GST 2420: Atoms and Stars:
An Historical Introduction to Astronomy, Physics, and Scientific Discovery.
Fall 2002, Section 983, Call Number 16050
Agenda 3 for 9/18

  1. Announcements:
    1. Due: Report I
    2. GST 1990 WSU Bookstore at http://wayne.bkstore.com/, Saturday hours are 11 - 3
    3. We are expected to be good citizens. Please put your chair back. Let me know if there are spills - we need to clean them up.
    4. Course web site: http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen/aasf02 (also links from Pipeline now).
  2. Lab II
    1. For the Magdeburg spheres
      1. BE GENTLE WITH THIS EQUIPMENT!!!
      2. Test your vacuum pump first - close off the tube end with your thumb and pump - should be able to get to 20 in Hg vacuum
      3. The two halves of the sphere are different - make sure you get one of each. One has the white valve and O-Ring (or a groove for the O-Ring if the Ring itself is missing, and the other half is plain, with only the handle. The two halves of the sphere have to seat smoothly to form a seal, metal ones are kind of beat up for this. If you need to put an O-Ring in yours, it will fit! Make sure there is no grit on the seating surfaces and that the valve is open. May need a little vaseline to seal. Twist the two halves together to improve the seal. Attach the hose and pump slowly, should see vacuum increasing slowly (if not, try resealing the sphere halves). Try to get to at least 10 in Hg vacuum with the sphere attached.
  3. Final problem with "nature abhors a vacuum." Torricelli's "sea of air." Barometer. Pascal (mountain), Boyle (vacuum)
    1. Extension and application. Also mercury column became a tool for measuring barometric pressure, and for creating a vacuum.
  4. Hierarchy of scientific knowledge - most reliable at the top - epistemology
    1. Mathematical deduction (but depends upon postulates)
    2. Mathematical induction (does the domain include infinity?)
    3. Scientific theories embedded in other theories
    4. Scientific deduction
    5. Scientific induction
    6. Theories based on statistical evidence (why do I say this?)
  5. What is knowledge?
    1. Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin story
    2. Flat Earth Society
    3. Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
  6. Last week was concentrating on scientific observation or experiment. Observations at the time, not relying on memory. Include enough detail so that other people can repeat what you did. Do not mix observations with hypotheses. Primary document is often a lab journal. Needs to be published so that others will have access to it for criticism, repetition, and for theoretical confirmation or disproof
    1. Are observations "simple facts?" Example: seeing. But scientists again ignore these problems, as we do in real life.
    2. Moral or ethical character of scientists / Office of Scientific Integrity and Office of Research Integrity
    3. Discussion of women in science was only to illustrate how intense scientific discussion can be
  7. Deducing facts from a theory Vs of deducing a theory from facts.
  8. Review Essay 1 assignment
  9. My background for this.
  10. History of Science
    1. Classical Greek philosophers - 600 to 300 BC or BCE
      1. Expected to have a complete philosophy covering all aspects of life including science and religion. Chief reliance was on logic and abstract reasoning, reliance on evidence and consistency with others was variable.
        1. Aristotle - elements, terrestrial mechanics, celestial mechanics
      2. Best-known had their own academies and students often known as disciples.
      3. Plato's Cave - the philosopher sees behind the curtain - Plato's Republic and the Philosopher-King
      4. Preserved writings are often class notes, often fragmentary
    2. Arabic philosophers c 1300 AD in Middle East. Preserved and Greek culture. Much progress in Science and Mathematics. Believed that the world was the work of God, in studying science they were studying God.
    3. Starting in late Middle Ages, Europe received Greek culture originally in translation from Arabic, later discovered original manuscripts
      1. Starting with Francis Bacon c 1600, Western science became more focused. Bacon said that previous theories had inadequate treatment of the general propositions from which the deductions were made. Either they were the result of precipitate generalization from one or two cases, or they were uncritically assumed to be self-evident on the basis of their familiarity and general acceptance. After Bacon:
        1. Became more formalized or defined, more specialized, by topic and method (exp Vs theory)
        2. Separation of experiment and explanation
        3. Communication standardized, specialized journals, more systematic
        4. Establish facts, evaluate hypotheses
        5. Some say that scientists of necessity assume that this real world is all of reality - not true, part of unspoken hypothesis, working assumption, only needs to apply to the next step
        6. Experiment trumps authority or reputation or position
        7. Asking proximate questions, not ultimate questions - patient accumulation of knowledge
        8. Mystery - ability to find a theory that explains all facts - works if describing real world that we can understand instead of politics
  11. Video - Physicists at Work
  12. GST 1990
    1. Email assignment (change from last week) - two messages per week, by Friday of that week, starting due by Friday 9/27.
      1. (i) Which of the readings are you doing, (ii) where are you (page), (iii) one thing the author said, (iv) your reaction
      2. Respond or comment on someone else's message. Agree, disagree, or extend, include information from readings where relevant, on course topic, minimum of five lines on the computer screen.
    2. Barbour Pg 22:
      1. Transcendence. The idea that God is above and apart from the world, not part of the world.
      2. Immanence. The idea that God is part of the world, perhaps as the Supreme Being, but a Being nonetheless.