GST 2420: Atoms and Stars:
An Historical Introduction to Astronomy, Physics, and Scientific Discovery.
Fall 2002, Section 983, Call Number 16050
Agenda 4 for 9/25

  1. Announcements:
    1. Due: Report II. Due next week: Report on Experiment VII and Essay 1.
    2. GST 1990 WSU Bookstore at http://wayne.bkstore.com/, Saturday hours are 11 - 3
    3. Course web site: http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen/aasf02 (also links from Pipeline now).
    4. Online Life at WSU updated and with live links at http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen/OnlineLife
  2. Review of reports for Experiment I
    1. Grades are + (outstanding), OK (highest normal grade) and - (incomplete or observations have serious flaws)
    2. Complete, direct observations. Mostly good.
      1. What happened in #4 when can was not inverted?
      2. What happened in #7 with water running out of hole?
      3. From now on (Experiment 7), please attach your raw class notes to your report.
    3. Two outstanding - compared can and glass - why did one crush and not the other?
    4. What did #7 show? Why do it?
    5. Different explanations for "nature abhors a vacuum" and "sea of air"
    6. Steam comes from boiling water - goes away when heat is removed
  3. How are scientific debates settled? The real mystery in science, for many scientists.
  4. Ten Experiments
  5. Embedded theories - theories contained within other theories. Sea of Air, Relativity
  6. Lab VII
  7. 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 only on statistical correlations
  8. What is knowledge?
  9. 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
  10. My background for this.
  11. 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. Unseen world had more reality than the sensed one.
      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
    4. Reading from Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction, by James E. McLellan III and Harold Dorn, Johns Hopkins University Press (1999). "Greeks Bearing Gifts" (Chapter 4)
      1. Separation of science and technology
      2. Plato - ideal forms, unseen world more real - "save the phenomena" but work not yet finished, set a problem for future workers
      3. Aristotle - dual physics / elements
      4. Importance of a priori reasoning although also used observation and even sometimes experiment
      5. Importance of independence and sponsorship
  12. Video - Chemists at Work
  13. (Not part of course) Barometric pressure and weather. Forecasting: Using pressure and wind. The text below is from the National Weather Service. Here are some general statements of wind-barometer indications that are generally applicable to all parts of the United States:
    "When the wind sets in from points between south and southeast and the barometer falls steadily, a storm is approaching from the west or northwest, and its center will pass near or north of the observer within 12 to 24 hours, with wind shifting to the northwest by way of south and southwest. 
    "When the wind sets in from points between east and northeast and the barometer falls steadily, a storm is approaching from the south or southwest, and its center will pass near or to the south of the observer within 12 to 24 hours, with winds shifting to northwest by way of north. The rapidity of the 
    storm's approach and its intensity will be indicated by the rate and amount of the fall in the barometer. 
    "As a rule, winds from the east quadrants and falling barometric pressure indicate foul weather, and winds shifting to the west quadrants indicate clearing and fair weather, but again there are exceptions and in some parts of the country these rules do not apply." 
    The following table generally summarizes wind and barometer indications in the United States. The amateur forecaster should modify the table in accordance with his or her own observations. The following show the wind direction, the barometer reduced to sea level and the character of the 
    weather indicated: 
    SW to NW, 30.10 to 30.20 and steady - Fair with slight temperature change for 1 to 2 days. 
    SW to NW, 30.10 to 30.20 and rising rapidly - Fair, followed within 2 days by rain. 
    SW to NW, 30.20 and above and stationary - Continued fair, with no decided temperature change. 
    SW to NW, 30.20 and above and falling slowly - Slowly rising temperature and fair for 2 days. 
    S to SE, 30.10 to 30.20 and falling slowly - Rain within 24 hours. 
    S to SE, 30.10 to 30.20 and falling rapidly - Wind increasing in force, with rain within 12 to 24 hours. 
    SE to NE, 30.10 to 30.20 and falling slowly - Rain in 12 to 18 hours. 
    SE to NE, 30.10 to 30.20 and falling rapidly - Increasing wind, and rain within 12 hours. 
    E to NE, 30.10 and above and falling slowly - In summer, with light winds, rain may not fall for several days. In winter, rain within 24 hours. 
    E to NE, 30.10 and above and falling rapidly - In summer, rain probably within 12 to 24 hours. In winter, rain or snow, with increasing winds, will often set in when the barometer begins to fall and the wind sets in from the NE. 
    SE to NE, 30.00 or below and falling slowly - Rain will continue 1 to 2 days. SE to NE, 30.00 or below and falling rapidly - Rain, with high wind, followed, within 36 hours by clearing, and in winter by colder. 
    S to SW, 30.00 or below and rising slowly - Clearing within a few hours, and fair for several days. 
    S to E, 29.80 or below and falling rapidly - Severe storm imminent, followed within 24 hours, by clearing, and in winter by colder. 
    E to N, 29.80 or below and falling rapidly - Severe northeast gale and heavy precipitation; in winter, heavy snow, followed by a cold wave. 
    Going to W, 29.80 or below and rising rapidly - Clearing and colder. 
  14. GST 1990 Directed Study only
    1. Directed Study extra readings on CD-ROM - Password. Should work on Mac or PC
    2. Here is the list of email addresses and names for the ListServ:
      Section 983 (Wed, Lamphere))
        d.r.bowen@wayne.edu David Bowen (Instructor)
        PrimoKnitter@AOL.COM Dorothy Dekutoski
        ah6402@WAYNE.EDU Tom Donovan (not activate)
        suzan721@YAHOO.COM Suzan Hozner
        udm22@AOL.COM Jim Murphy
        an9434@WAYNE.EDU Hannah Smith (not activated)
        asoldan41@YAHOO.COM Adam Soldan
      Section 981 (Thu, Campus)
        ae8917@WAYNE.EDU Bill Lynch (Instructor)
        aj5911@WAYNE.EDU Nicholas Hall
        ag1730@WAYNE.EDU Georgette McDaniel
      Notice that I have added Tom Donovan and Hannah Smith using their WSU emails. This can be changed easily; let me know if either of you (or anyone else) wants to use another email address. Do you want a practice session for your WSU email? Let me know.
    3. Reminder: before you can use your WSU email the first time, you have to activate your AccessID and Password. To activate, (i) use the Web to go to webmail.wayne.edu, (ii) click on the link to "Activate Your AccessID", (iii) type in your AccessID and Password, and (iv) click the button at the bottom.
    4. To use the GST 1990 ListServ, send your email message to "gst1990@lists.wayne.edu". I tautomatically gets distributed to the group as listed above. There is also a searchable archive of past messages at http://www.wayne.edu/archives/index.html. Ours is listed as "gst1990" here.
    5. Email assignment - 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.