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[–] 25 points 3 years ago (5 children)

If you paid attention in high school you could bring mathematics up to about the 17th century, if you really paid attention you could even grab some stuff from the 20th (wtf vectors why did you take so long to figure out?) and the 19th.

Plus there is just so much basic stuff you know. Used boiled and sealed water to clean a wound. Bleeding a person only makes them feel good for a bit and does nothing else. Steel in cement makes cement better. Or in the case of this picture zinc and copper and lemon.

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  • [–] 30 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    anything about sanitary practices faces a massive barrier of getting people to accept and implement it. I could tell ancient doctors to wash their hands, but the first time someone tried that in actual history they laughed in his face.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago

    Monarchs cares about power. Give the ruler some more metallurgy or siege engines first, so you have their favour. Then split the Royal Court's physicians into two groups, one that washes their hands, and one that doesn't. Do the same for leeches, bloodletting, hydration, etc. It'll be hard to argue with the resulting death rates. And in the long run, you'll have a much bigger impact by introducing empricism/A-B testing/evidence-based medicine than any one thing specific thing you could have done.

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  • [–] 25 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    That's assuming you don't either kill them all off with your 21st century germs and/or be killed because the church doesn't like you.

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  • [–] 22 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Yes, most of my plans for myself run on the unspoken assumption that I am not dead.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago

    I scoff at your suggestion! We must compulsively dissect those unspoken assumptions. This is the internet, you see, where the most brilliant of minds gather to squabble about peripheral details so that no fun can ever be had. Yuck having fun!

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago* (1 child)

    Steel, like the strong metal for weapons? You want how much of it, and throw it where? And what's a "lemon"?

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  • [–] -1 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    They had citrus fruits. It wasn't a mind bending concept.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago*

    Depends on where and when you'd go.

    They had "citrons" since 4000 BC or more, which came in many different shapes, some with no pulp and no acidity, which wouldn't work for making electricity. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citron

    Lemons were introduced in Europe around 200 AD, and were pretty rare and expensive.

    If you went to biblical times and asked for a lemon, they'd likely not know what you meant, then maybe gave you a citron, which could be of the low acidity kind, then beat you up for being a liar.

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