What is Science

1
What is Science?

• The study and theoretical explanation of natural
  phenomena
• Any systematic activity requiring study and
  method
• Knowledge, especially knowledge gained through
  experience
• Science is a way of knowing, a process for
  gaining knowledge and understanding of the
  natural world.
• KEY WORDS
• Systematic, Way of Knowing, Repeatable

2
What is Knowledge?

• Is there a difference between knowledge and
  wisdom?
• Is there a difference between knowledge and fact?
• Does knowledge change?
• Do we ever have all knowledge?

3
The Scientific Method

• Claude Ville
• The scientific method is just organized common
  sense
• Lets look at some ways you can use common
  sense
• Experiment of Some Kind
• Environmental Genome Project
• Godsend Institute
• Situations youd use common sense
• You get sick and require medical attention. A
  neighbor suggests you see her friend who cures
  disease spiritually.
• Your boss at work assigns you to clean some black
  gunk off the floors, but doesnt tell you how.
• Your pet fish doesnt look too hot lately. It
  stays in the bottom corner of the tank and rarely
  eats.

4
The Scientific Method

• Question (or problem)
• - What is the main topic of your exploration?
• Research
• In this step, you find out what everybody else
  knows about your topic already.
• You need to look at credible sources to find this
  information.
• Try to find out something about your topic that
  nobody knows the answer to, or at least something
  that you do not know the answer to.

5
The Scientific Method

• 3. Hypothesis
• - A possible explanation of events or a possible
  answer to your question.
• - Your hypothesis should not be a random guess,
  it needs to be based on your research.
• - There are two types of hypotheses
• - Null Hypothesis (H0), which states that
  there will be no difference between the control
  group and the experiment group. In other words,
  nothing will happen. (more professional)
• - Alternate Hypothesis (HA), which is your
  prediction of what will happen in the experiment.
  (common)

6
The Scientific Method

• 4. Experiment
• - This is the step where you try and find the
  answer to your question.
• - You need to briefly list your materials and
  methods.
• - You need to write out the steps you will take
  to perform your experiment.
• - All experiments must be divided up into two
  groups experiment and control.
• - In the experiment group, you add different
  variables (one at a time) to see how they alter
  the experiment (called independent variables).
  Besides the different variables in each test,
  EVERYTHING ELSE MUST BE THE SAME!
• - In the control group, you perform the same
  experiment, but you add no variables. The
  result here is what you compare everything else
  to.
• - You must record your results. These results
  must be measurable. The things you measure are
  called dependent variables. Generally, you only
  measure one dependent variable per experiment.

7
The Scientific Method

• 5. Record and Analyze Data
• - Make sure to keep good records of your
  results.
• - Put your data into a table, graph, chart, etc.
  so you can compare your results easily.
• - If you get serious, you need to analyze your
  data using a statistical test.

8
The Scientific Method

• 6. Conclusion
• - Must refer back to your hypothesis.
• - If you used an alternate hypothesis, you
  either say that your hypothesis was right, or it
  was wrong.
• - If you used a null hypothesis, you need to
  say that you either proved your hypothesis
  wrong, or you failed to prove your hypothesis
  wrong (it was right).
• 7. Retest / Application
• - In this section, mention any questions that
  you came up with because of your experiment,
  anything you did wrong, etc. - Also, mention
  why anyone should care about your results (you
  MUST care) and how they could apply them to their
  lives.

9
Science vs. Pseudoscience

• Science
• Uses the scientific method correctly
• Can be proven false
• Examples?
• Pseudoscience
• Set of ideas based on theories put forth as
  scientific, when they are not scientific.
• Does not follow scientific method correctly
• The entire theory cannot be proven false
• Uses statistics wrongly
• Theres lies, damn lies and statistics.
  Mark Twain
• Examples?
• Non-Science
• Does not try to be science
• Cannot be proven false
• Examples?

DHMO
10
Astronomy vs. Astrology

• Astronomy is the study of everything about a mile
  above the surface of the Earth.
• Astronomers use telescopes, spectroscopy, radio
  waves, etc. to collect and analyze data.
• Astrology is the study of the movement of the
  planets in relation to each other and how their
  energies interact in order to make predictions
  about the future.
• Astrology.com

11
Horoscopes vs. S.E.T.I.

• Astrology helps predict horoscopes
• (horoscope)
• How well does this follow the scientific method?
• S.E.T.I. (Search for Extra Terrestrial
  Intelligence)
• www.seti.org
• How well do they follow the scientific method?

12
What are these?

• Phrenology the study of the structure of the
  skull to determine a persons character and
  mental capacity. Mental faculties are located on
  the surface of the brain and can be detected by
  visible inspection of the skull.
• Brain is where character, emotions, perception,
  intellect, etc. are located
• Different parts of the brain are responsible for
  different mental functions

13
What are these?

• Sociology the study of social life, social
  change, and the social causes and consequences of
  human behavior.
• Collect data by observing and polling people,
  analyzing populations, etc.
• Metoposcopy the interpretation of facial
  wrinkles, especially those on the forehead, to
  determine the character of a person.

14
What are these?

• Advertisement
• VW Polo
• Art any creative work or its principles. Any
  branch of creative work, as painting or
  sculpture.
• Religion a specific system of belief, worship,
  etc. often involving a code of ethics
• Mathematics deals with quantities, forms, etc.
  and their relationships , by the use of numbers
  and symbols.

15
Psychology

• The study of the causes, conditions, and
  immediate consequences so far as these can be
  ascertained, of states of consciousnesssuch as
  sensations, desires, emotions, cognitions,
  reasonings, decisions, volitions, and the like.
• The data collected
• Thoughts and feelings (transitory states of
  consciousness)
• Knowledge, gained by way of thoughts and feelings
• Is this a science or a pseudoscience?

16
Psychology

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Treatments
• Purpose Stop obsessions
• Research Pavlovs Dogs, watch obsessions
• Hypothesis If punish when obsess, the person
  wont obsess
• Experiment Shock every time person obsesses
• Data Frequency of obsessions
• Conclusion Right or wrong?
• Retest Many trials needed
• Is this science?

17
Psychology

• Schizophrenia
• We cannot measure this disease
• One treatment
• Purpose Reduce schizophrenia
• Research Electroconvulsive Therapy watch
  patient
• Hypothesis Shocks will reduce schizophrenia
• Experiment Send 150 J of electricity through the
  brain, causing the brain to have a convulsion
  (imagine a 110 lb. weight falling on your head
  from 1 foot)
• Data Maybe works a little, but what do you
  measure?
• Conclusion ??????
• Retest a lot of shocks
• Is this science?
• Sometimes, things dont fit in one category.

18
Fact vs. Inference

• Fact a thing that has already happened or is
  thought to be true
• Infer to derive or conclude by reasoning from
  something known or assumed
• Examples
• There is a tree in the picture
• The tree is tall
• There are three wolves
• The wolves are hungry
• The wolves are picky eaters
• The wolves are holding a paper
• The wolves are going to help natural selection
  move along quicker

19
Metric System

• Le Systemé International (official name)
• Abbreviated as SI system
• Also called the metric system in US (unofficial
  name)
• Official system of measurement in every country
  in the world but one.

20
King Louis XVI

• French King wanted more taxes so he could fight a
  war with England
• Each person was taxed by how much land they owned
• Louis wanted better maps that would show the
  people, he believed, had more land than stated on
  current maps
• He got the astronomers (best at geometry at the
  time) to develop a new and better method of
  drawing maps
• They used geometry to define how long a unit they
  would call a meter to be the basis of their
  system

21
The Meter
North Star (Polaris)

• The astronomers made a triangle using the North
  Pole, the equator and Polaris
• 1 meter equaled 1/10,000, 000 of the
  distance from the North Pole to the equator of an
  arc that went through Paris

North Pole
Equator

• This wasnt the best measurement for a standard
  because of plate tectonics, which change the
  landscape of the Earth after time.

22
The Meter

• Todays definition of a meter
• The distance that light travels in a very small
  amount of time in a vacuum
  (in 1 / 299,792,458 sec)
• This is a good definition because the speed of
  light never changes (c 3 x 108 m/s)
• Now that there was a basic unit (meter), the
  French scientists created a set of prefixes that
  multiplied or divided the meter by fractions of
  10 to make smaller and greater units of
  measurement

23
Prefixes

• Prefix Abbreviation How it
  Equates
• Tera..T1 Tm
  1,000,000,000,000 m
• Giga.G1 Gm 1,000,000,000 m
• Mega ..M1 Mm 1,000,000 m
• Kilo..k..... 1 km 1,000 m
• Hecto .h..1 hm 100 m
• Deka.da..1 dam 10 m
• Basic Unit (Meter, Liter, Gram)..m, L, g... 1 m
  1 m
• deci...d.. .1 dm 0.1 m
• centi..c....1 cm 0.01 m
• millim...1 mm 0.001 m
• micro................µ....1 µm
  0.000001 m
• nano .n .1nm 0.000000001 m
• picop..1pm 0.000000000001
  m

24
Back to King Louis

• The new maps constructed by the astronomers
  showed that people owned less land than he
  thought
• He lost money and then lost the war

25
The Liter

• Once they had a basic unit for distance, they
  used it to create units for volume and mass
• The unit for volume is the liter
• Written as a cursive letter l
• Typed as a capital letter L
• 1 milliliter 1 cm3

1 m
1m
1 m
1 cm
1 cm
1 cm
26
Other Units

• 1 gram equals the mass of one cm3 (1 mL) of pure
  water at 0 C (273 Kelvin)
• The unit for temperature is Kelvin (no degrees)
• Kelvin C 273
• Other basic units
• Energy Joule (J)
• Time second (s)
• Force Newton (N)