Chapter 3 Allison Thompson

Chapter 3
* In what ways do all humans employ scientific thinking?
    - Scientific thinking is based on everyday ideas of observation and trial and error experiments.

*How did astronomical observations benefit ancient society?
    - Keeps track of time/season.
    - Practical purpose (agriculture)
    - Religious/Ceremonial Purpose.
    - In aiding navigation.
    - Ancient people of central Africa could predict seasons by the orientation of crescent moon.
    - Days of the week come from planets.

* What did the ancient civilizations achieve in astronomy?
     - Daily time keeping
     - Tracking season and Calanders
     - Monitoring lunar cycles
     - Monitoring planets and stars
     - Predicted Eclipses.

*In what ways do all humans employ scientific thinking?
     - Trials and Error


Chapter 3.2

* Why does modern science trace its roots to the greeks?
     - Greeks were the first people know to make models of nature.
     - Tried to explain patterns in nature without restoring to myth or super natural.

*How did Greeks explain planetary motion?
     - earth is center of universe
     - Heaven must be "perfect". Meaning objects move in/ on perfect spheres/ circles.

* Geocentric Model made by Ptolemy (Ptolemaic Model)
      - Sufficiently accurate (used for 1500 years)
      - Arabic translations of Ptolemy's work named Almagest (Greatest compilation).

* How did Islamic scientist preserve and extend Greek Science?
      - Muslim word preserved/enhanced the knowledge from Greeks while Europe was in the Dark Ages.
      - Almamun's House of wisdom in Bagdad was a great center to learn.
      -Fall of Constantinople in 1453 eastern scholars headed west with their own knowledge.


Chapter 3.3

*How did Copernicus, Tycho, and Kepler challenge Earth centered ideas?
         - Copernicus proposed the sun was the center.
         - He used the model to determine the layout of the solar system.
         - The model was no more accurate than Ptolemaic model in prediction planetary position because it still used perfect circles.
         - Brahe compiled most accurate naked eye measurements ever made of planetary position.
         - Still could not detect stellar parallax and thus still thought earth is center of solar system.
         - Hired Kepler who used Tycho's observations to discover the truth about planetary motion.
         -Kepler first tried Tycho's observation with circular orbits.
         - But 8 arcminute discrepancy led him eventually to ellipses.

*Ellipse
    -  Elongated Circle

Kepler's 3 Laws

  1) Orbit of each planet around the sun is an ellipse with sun at one focus.
 2) As a planet moves around its orbit, it sweeps out equally in time/ area (faster near the sun, slower when away).
3) More distant planets orbit at slower average speed obeying the realtionship. (p^2=a^3)
                                       p= orbited period in years
                                       a= average distance from sun in AU

*How did Galileo solidify the Copernican revolution?
     - Earth could not be moving because objects would be left behind.
     - Non-circular orbits are not perfect as heaven should be.
     - If earth was really orbiting the sun we'd detect stellar parallax.

*Overcoming first objection (Nature of Motion)
           - Aristotle thought that all objects naturally come to rest.
           - Galileo showed that all objects will stay in motion unless force acts to slow them down. (Newton's first law)

*Overcoming Second Objection (Heavenly Perfection)
         - Tycho's observation of comet and supernova already challenged this idea.
         - Sunspots (imperfection)
         - Mountains/valleys on the moon (proving its not a perfect sphere)

*Overcoming Third Objection (Parallax)
       - Tycho thought he had measured stellar distances, so lack of parallax seemed to rule out an orbiting earth.
       -Galileo showed stars must be much farther than Tycho though in part by using his telescope to see Milky Way is countless individual stars.
       - If stars were much farther away then lack of detectable parallax was no longer trolling.
       - Galileo observation of phase's of Venus proved that it orbits the sun not the earth.

*1633 Catholic church ordered Galileo to recant his claim that the Earth orbits the sun.
*His book on the subject was removed from the list of banned books in 1864






Chapter3.4

*How do we distinguish science from nonscience?
     - Defining science can be surprisingly difficult.
     - Science comes from Latin "knowledge" 
     - Not all knowledge comes from science.

*Science rarely proceeds in the idealized way.
      - Sometimes we just look then come up with possible explinations.
      - Sometimes we follow our intuition.

*Hallmark Science #1
     - Modern science seek explanation for observed phenomena that rely solely on natural causes.

*Hallmark Science #2
     - Science progress through the creation/ testing of models of nature that explains the observations.

*Hallmark Science #3
     - Scientific model must make testable predictions about natural phenomena that would force us to revise/ abandon the model.


*What is scientific theory?
    - Theory has a different meaning in science than everyday life.
    - In science theory is NOT the same as Hypothesis
             - Explain a wide variety  of observations with a few simple principles.
   - Be supported by a large compelling body of evidence.
   - Not failed crucial test of validation.