SMT 310: Science and Technology

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SMT 310 Science and Technology

• Objectives
• This class is a capstone to lower division
  general education in the sciences.
• It provides additional knowledge in science and
  technology
• It shows how to study science and technology.

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Course Components

• 1. Lectures (PowerPoint and instructors notes)
• 2. Connections (Book)
• 3. Videos
• 4. Additional Readings (SMT 310 Readings)

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Some Important Definitions

• Technique method or way of doing a task
• Technology application or study of technique
• Science knowledge of facts and laws based on
  observations and arranged in an orderly system
  (scientific method).
• Tool device used in doing work
• Artifact any man-made item.
• Empiricism trial and error approach

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Time Charts

• 1.- Stone Age
• Paleolithic 2,000,000-10,000 B.P. -
  hunter-gatherer
• Mesolitic 10,000 9,000 B.P.
• Neolitic 9,000 5,000 B.P. -
  herder-farmer
• 2.- Bronze Age
• 5,000 3,000 B.P.
• 3.- Iron Age 3,000 Present. (B.P.Before
  Present)
• --------------------------------------------------
  ---------------------------------
• Linear graphs scale divisions are equal.
• Logarithmic graphs scale divisions are
  exponential.
• (Readings Geologic Time Charts. Pages 86-88)
• Scientific notation n.nnn x 10y
• Move period right for negative exponent 0.012
  1.2x10-2
• Move period left for positive exponent 1200
  1.200x103

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1.- The Trigger Effect

• Mans love-hate relation with technology. Ex.
  N.Y. Black out (11/9/65). Everything is
  connected, something fails (a relay) everything
  becomes unstable.
• Every innovation acts as a trigger of change.
• The scratch plough is the first trigger, which
  resulted from the change in weather (this is
  before 4000 B.C.)

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Communities

• Between 6000-5000 B.C. Nomads settled down. They
  descended to the Tigris and Euphrates in Syria
  and the Nile in Egypt.
• Community surplus of food division of labor
  irrigation cloth writing trade money armies
  government/taxes civilization. Egyptians had a
  functional society by 2500 B.C.
• Food producers support non-food producers who
  provide essential services.

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2.- The Road from Alexandria

• Gold used to buy goods and services (700 B.C.)
• Touchstone used to determine golds quality. King
  Gyges (685 B. C.) mint seal.
• Yellow marks pure gold
• White marks gold mixed with silver
• Red marks gold mixed with copper
• Effects of money issued by central mint coinage
  1. Unifying effect on the users.
  2. Selective buying and
  selling of more diverse cargoes.

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Astronomy

• Alexander the Great founded Alexandria (331 B.C.)
  at the mouth of the Nile. Famous library and
  lighthouse.
• Astronomy Ptolomys System of Mathematics, a
  book on astronomy 127-151 A.D.. Also, the zodiac
  -12 constellations 539 B.C.
• Knowledge to be used by navigators.
• Burning of the books 646 A.D. Ptolomys book
  saved and translated into Arabic and Latin.

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Navigating

• Thirteen century sea trade begins to recover.
• Old Roman square sail sailing in the direction
  of wind only.
• Triangular sail (movable boom and lateen)
  sailing in all directions (invented by the
  Chinese)
• More elaborated sailing systems were developed.
• Speed measured in knots/hour. Use of sandglass,
  knotted line, and compass.

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From compass to RADAR

• Compass studies Robert Norman - The New
  Attractive (1581), suggested differences between
  magnetic and true north William Gilbert - On
  Magnets (1600), Earth is a great magnet, also
  suggested the existence of vacuum.
• Otto von Guericke studied both vacuum (horse
  expt) and magnetism (observed electricity in a
  ball of melted sulphur)
• Benjamin Franklin lightning experiments.
• Watson Watt Radio Detection and Ranging (1935)

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Conclusion

• Study of compass -magnets - vacuum.
• Work on vacuum pump - composition of air -
  discovery of oxygen - combustion - respiratory
  diseases and advances in metallurgy.
• Examination of gases - light passing through
  gases - cathode rays - television set.
• Electricity had been discovered!!! (readings pg
  63)

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3.- Distant Voices

• Energy is the ultimate currency!
• Whats Energy? The capacity to do work. It is
  neither created nor destroyed, only transformed.
• Types of Energy 1. Kinetic (motion) and 2.
  Potential (condition). Energy can be transferred
  in two ways Heat and Work.
• Fusion could provide enough electricity for L.A.
  on the atoms in a bucket of seawater.
  (read Fusion vs. Fission in
  the book)

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Military Technology and Society

• Few military breakthroughs have altered the
  society that first uses them.
• Examples
• 1. The stirrup (Norman occupation of England
  1066) 2. Welsh longbow (1415 - arrows
  penetrate amour) 3. Atomic bomb.
• (not too much reading needed)

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Agricultural Inventions

• The new plough the old scratch plough gave way
  to the mouldboard plough in the sixth century. An
  iron knife could cut through vegetation, front
  wheels, and a wing-like board to throw soil to
  the right (pg 63)
• New plough needed more power. Horses replaced
  the oxen and the horse collar was invented
  (8th-9th century).
• Horseshoe made possible for horses to work in all
  weather and terrains. Horses were also used for
  transportation.
• Equipment and animals kept in a central place -
  villages.

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15th century mining

• Cash was in short supply in the middle ages.
  Silver mining increased.
• Czechoslovakias mines ideal 1. water power from
  steams to run machinery and 2. wood for smelting
  the ores. Mines of Joachimsthal, minted coin
  called joachimsthaler (thaler for short) -
  dollar.
• Problem draining the water out of the mines. 1.-
  chain of porous cloth balls. 2.- Giant wooden
  screw. 3.- water sucking piston.
• Limitation no water sucking higher than 32 feet
  above the surface of the flood level ?? Could it
  have to do with air pressure/vacuum??

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From barometers to the telephone

• Evangelista Torricelli (1630) experimented with
  mercury and described air pressure. Air pressure
  lower in mountains than at see level (see also
  readings on gases and temperatures on page 85).
• Pascal and Perier proved Torricellis theory. The
  barometer was invented.
• Picard noticed electricity due to friction
  between Hg and glass in his barometer (1675).
  Gray (1729) described attractive forces which we
  now know are due to electricity. Galvani (1786)
  current Volta (1800) battery.
• Relationship between Electricity and Magnetism.
  Oersted (1820) first noticed compass needle
  moving (pg 78). Sturgeon (1825) made an
  electromagnet Faraday generated electricity with
  a magnet.

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The telephone

• Alexander Graham Bell put it all together and
  invented the telephone.
• Sound - vibrating membrane - fluctuating field
  - electricity - fluctuating field - vibrating
  membrane - Sound