Clitoral stimulation.
I can’t imagine anything worse than to be sent back 500 years, with modern lnowledge. You would be denounced as a sorceror, and probably burnt at the stake! I can see it now-you show amedieval navigator how to determine longitude-he would regard you as a magician! And suppose you started blabbing about the sun being the center of the solar system-in NO time, you would have the Inquisition knocking on your door! Suppose you showed a medieval metallurgist how to extract gold-some jelous ruler would have your tongue ripped out 9so you couldn’t give the secret to his rivals).
Scarey stuff, this time travel!
Umm… before I study anything else I have one question: where I’m going is going to be just as important as when, before I know what to study.
In general I’d want to know the predominant language of wherever I’m going. Following that, smithing, with an eye towards simple advances I could suggest that would pay my way. Minie balls, for example. A design for flintlocks, to replace matchlocks. Germ theory, and some of the ‘proofs’ that had been used to convince the bleeders that it was where reality was. Soap manufacture. Navigation techniques - including lattitude and longitude. Just for a few ideas. A copy of the periodic table. Hell, a copy of the Engineer’s Bible. Concrete mixing. All quick, easy things to memorize - and would be so useful. Keeping from being burned at first would be hard, in most places, though.
In 1505 I’d definitely go for anything that would promote cleanliness. A thorough knowledge of Newtonian mechanics. Knowledge of English coal locations. And I’d read up on the reigns of Henry VII and VIII.
It ain’t 21st century knowledge you’d want – it’s basic science and technology and how to build it from the ground up.
I second those who say chemistry and medicine, but I’d add mechanical engineering, too. And even though other people may know some of this technology, if you don’t know it, too, you’re going to be at their mercy. Some stuff you might want to know:
How to make gunpowder
How to work iron and make guns, without which the above is useless. Can you turn pig iron into good cast iron? Can you make steel? If you had to smelt your own iron could you find gabbro? Do you even know what it is?
How to calcine limestone and make whitewash
How to make and work glass
How to make paper
How to make and run a printing press
How to assay minerals (Can you tell real gold from fool’s gold?)
How to distill alcohol. Safely. And efficiently
How to preserve foods using salting, smoking, and canning
How to make and use various solders
Basic first aid and medicine.
Basic sanitary engineering
Basic construction. How would you build a house reliably? Could you build a chimney that would “draw”?
And so on. Youn can’t impress people with 21st century smarts if you look like an idiot in the 16th century.
Ah, but one such prediction that is taken seriously by the Powers that be would/could lead to an alteration of history that would leave the rest of your predictions useless in short order.
Religion (of the area to which I would be sent to) – this is one area where I’d want to make a good impression in order to avoid being burnt up as a witch or a heretic.
Also language, I’d think I’d try to focus on a known, yet uncommon type of language. My thinking here is that if I could realistically pass myself off as a foreign person, I could get away with a lot of faux pas – sort of like the Coneheads “We’re from France” gimmick.
CalMeacham said:
They already knew how to do that in 1505.
Guns were already around. You could, however, introduce the flintlock which was more reliable than the matchlock and simpler than the wheel lock in use at the time.
Knowledge of working iron was common in 1505. You could introduce processes that would allow more reliable and consistent production of steel.
Pretty sure they already knew how to do that.
They knew how to make paper. What they didn’t have was machinery that could produce pulp in great enough quantity to make paper cheap. That’s where you come in.
1450? Guttenberg?
They already knew how.
The French had been distilling from wine since at least 1250. You could work on increasing quantity.
Salting and smoking were ancient and well known. Canning is a great idea if you can design a pressure cooker and teach them how to vulcanize that “rubber” stuff from the New World.
Well known. Tinkers made a living soldering things.
You’re on to something here.
Here too.
Chimneys were invented in the 1100’s. They knew how to build houses already in the 1500’s.
Scumpup, you’re assuming you’re going to Europe, or the Mediterranean, or parts of Asia.
Besides: the formula for gunpowder is so simple, it’s not exactly difficult to remember. (I won’t list it here, but that’s simply because I doubt the mods would want me to do so.)
After all, I don’t think there was much of a firearms industry in the Americas in 1505. 
Similar objections for all your other ‘they already know that’ comments. In most places you could be sent 500 years ago, you’d have to invent ALL that stuff.
Scumpup, y’didn’t read my post carefully enough. I wasn’t saying which things you had to bone up opne that they didn’t know:
So you did. My apologies, CalMeacham.
My immediate thought for this thread was, “First aid and CPR.”
I agree with posters who suggest learning the language, but the OP restricts the advance warning to one day. I can’t learn a new language that quickly; I’ll have to learn it when I arrive.
See, I agree with Scuba_Ben. 24 hours isn’t a lot of time to prepare. I’d be vaccinated against old world diseases, and I’d do something to protect myself from hostiles. Since I can’t fight for shit – I’d promote the widespread use of marijuana and lower people’s aggressions. Just call me Merry Janeseed.
1505… Anywhere will do as long as it’s not the west coast of Africa!
I’d bone up on my mathematics and settle in the intellectual centers of the Arabian world or perhaps China.
Clitoris ( Clitorii?) haven’t moved in 500 years. They aren’t migratory, just elusive to man-kind.
That said and back to the OP, being a female, alone 500 years ago, I think I would have to pass myself off as a a rich widow. so I would have to …heh…bone up on history, language and social order.
I think my late husband was into tobacco and chocolate trade.
On second thought, if I was going back to 1505, I’d probably bone up on the religious mores and customs of the time.
I wouldn’t want to go back and get instantly burnt as a heretic because I didn’t show up to the right mass, etc…
Agricultural techniques applicable to the time; possibly how to make a horse-drawn seed drill, that kind of thing. Whatever can make a “green revolution” possible in the pre-industrial era.
Antiseptics and disinfectants, preferably those that can be synthesised from alcohol; and how to make wood alcohol would be a bonus. Antibiotics is asking too much, and just straightforward antisepsis plus basic sanitation would be a big step up.
The point is that you need both of those previous paragraphs. The second is no real kindness without the first. Disease is a horrible way to die, but it is quick. Starvation is horrible, and it is slow.
You’ve been reading Heinlein’s Friday, haven’t you.
I’d think your best bet isn’t 21st century knowledge, but 19th century knowledge. Let’s face it, much of the stuff we know these days would be worthless in a pre-Industrial society. S.M. Stirling’s Island In The Sea of Time series deals with Nantucket being sent back in time several thousand years. They don’t try to recreate late-twentienth century technology; instead they make their society into something from the late nineteen hundreds, with flashes of earlier and later times (like modern sanitation).
If I were going back 500 years, I would try to brush up on agricultural techniques, modern sanitation, herbalism, weaponry, and maybe a skill or two just modern enough to wow the locals, but that would allow me to lead a comfortable existence without getting burned as a witch.
If I could also take a few things, I’d buy a high-round capacity magazine and gun (in some way that would bypass the waiting period, since I don’t have time), pancake holster, and as much ammo as I could carry. If the locals aren’t fooled by my attempts to pass myself off as an eccentric foreigner, I want a chance to escape. That and a large bottle of ibuprofen.
Muscogee dialect? If I were sent back 500 years, I’d be in the heart of Creek (Muscogee) territory.
Or do we get to pick our geographic spots, too?