Fats' mobile had beeped, and he had glanced down at a text from Andrew. He read it and experienced an air punch to the midriff: Arf leaving for good. ‘I'm talking to you, Stuart – ‘ ‘I know – what?' ‘All these posts – Simon Price, Parminder, Dad – these are all people you know. If you're behind all this – ‘ ‘I've told you, I'm not.' ‘ – you're causing untold damage. Serious, awful damage, Stuart, to people's lives.' Fats was trying to imagine life without Andrew. They had known each other since they were four. ‘It's not me,' he had said.) Serious, awful damage to people's lives. They had made their lives, Fats thought scornfully as he turned into Foley Road. The victims of the Ghost of Barry Fairbrother were mired in hypocrisy and lies, and they didn't like the exposure. They were stupid bugs running from bright light. They knew nothing about real life. He could see a house ahead that had a bald tyre lying on the grass in front of it. He had a strong suspicion that that was Krystal's, and when he saw the number, he knew he was right. He had never been here before. He would never have agreed to meet her at her home during the lunch hour a couple of weeks ago, but things changed. He had changed. They said that her mother was a prostitute. She was certainly a junkie. Krystal had told him that the house would be empty because her mother would be at Bellchapel Addiction Clinic, receiving her allotted amount of methadone. Fats walked up the garden path without slowing, but with unexpected trepidation. Krystal had been on the watch for him, from her bedroom window. She had closed the doors of every room downstairs, so that all he would see was the hall; she had thrown everything that had spilt into it back into the sitting room and kitchen. The carpet was gritty and burnt in places, and the wallpaper stained, but she could do nothing about that. There had been none of the pine-scented disinfectant left, but she had found some bleach and sloshed that around the kitchen and bathroom, both of them sources of the worst smells in the house. When he knocked, she ran downstairs. They did not have long; Terri would probably be back with Robbie at one. Not long to make a baby. ‘Hiya,' she said, when she opened the door. ‘All right?' said Fats, blowing out smoke through his nostrils. He did not know what he had expected. His first glimpse of the interior of the house was of a grimy bare box. There was no furniture. The closed doors to his left and ahead were strangely ominous. ‘Are we the only ones here?' he asked as he crossed the threshold. ‘Yeah,' said Krystal. ‘We c'n go upstairs. My room.' She led the way. The deeper inside they went, the worse the smell became: mingled bleach and filth. Fats tried not to care. All doors were closed on the landing, except one. Krystal went inside. Fats did not want to be shocked, but there was nothing in the room except a mattress, which was covered with a sheet and a bare duvet, and a small pile of clothes heaped up in a corner. A few pictures ripped from tabloid newspapers were sellotaped to the wall; a mixture of pop stars and celebrities. Krystal had made her collage the previous day, in imitation of the one on Nikki's bedroom wall. Knowing that Fats was coming over, she had wanted to make the room more hospitable. She had drawn the thin curtains. They gave a blueish tinge to daylight. ‘Gimme a fag,' she said. ‘I'm gasping.' He lit it for her. She was more nervous than he had ever seen her; he preferred her cocky and worldly. ‘We ain' got long,' she told him, and with the cigarette in her mouth, she began to strip. ‘Me mum'll be back.' ‘Yeah, at Bellchapel, isn't she?' said Fats, somehow trying to harden Krystal up again in his mind. ‘Yeah,' said Krystal, sitting on the mattress and pulling off her tracksuit bottoms. ‘What if they close it?' asked Fats, taking off his blazer. ‘I heard they're thinking about it.' ‘I dunno,' said Krystal, but she was frightened. Her mother's willpower, fragile and vulnerable as a fledgling chick, could fail at the slightest provocation. She had already stripped to her underwear. Fats was taking off his shoes when he noticed something nestled beside her heaped clothes: a small plastic jewellery box lying open, and curled inside, a familiar watch. ‘Is that my mum's?' he said, in surprise. ‘What?' Krystal panicked. ‘No,' she lied. ‘It was my Nana Cath's. Don't – !' But he had already pulled it out of the box. ‘It is hers,' he said. He recognized the strap. ‘It fuckin' ain't!' She was terrified. She had almost forgotten that she had stolen it, where it had come from. Fats was silent, and she did not like it. The watch in Fats' hand seemed to be both challenging and reproaching him. In quick succession he imagined walking out, slipping it casually into his pocket, or handing it back to Krystal with a shrug. ‘It's mine,' she said. He did not want to be a policeman. He wanted to be lawless. But it took the recollection that the watch had been Cubby's gift to make him hand it back to her and carry on taking off his clothes. Scarlet in the face, Krystal tugged off bra and pants and slipped, naked, beneath the duvet. Fats approached her in his boxer shorts, a wrapped condom in his hand. ‘We don' need that,' said Krystal thickly. ‘I'm takin' the pill now.' ‘Are you?' She moved over on the mattress for him. Fats slid under the duvet. As he pulled off his boxers, he wondered whether she was lying about the pill, like the watch. But he had wanted to try without a condom for a while. ‘Go on,' she whispered, and she tugged the little foil square out of his hand and threw it on top of his blazer, crumpled on the floor. He imagined Krystal pregnant with his child; the faces of Tessa and Cubby when they heard. His kid in the Fields, his flesh and blood. It would be more than Cubby had ever managed. He climbed on top of her; this, he knew, was real life.

Jules Verne His Life and Writings

Jules Verne is frequently called the father of science fiction, and among all writers, only Agatha Christies works have been translated more. Verne wrote numerous plays, essays, books of nonfiction, and short stories, but he was best known for his novels.  Part travelogue, part adventure, part natural history, his novels including  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea  and  Journey to the Center of the Earth  remain popular to this day. The Life of Jules Verne Born in 1828 in Nantes, France, Jules Verne seemed destined to study the law. His father was a successful lawyer, and Verne went to boarding school and later traveled to Paris where he earned his law degree in 1851. Throughout his childhood, however, he was drawn to the stories of nautical adventures and shipwrecks shared by his first teacher and by the sailors who frequented the docks in Nantes. While studying in Paris, Verne befriended the son of the well-known novelist Alexandre Dumas. Through that friendship, Verne was able to get his first play,  The Broken Straws, produced at Dumass theater in 1850. A year later, Verne found employment writing magazine articles that combined his interests in travel, history, and science. One of his first stories, A Voyage in a Balloon (1851), brought together the elements that would make his later novels so successful. Writing, however, was a difficult profession for earning a living. When Verne fell in love with Honorine de Viane Morel, he accepted a brokerage job arranged by her family. The steady income from this work allowed the couple to marry in 1857, and they had one child, Michel, four years later. Vernes literary career would truly take off in the 1860s when he was introduced to the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, a successful businessman who had worked with some of the greatest writers of nineteenth-century France including Victor Hugo, George Sand, and Honorà © de Balzac. When Hetzel read Vernes first novel,  Five Weeks in a Balloon, Verne would get the break that finally allowed him to devote himself to writing.   Hetzel launched a magazine, the  Magazine of Education and Recreation, that would publish Vernes novels serially. Once the final installments ran in the magazine, the novels would be released in book form as part of a collection,  Extraordinary Voyages. This endeavor occupied Verne for the rest of his life, and by the time of his death in 1905, he had written fifty-four novels for the series. The Novels of Jules Verne Jules Verne wrote in many genres, and his publications include over a dozen plays and short stories, numerous essays, and four books of nonfiction. His fame, however, came from his novels. Along with the fifty-four novels Verne published as part of  Extraordinary Voyages  during his lifetime, another eight novels were added to the collection posthumously thanks to the efforts of his son, Michel. Vernes most famous and enduring novels were written in the 1860s and 1870s, at a time when Europeans were still exploring, and in many cases exploiting, new areas of the globe. Vernes typical novel included a cast of men—often including one with brains and one with brawn--who develop a new technology that allows them to journey to exotic and unknown places. Vernes novels take his readers across continents, under the oceans, through the earth, and even into space. Some of Vernes best-known titles include: Five Weeks in a Balloon  (1863):  Ballooning had been around for nearly a century when this novel was published, but the central character, Dr. Fergusson, develops a device that allows him easily to change the altitude of his balloon without relying on ballast so that he can find favorable winds. Fergusson and his companions traverse the African continent in their balloon, encountering extinct animals, cannibals, and savages along the way.Journey to the Center of the Earth  (1864): The characters in Vernes third novel dont actually go to the true center of the earth, but they do travel across all of Europe through a series of underground caverns, lakes, and rivers. The subterranean  world Verne creates is illuminated by glowing green gases, and the adventures encounter everything from pterosaurs to a herd of mastodons to a twelve-foot-tall human.  Journey to the Center of the Earth  is one of Vernes most sensational and least plausible works, but perhaps for those very re asons, it has remained one of his most popular.From the Earth to the Moon  (1865): In his fourth novel, Verne imagines a group of adventurers building a cannon so large that it can shoot a bullet-shaped capsule with three occupants to the moon. Needless to say, the physics of doing this are impossible—the speed of the projectile through the atmosphere would cause it to burn up, and the extreme  g-forces  would be lethal to its occupants. In Vernes fictional world, however, the main characters succeed not in landing on the moon, but in orbiting it. Their stories continue in the novels sequel,  Around the Moon  (1870).Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea  (1870): When Verne wrote his sixth novel, submarines were crude, small, and extremely dangerous. With Captain Nemo and his submarine the Nautilus, Verne imagines a miraculous vehicle capable of circling the globe underwater. This favorite novel of Vernes takes his readers to the deepest parts of the ocean and give s them a glimpse of the strange fauna and flora of the worlds seas. The novel also predicts the globe-circling nuclear submarines of the 20th century.Around the World in Eighty Days  (1873): Whereas most of Vernes novels push science well beyond what was possible in the nineteenth century,  Around the World in Eighty Days  presents a race around the globe that was, in fact, feasible. The completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad, the opening of the Suez Canal, and the development of large, iron-hulled steamships made the journey possible. The novel certainly includes elements of adventure as the travelers rescue a woman from immolation and are pursued by a Scotland Yard detective, but the work is very much a celebration of existing technologies. Jules Vernes Legacy Jules Verne is frequently called the father of science fiction, although that same title has also been applied to H.G. Wells. Wellss writing career, however, began a generation after Verne, and his most famous works appeared in the 1890s:  The Time Machine  (1895),  The Island of Dr. Moreau  (1896),  The Invisible Man  (1897), and  The War of the Worlds  (1898). H. G. Wells, in fact, was sometimes called the English Jules Verne. Verne, however, was certainly not the first writer of science fiction. Edgar Allan Poe wrote several science fiction stories in the 1840s, and Mary Shelleys 1818 novel  Frankenstein  explored the resulting horrors when scientific ambitions go unchecked. Although he wasnt the first writer of science fiction, Verne was one of the most influential. Any contemporary writer of the genre owes at least a partial debt to Verne, and his legacy is readily apparent in the world around us. Vernes influence on popular culture is significant. Many of his novels have been made into movies, television series, radio shows, animated childrens cartoons, computer games, and graphic novels.   The first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, was named after Captain Nemos submarine in  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.  Just a few years after the publication of  Around the World in Eight Days, two women who were inspired by the novel successfully raced around the world. Nellie Bly would win the race against Elizabeth Bisland, completing the journey in 72 days, 6 hours, and 11 minutes. Today, astronauts in the International Space Station circle the globe in 92 minutes. Vernes From the Earth to the Moon  presents Florida as the most logical place to launch a vehicle into space, yet this is 85 years before the first rocket would launch from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Again and again, we find the scientific visions of Verne becoming  realities.