physics 1100 – spring 2012 chapter 1 - about science scientific measurements scientific method...
TRANSCRIPT
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
Chapter 1 - About Science
• Scientific Measurements
• Scientific Method
• Scientific Attitude
• Science, Art, and Religion
• Science and Technology
• Physics, THE Basic Science
• In Perspective
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
Scientific Measurements
• Hallmark of a good science• How far back has man been making “scientific measurements”
– Seasons– Sizes– Distances
• Measurements and observations not only allow us to describe, but to predict!– How high will a ball bounce?– What are the rules of the “game”
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
An Historical Example - The size of the EarthEratosthenes ~235 BC(Egypt - noon June 22)
1/50 of a circle & distance is 800Km
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
The size of the MoonAristarchus ~ 240 BC
12,740/3.5 = 3,640Km
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
Distance to the Moon(the early Greeks knew this!)
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
What Is Science?
• Which of the following best describes “science”?
– A compendium of answers
– A set of rules about the natural world
– A methodology
– Exploration, curiosity; a compendium of questions
– Observation, experimentation
• Science has bits of all these (esp. last four)
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
Science is Verifiable by Others
• Embrace Ideas that can be tested
• Science tends to be self-correcting
• Hypothesis, Theory, Laws, Fact,
• Testable Predictions
“No number of experiments can prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong” – A. Einstein
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
Science = A Process for Change!
• Discovery
• Experiment/Observation
• Hypothesis
• Prediction
• Test
• Theory
An ongoing cycle – the “scientific method”
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
What is “Physics”
• An attempt to rationalize the observed Universe in terms of irreducible basic constituents, interacting via basic forces.
– Always look for the simplest explanation
• An evolving set of (sometimes contradictory!) organizing principles, theories, that are subjected to experimental tests.
• This has been going on for a long time.... with considerable success
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
Physicists View of the World of Science
PhysicalReality
OurUniverse
Engineering
Geology
Astronomy
Biology
Chemistry
Abstraction
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
• Attempt to find unifying principles and properties e.g., gravitation:
Kepler’s laws of planetary motion
Falling apples
Universal Gravitation
“Unification” of forces
Physics Goals
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
Many thousands
Many hundreds
Tens
3
An ongoing attempt to deduce the basic building blocks
All the stuff you see around you
Chemical compounds
Elements (Atoms)
e,n,p
Superstrings?
Physics Goals
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
An Evolving World View
• As our understanding grows, theories are supplanted (or subsumed)
Kepler’s laws of planetary motion
Falling apples
Universal Gravitation
General Relativity
Clicker Questions
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
1) The scientific method is most effective in
A) gaining, organizing, and applying new knowledge.B) making theories.C) performing experiments.D) discovering new things.E) making hypotheses.
2) In science, an educated guess is a
A) theory. B) hypothesis. C) both of these
Clicker Questions
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
3) In science, facts
A) mean very little. B) are absolute.C) may change. D) are more important than theories.
4) The synthesis of a large collection of information that contains well-tested and verified hypotheses about certain aspects of the world is known as a scientific
A) hypothesis.B) law or principle.C) theory.D) fact.E) none of these
Clicker Questions
Physics 1100 – Spring 2012
5) Which of the following is a scientific statement?
A) The moon is made of green cheese.B) There are parts of the universe that will never be found by man.C) Matter is filled with undetectable particles.D) There are things we will never know about.E) none of these
6) The statement, "There are regions beneath the Earth's crust that will always be beyond the reach of scientific investigation," is a
A) fact.B) scientific statement.C) speculation.D) theory.E) hypothesis.