Concept Summary Batesville High School Physics

1. About Science Concept Summary Batesville High School Physics

2. Natural Philosophy • Socrates, Plato, Aristotle • Were the “authorities” in Western thought from about 500 BCE to 1600 AD • Believed that there was a perfect world, but this world isn’t it

3. Natural Philosophy • Aristotle’s “perfect world” was accessible only through thought and contemplation. • Observation or experiment on this dirty, nasty imperfect world was useless in understanding “timeless truth.”

4. Beginnings of Science • Science, as we know it, evolved from “natural philosophy” (literally “thinking about nature”) starting about the year 1600 due to the work of Galileo, Bacon, and many others.

5. Scientific Progress • In the last 400 years, scientists have made incredible strides in their efforts to understand our universe (although there is still much to know). • Scientific progress has brought about technological progress that Galileo could not have imagined.

6. Scientific Methods • The progress of science has not been due to adherence to a simple-minded step-by-step process, as many elementary texts would have you believe.

7. Scientific Methods • To quote our text (p. 2): • “The success of science has more to do with an attitude common to scientists than with a particular method. This attitude is one of inquiry, experimentation, and humility before the facts.”

8. Scientific Methods • Something to keep in mind: • Since science is such a huge and complex enterprise with no central governing body, just about any generalization about science and scientific methods is not going to be strictly true. • Many people naively expect certainty and absolute truth from science - science doesn’t have any of that.

9. Science Terminology • We need a common science vocabulary in order to communicate effectively with one another. • Keep in mind that the scientific meaning of a word is often different than its everyday meaning.

10. Observation • An observation is something you notice. • May be casual or even accidental • May be formal - experimental data are observations. • Not all observations are correct - people make mistakes.

11. Scientific Observations • The primary way we have to tell if an observation is correct is to repeat it, and have other competent people repeat it. • Therefore, scientific observations must be repeatable. • Non-repeatable observations are called “anecdotal evidence”.

12. Scientific Facts • An observation that many competent observers agree is correct is a fact. • All scientific facts are not correct - people make mistakes.

13. Facts are NOT Immortal • If furtherobservations show that a fact is not correct, it must be replaced. • This often happens when new technology becomes available to make observations that could not be made before.

14. Aren’t Facts True? • Often people naively assume that “facts” must be absolutely true - but how can we know this? • Facts are true to the best of our current ability to tell - but that is all we can really say about them.

15. Conclusions • A conclusion is a decision based on observations, facts, or experimental data.

16. Scientific Laws • A scientific law is a powerful summary of many facts. • Laws describe what happens, they don’t generally explain why they happen. • Laws can often be expressed very conveniently and concisely in mathematical form.

17. Hypotheses • A hypothesis is an educated guess about why something happens. • A scientific hypothesis must be testable by observation - there must be observations that we can make to tell whether the hypothesis is correct or not. • A hypothesis that is not testable is called “speculation”.

18. “Falsifiability” • An experimental test that could show that a hypothesis is wrong (if it’s wrong) is a much more useful test than a test that can only confirm the hypothesis. • Some scientists insist that scientific hypotheses have such tests - they must be “falsifiable”.

19. Scientific Theories • As experimental evidence (observations) accumulates, we can become more confident that a hypothesis is true. • A theory is a synthesis (powerful combination) of well-tested hypotheses.

20. Theory • Scientific theories tend to explain why scientific laws operate the way they do - theories are often called “models”. • Physical theories tend to be highly mathematical in nature.

21. Theory • The word “theory” is probably the most misused science term - certainly by laymen, but even by scientists!

22. The Process of Science • In science, evidence for the truth of any idea is experimental observation - not tradition, authority, or anything else.

23. The Process of Science • This process of testing facts, conclusions, laws, and theories with experimental observations NEVER ENDS.

24. The Process of Science • In science NOTHING (well, hardly anything) is ever “proven once and for all”.

25. Science & Technology • Science is about discovering new things about nature, and about how nature works. • Technology is about using scientific discoveries to make (hopefully) practical structures and devices for society.

26. Science & Technology • Science uses technology, and technology uses science. • Although science and technology are not the same, neither could exist for long without the other.

27. The End