Download
1 / 8
80 likes | 218 Views
Unit 1: Science!. Presented by Dr. Richard Alley The Pennsylvania State University. Unit 1: SCIENCE !. Is a human activity--it isn’t Truth, but it works.
E N D
Unit 1: Science! • Presented by Dr. Richard Alley • The Pennsylvania State University
Unit 1: SCIENCE ! • Is a human activity--it isn’t Truth, but it works. • Is the best way we have to answer many questions (How does something work? How can we use that information to cure disease or find clean water or otherwise help us?) • Science cannot answer many questions (What should we do? Why are we here?)
Scientific Method • Get a new idea (hypothesis; genius); • See if it beats old idea in predicting what will happen (experiment); • If yes (after many tests), use the new idea; if no, still use old one; • Repeat--there’s always more to learn.
Scientific Method (cont.) • Ideas that work better may be True, Close, or Lucky, so science never sure. • Science can prove ideas wrong, but cannot prove them correct; • But, if we act as if science finds truth, we succeed in doing many things; • IF we follow scientific method.
Why National Parks? • US idea, Yellowstone first (1870); • Take a quick visit to Yellowstone, and imagine it as a power plant or cola ad; • Problem: parks for “conservation unimpaired for future generations” but “enjoyment” for this generation; • Doing both is not easy.
Why Geology? • Find valuable things (oil, water; gems); • Avoid hazards (earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides); • Learn how Earth works to keep it and us happy and healthy; • Have fun (Why are the parks so pretty? What were dinosaurs like?).
Some Geological Background… • We WILL cover evidence during this course, but we have to start somewhere); • Earth 4.6 billion years old, pieces from space fell together under gravity; • Heated as it formed (natural radioactivity, and the heat from stopping those falling pieces--think of hot-brake smell after stopping a truck on a steep hill);
More Geological Background • Heating melted Earth and allowed it to separate into layers; • Think of car-bottom clump on a snowy day--ice and rocks and dead-squirrel parts all lumped together, but separate when they melt in garage; • Layers are: iron-rich core, iron-silica mantle, more-silica/less-iron crust (refer to Chemistry Sidebar in text if this seems unfamiliar)
