Man has managed to adapt to life in a wide variety of conditions. A variety of its activities can be found where the eternal heat prevails and where there is no heat at all - in the lowlands and high mountains, in the jungle and in the bare desert.
Human Scope
It turns out that more than 56 percent of people live in an area no higher than two hundred meters above sea level. Nevertheless, this area occupies a little more than a quarter of the Earth's land area. A person can live without harm to himself and offspring, not only in high mountain regions, but also in such a terrain that is below sea level. In mountainous countries, people do not feel any troubles associated with height.
In Bolivia, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Peru, Mexico, the height is mainly 1000 meters above sea level. In Tibet, more than twenty settlements are located at an altitude exceeding five thousand meters. Peru has the highest mountain village in the world, where people live at an altitude of 5200 meters. And in Mexico, near the crater of the Popocamepetl volcano, at an altitude of 5420 meters, workers who mined sulfur lived for a long time. At this height, without oxygen devices, except for them, no one has ever worked for a long time.
Under the sea and in the Far North
Forty percent of the Dutch, about 5 million people, live and work literally on the bottom of the sea, previously drained. Two-fifths of the territory of their small densely populated country lies below sea level. All this land is conquered from the sea. Sometimes the sea destroys the fence and tries to return the territory taken from him. But people do not give up: having strengthened the dams, they force the sea to recede and again sow bread on the conquered fertile land, plant gardens and vegetable gardens. Thanks to the achievements of science and technology, mankind has the opportunity to populate places where it could not live before.
The diversity of human activity has spread even to the Far North. This area is successfully populated by people, a person does not go there to live because he became crowded in the lower latitudes. The far North hides in its bowels countless riches - ore of various metals, oil, gas.
In the distant Siberian Arctic, where previously settled life was not even conceived, where, due to permafrost, it was impossible to build a single structure, a large city was built - Norilsk. Many-story modern houses were built there, they outwitted permafrost, and the residents of Norilsk enjoy all the benefits available to the modern city dweller.
Science believes that now on the planet there are no places where a person could not live if he needed it. In high school at a social studies lesson in grade 10, the diversity of activities is revealed as a way of people's existence.
How did human activity begin?
Man differs from all other biological creatures that inhabit our planet in that he has a variety of activities that includes various aspects of human interaction with the world. This is a form of human activity, which is aimed at changing the world around us, including ourselves. At the beginning of its development, mankind adapted to climatic and geographical conditions in order to survive.
In those days, the drying up of a river or flooding by rivers of fields could significantly affect the life of a particular settlement, the nature and types of its economic activity. It took a lot of time and effort in order to subordinate nature to their needs. People built all kinds of irrigation systems, canals, dams. Man has learned to control the natural elements. The directed diversity of human activity began with the manufacture of tools. Only humans can influence the environment through the means they have created.
First activity
The history of human activity dates back to primitive times from the very first implements of labor. Our ancestors had stone axes a quarter of a million years ago. Knives made of metal began to be used about 8 thousand years ago. The oldest nails were made of copper in the Middle East and date back to around 3,500 BC.
Already 5-6 thousand years ago, the first potter’s circles were invented - large tables that were rotated by the assistant potter, while the potter himself gave the clay a form. Later, the potter’s wheels were equipped with a hand wheel and pedal, rotating the table quickly and evenly.
The development of science and technology
Man is a rational and curious creature. With the help of his observation and logic, man took all the variety of forms of activity from nature, observing birds and animals, studying natural phenomena. A robot is a computer-controlled human-machine fantasy of science fiction writers.
Nevertheless, robots as programmed machines that can adapt to new situations have existed since 1913, when the American Sperry developed an autopilot for airplanes that maintains a constant course and independently corrects deviations of the aircraft from the route.
In 1940, a robot arm was invented in the United States, which could perform all kinds of manipulations with radioactive substances. Since 1970, there are industrial robots that perform assembly, welding, varnishing at automobile enterprises. It is now impossible to imagine industrial production without robots that have literally infiltrated any industry.
The industrial revolution in the 17-19th centuries, when manual labor was replaced by a machine, changed labor in agriculture. Improving the tools allowed to produce significantly more food. The first modern sevalka was designed in 1701 by the Englishman Jethro Tall, in this design elements of a musical organ were used, including a pedal.
The first serial tractors were designed by Henry Ford in 1916. About 5 thousand years ago, people first mixed copper and tin and received a new metal - bronze. He played such an important role in the development of science and technology that a whole historical period was called in his honor - the Bronze Age.
A little later, about 3.5 thousand years ago, during the Iron Age, people first melted iron ore into iron. At that time, who owned iron, he owned the world, because for the manufacture of weapons and military equipment this metal was more suitable than bronze. Then, cast iron was made in Europe in 1400, and the first stainless steel appeared in 1913, when the Englishman mixed steel with chrome.
Vehicles in the sky, on water and on land
Vivid examples of the diversity of activities are various vehicles created by man. Long before the use of electromotive force began, engineers dreamed of sailing on a ship under water. The Dutchman van Drebbel in 1620 designed a submarine rowing boat with sealed openings for oars. This boat looked like a barrel with fins.
In 1801, an American Robert Fulton built a submarine that could move under water for many hours, and the first nuclear submarine was launched in 1955. The first gas-powered cars were designed by the Germans Benz and Daimler, which had the appearance of carriages, in which the horses were replaced by a built-in engine. The French Tanhar and Levassor invented a car that more closely resembles a modern one.
The first steam locomotive was invented in 1800 by the Englishman Trevitik, and only after a quarter of a century the first passenger train began to run between English cities. In 1981, the era of high-speed trains began in Europe. It was then that between Paris and Lyon at a speed of 260 kilometers per hour the first bullet train began to walk. In 1903, the famous Wright brothers made their first flight on an airplane with a motor, covering a distance of 260 meters. Since that time, the era of aviation began.
The first jet aircraft with two jet engines was built in 1939 by German engineer von Ohain. As early as 1000 years ago, the Chinese had rockets that were used as military weapons. In 1932, in the war with the Mongols, they used arrows equipped with missiles. The first modern rockets, the predecessors of space rockets, were used as artillery weapons in England. Today's space shuttles conquer the vastness of the universe, expanding the knowledge of mankind.
Computer and Internet
We are surprised every time we see the diversity of human activities and are aware of how quickly and widely computers have spread their influence over all areas of our lives - production, life and leisure. The very first computing machine can be considered the ancient Greek abacus. Mechanical machines for computing were built in the 17th century by Pascal and Leibniz.
And the first computer was built in the USA in 1946. Personal computers appeared in 1976, and the Internet began to conquer the world in 1980.
Art and music
Man has perfected not only scientific knowledge, surrounding himself with a technically comfortable existence. Spiritual development plays a crucial role in human interaction with the outside world. It is difficult to imagine the modern world without music, art, literature, theater or cinema.
They open to us an immense world of beauty, fill the soul with a healing balm, the meaning of being, inspire new victories and make us forget about the problems surrounding us. Without this, the human world would be gray and joyless, and the man himself would become like a robot.
Space conquest
Even 500 years ago, our ancestors believed that the Earth is a flat disk located in the center of the universe. Since then, astronomy has not only changed our ideas about our home planet, but also presented a completely different picture of the universe. Today's space shuttles conquer the vastness of the universe, expanding the knowledge of mankind.
Amazing data was obtained. Mankind has something to be proud of and admire, because the diversity of activity has received a new, opened perspective - the conquest of space.
Despite the diversity of human activity, all the benefits of civilization and technological achievements, we remain part of nature, we live by its grace. From time to time, nature reminds us of this to humanity, which is sometimes forgotten in its desire for progress.
The preservation of the irreplaceable resources of nature, its pristine beauty and uniqueness should be the task of all mankind, because we are all also part of nature, we live inside, obey its laws and cannot exist without it.