PRS TEST: when instructed press any key OK, I know, your PRS doesn’t have an “any” key…

1. PRS TEST: when instructed press any key OK, I know, your PRS doesn’t have an “any” key…

2. What is Science? It is a way of understanding or exploring the world. It attempts to answer the question “HOW” in a cause/effect sense It uses observations, hypotheses, logic, and empirical tests to arrive at the best answer It is only one way among many: Aesthetic Method Faith Method Political Method

3. Step 1 come up with question Step 2 make observations (collect data) Step 3 formulate hypothesis Step 4 test hypothesis Step 5 formulate theory Step 6 test theory Step 7 formulate law

4. Inductive reasoning – from specific to general Deductive reasoning – from general to specific

5. PRS Group problem: You need to get from your house to campus for class. You go outside, jump in your car, turn the key and nothing happens – no sound, no nothing! What caused this? What data do you need? How will you fix it? Group1 think of scientific ways to approach the problem Group 2 think of aesthetic ways to approach the problem Group 3 think of faith-based ways … Group 4 think of political ways…

6. In the case of using the scientific method to fix the car: What are the data? What are the hypotheses? What are the tests? PRS-> Was the process A) Inductive or B) Deductive?

7. Apparent conflicts between different ways of exploring the world often result from the true nature of the questions being asked Political versus Scientific: Florida Gov’t decides limestone is not composed of minerals. Indiana State Legislature: Pi =3.2 Faith versus Scientific: Debate over cloning humans – what are the real questions? Debate over creationism versus evolution – what are the real questions?

8. Parsimony – Occam’s Razor – K.I.S.S. William of Ockham, 15th century, "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate" ("entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily"). In more modern terms, if you have two hypotheses which both explain the observed facts then you should explore the simplest. Note: It has been said : "The simple hypothesis was shown to be false. The truth is more complicated. Therefore Occam's Razor doesn't work." However, the principle doesn't tell us anything about the truth of an hypothesis, rather it tells us which one to test first. You might also find it easiest to test several possibilities at the same time - thus you would be using Multiple Working Hypotheses.

9. Assumptions: Things accepted as true without empirical proof. Uniformitarianism: Earth processes operate today as they did in the past. James Hutton 1726-1797 : "no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end." "the past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now.“ "uniformitarianism" coined by William Whewell and promoted after Hutton's death by John Playfair. Sir Archibald Geike (1835-1924) coined the catchy phrase "the present is the key to the past."

10. Limits on Science • Curiosity – what do you ask questions about ? • What obs. are appropriate – “If I hadn’t believed it I wouldn’t have seen it” • Originality – what hypotheses can you come up with and what tests can you imagine • Technology – what you want to observe or test may not be possible • What is most parsiminous ?

11. Non-Science • Reasoning by analogy • “The earth is like an onion” • Un-testable hypotheses • Un-reproducable results • Refusal to release data/methods

12. Bad Science Attack on the scientist, not the science Arguments from authority Confusion over cause and effect post hoc ergo propter hoc Use of bad data/statistics Hanlon's Razor - "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity".

13. Wakulla Springs Article What question? What data? What hypothesis? What tests? What conclusions?

14. ORIGIN of the SOLAR SYSTEM Not the “Big Bang” – 11-20 BYA Our Solar System formed about 4.6 BYA Two theories Nebular Theory Near Miss Theory

15. DATA • 1. Earth is one of eight planets that orbit a rather ordinary star called the sun in the Milky Way Galaxy. • The planets are (in order from the sun) • Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus (accent 1st syllable, please!) ,Neptune • These planets all (Pluto excepted - more about it later) orbit the sun in concentric, elliptical orbits that form the plane of the ecliptic. • All the planets orbit the same way - counterclockwise as seen from the sun's north pole. • All but Venus and Uranus also rotate on their axes counterclockwise. • The four inner planets are dense, "rocky" or "terrestrial planets" rich in metals and heavy elements. • The next four are low-density gas giants or "Jovian planets".

16. DATA 8. Between the two groups lies a belt of asteroids - chunks of rock up to 10's of km's across, also orbiting more-or-less in the plane of the ecliptic. 9. Pluto (now not a planet) is odd - a small rocky body, it's highly elliptical orbit is inclined to the plane of the ecliptic and periodically brings it inside the orbit of Neptune. 10. Our planet is composed primarily of (the %'s are approximate because they include composition of the earth's interior) Iron (~35%) Oxygen (~30%) SIlicon (~15%) Magnesium (13%) Nickel (~2.4%) Sulfur (~1.9%) Calcium (~1.1%) Aluminum (1.1%)

17. Nebular Hypothesis: • Developed by German philosopher Immanuel Kant 1755. Solar system condensed from a rotating nebula • Nebula contracted under gravity • Initial rotation of the cloud accentuated by conservation of angular momentum. • Cloud flattened into a disk. • Gases in the disk condensed, began to clump together into planetesimals • Gravitational compaction at the center of the disk compressed matter enough to start nuclear fusion - the Sun. • Planetesimals collided to form larger bodies, sweeping their orbits, resulting in planets. • Radiation pressure from young sun blew the light gaseous compounds (H, He, Ar, Ne) away from inner planets

18. Recent discoveries have cataloged over 200 extra-solar planets. One system,Beta Pictoris (~50 lyrs from earth), seems to have planets forming in a flattened nebular disk surrounding the star.

19. Near Miss Hypothesis: • T. C. Chamberlain(~1900), among others, • Rogue star passed close to the sun • Mutual gravitational attraction drew tendrils of solar matter out of each star • Material sent spinning around the stars as they separated. • Matter later condensed into the planets

20. Asteroids: Asteroid Belt appears to occupy an orbit similar to that of the other eight normal planets Two hypotheses prevail: 1) asteroids are the remains of condensed material that never effectively collected into a planet, perhaps because of the intense gravitational field of nearby Jupiter 2) they are the remains of a planet that formed and subsequently broke up, again because of Jupiter's gravity or a severe impact. Collisions and gravitational interactions cause constant change in the asteroidal orbits. Some have adopted elliptical orbits that bring them very close to other planets. A few, called NEO’s, have passed very close to the earth (e.g. closer than our moon) and have undoubtedly collided with the earth and other planets in the past.

21. How would we determine which theory of the origin of asteroids is correct?

22. Moon: Our moon, the earth's only natural satellite, is significantly larger (in comparison to its parent) than other moons. Samples returned by the Apollo missions revealed remarkable similarity to the earth in composition. Currently accepted hypotheses view moon as result of a very early collision between earth and large body (planetesimal?). Impact was sufficiently energetic that low density material (representing part of the earth and the foreign body) was thrown off into orbit, forming the moon. Remaining material from both bodies, including the denser components of both, formed the earth.

23. Earth has three compositional layers: Crust – low density rock (2.2-2.9 g/cm3) Mantle – higher density rock (3.3-5.6 g/cm3) Core – metallic iron/nickel (9.9-13.1 g/cm3) Earth also has layers defined by physical characteristics Lithosphere – cold, brittle crust and upper-most mantle Asthenosphere – soft, partially molten mantle Deep Mantle – soft but plastic Outer Core – partially molten Inner Core - solid

24. Earth is density stratified – heavy stuff on bottom. Lithosphere “floats” buoyantly on the Asthenosphere Called Isostasy

25. If two blocks of the same size are placed in liquid water, one of wood (medium density) and one of styrofoam (low density), which of the following will be true. • The wood block will sink • They will float at the same level • The styrofoam block will float higher • The wood block will float higher • It depends on temperature of the water isostasy