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overtime, these paradigms may change. In the case above, Early Greeks and Romans knew the earth
was round and revolved around the sun. But when those cultures disappeared, the church taught that
the earth was flat and was the center of the universe. Later discoveries showed that the early Greeks
were correct and the round earth and the heliocentric or sun centered model took the place of the
prevailing flat earth and geocentric model. Today of course, the round earth and heliocentric model are
still taught and we have even further evidence from our satellite photos and human travels into space.
There are many other examples of paradigm shifts such as the big bang, plate tectonics and more
recently, human caused global climate change and ozone depletion.
Mathematics
Math is an important tool for science. Measurements and calculations are essential. In this course,
there will be some math. But as a tool, not a “punishment”. You will be given any equations required
and only those necessary to come to the desired conclusions will be used. One of the most important
thing in using math and equations though is to ask yourself, “Does the answer I just arrived at make
sense?” For example, if your calculator says the airplane flew at 72 mph, don’t just write it down and
move on. Think, “Could an airplane fly at approximately the same speed as a car drives down a
highway?” And of course, the answer is no. It is more important in science to come up with
reasonable answers that are also plausible and make sense then it is to have the “correct” answer with 8
decimal places that in reality would be an impossible answer.
Depending on the observation and hypothesis, it is also a good idea to research what others
have done or discovered about the observation or experiments that have been done in the past.
A hypothesis must be testable. In science it is more important to be able to prove something is
wrong than it is to prove something is right. In fact, it is virtually impossible to prove something
is correct because there is always that slight chance that the next time you do the experiment,
you might prove it wrong. Or that future technology (such as Galileo’s telescope in the 17th
century) might come along and prove it is wrong. So for a hypothesis to be considered a
scientific hypothesis, there must be a test that may prove it is incorrect.
So saying all cats are gray in color is a scientific hypothesis even though it sounds a bit ridiculous.
It is possible to prove it is incorrect by just finding a cat that is not gray in color. On the other
hand, saying “water exists on other planets” is not technically a scientific hypothesis. You can
prove it is correct by finding evidence of water on other planets but there is no way to prove it is
incorrect if you don’t find water. It might just be that you haven’t looked at the right planets or
gone far enough into the universe.
Experiments
One experiment that shows the difference in a philosopher’s way of looking at things and a
scientist’s way is the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s idea that weight determines how fast an
object will fall. Aristotle thought about it rationally and it made sense. So the belief remained
for about 2000 years until Galileo set out to test it. In other words, he experimented!! He
actually dropped objects of different weights and measured the speed at which they fell. In
other words, he tried it out. A good experiment must be able to be repeated by others in the
same manner in which the first scientist carried it out. And hopefully the same results will
occur. But remember, any scientific hypothesis is designed to be disproven. So there is always
that chance.
It is important to control as many variables as possible in a science experiment. An
independent or manipulated variable is the one that the experimenter can change. Such as the
amount of water given to a group of plants. The dependent or responding variable is the thing
that changes based on the independent variable. So if we vary the water given, perhaps the
growth or color of the plant might be affected. Other than those two though, it is important to
have everything else as identical as possible. Such as the same species of plant, same soil, same
sunlight, temperature etc. in the above example.
Science works within nature. It deals with hypotheses that are testable. And some questions,
like what is the meaning of life, just are not testable. So, science does have limitations which is
where other disciplines can take over, more on those later.
What is Science?
Types of science.
Some aspects of science can be classified in several different categories. But in general, they fit
into three classifications: exact, applied or historical science.
Exact sciences are the “easiest” to do experiments in even though they are sometimes called the
“hard” sciences. But they do lend themselves to controlled experiments the best. Thigs that
can be repeated over and over with few variables Chemistry, math and physics are usually
classified as exact sciences. (And I am sure some of us would call them “hard” sciences in the
original sense of the word. In reality, they really make sense and can be a lot of fun and
interesting too.)
Applied sciences are perhaps the most diverse group. In general, they are sciences that are too
large in scope or too complicated to have complete control over the variables. For example,
disciplines that involve people are basically impossible to control many variables such as
genetics, environment etc. And some experiments using humans would be deemed ethically
wrong. Historical we have Nazi Germany as an example of this. So social sciences like
sociology, psychology, and anthropology are considered applied sciences. Other disciplines are
too large or complex to do controlled experiments well. These examples include ecology,
astronomy and meteorology.
Historical Sciences occurred in the past and would be difficult or probably impossible to
replicate. There is some overlap in historical and applied sciences depending on what aspect
you are looking at. An example is astronomy. Stars, planets etc. were formed long ago and we
can’t go back in time and observe them. However, experiments and measurements are
possible in astronomy. So for this narrative, it will be included in both categories. In general
our knowledge of the historical sciences comes from good observations and measurements and
present day processes we can assume also happened in the past. Besides astronomy, examples
include geology, paleontology and archeology.
Non-sciences are disciplines like art, humanities, literature etc. They have an important purpose. But
they do not have a common perception. In fact, the world would be a very dull place if everyone had
the same tastes in art, fashion, music, movies etc. So disciplines like these, plus those based on beliefs
such as religion, are classified as non-sciences.
Measurements in science
Accurate measurements are vitals in science. Science uses the metric system for its measurement
units.
This link might look a bit “kindergarten” but it is pretty cool.
https://www.mathsisfun.com/measure/metric-system.html
With the development of science and technology, a need arose for an international system of
measurement based on conveniently related units. In 1791, a committee of the French
Academy proposed a system based on the meter as the standard unit of length, liter as the
standard unit of volume, and the gram as the standard unit of mass. This metric system came
into general use throughout most of the world, but for some strange reason, it is still not
What is Science?
generally accepted in Great Britain and the United States. For scientific purposes, its
advantages are obvious and it has long been the universally accepted standard. Most
measurements made in this class will be recorded in metric units. We will start with the three
basic units in this section but more will be added as needed later. A fourth parameter, time, uses the
same units in both the metric and the English system so we don’t need to list that one in our chart.
In the metric system, basic units (meter, liter, gram, etc.) are increased or reduced decimally by
a series of standard prefixes. The prefixes which are most useful in our work are shown below
in the table on the next page.