What is Nature What is Science Anne Cox, Assoc. Prof. Physics Beth Forys, Assoc. Prof. Environmental

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What is Nature?What is Science?Anne Cox,
Assoc. Prof. PhysicsBeth Forys, Assoc. Prof.
Environmental Science
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• The scientist does not study nature because it
  is useful s/he studies it because s/he
  delights in it, and s/he delights in it because
  it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful,
  it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were
  not worth knowing, life would not be worth
  living.
• I do not here speak of that beauty that strikes
  the senses,but that profounder beauty which
  comes from the harmonious order of the parts, and
  which a pure intelligence can grasp.
• -Henri Poincaré

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Why?
C
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If I mix red and green light, what color will you
see?

• brown
• yellow
• white
• orange
• none of the above

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Light Color
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Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
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Prof. Forys pulls me on a skateboard. During the
pull

• 1. I pull harder (with greater force) on the
  rope than Prof. Forys does.
• 2. I pull on the rope the same amount (with same
  force) as Prof. Forys
• 3. Dr. Forys pulls on the rope harder (with
  greater force) than I do
• 4. To get the skateboard started moving, Prof.
  Forys initially pulls harder (with greater force)
  on the rope than I do, but once Im moving, we
  both pull on the rope with the same force.

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Newtons Three Laws

• 1.If no forces act on an object, its velocity
  does not change.
• OR
• An object in motion continues in motion unless
  acted on by an external force.
• 2. a F
• m
• 3.For every action there is an equal and opposite
  reaction.

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Theory Experiment
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A theory

• Must Explain Observations
• Must Make Predictions

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A theory

• Must Explain Observations
• Must Make Predictions
• Must Be Potentially Falsifiable

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Falsifiable
Ether
Fire
Air
Water
Earth
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Yucky roach slide
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Weird Nose
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
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The Galapagos
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The Galapagos
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Natural Selection

• Tested in labs natural experiments
• Never been falsified

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Island Biogeography
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Wake up!!! Wake up!!!!
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Casa Ski
Harrison Blvd.
The Deburemobile
Mount Pitiful National Park
Lessmann Wetland
Irbyville
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of Species
Island Area (sq. miles)
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Nearshore
of Species
Remote
Area (Km2)
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Number of Species on Krakatoa
1883
1933
1983
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Species extinction rate
Rate
Immigration of new species
of Species Present
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You make the predictionwhich island will have
the most species?

• 3

0.1 ha
1
mainland
0.5 ha
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Island 2 - the winner
70
25
mainland
75
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Spectra Atomic Bar-codes
Hydrogen
Helium
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Doppler Effect

• Imagine the sound of a car driving past you.

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Edwin Hubble
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Hubble Expanding Universe
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• Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
• Robert Wilson and
• Arno Penzias
• Horn Antenna, Bell Labs, NJ

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Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
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Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
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Descriptions from Hawking
Separation of Two Galaxies
Big Bang
Big Bang
Big Bang
Big Crunch
Time
Time
Time
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• Accelerating Universe, 1998

Separation of Two Galaxies
Big Bang
Big Bang
Big Bang
Big Crunch
Time
Time
Time
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The Big Bang
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A theory

• Must Explain Observations
• Must Make Predictions
• Must Be Falsifiable
• Ideally Should Be Simple

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Simplicity
F ma
F GmM r 2
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James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)
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Maxwells equations
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Electromagnetism
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Chess game?
We can imagine that this complicated array of
moving things which constitutes the world is
something like a great game of chess

• and we are observers of the game. We do not
  know what the rules of the game are all we are
  allowed to do is watch the playing. Of course,
  if we watch long enough, we may eventually catch
  on to a few of the rules. The rules of the game
  are what we mean by fundamental physics
• --Richard Feynman

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Theory of Everything
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Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, ceiling of
the Sistine Chapel, 1508-1512
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Cartoon by William Villalobos in Monkey Business,
a supplement to the on-line Wichita State
University paper.
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Van Gogh, First Steps, after Millet,
1890 Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Why?
Electrostatic force
Gravitational force
m
m
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Wave-particle Duality
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Light Color
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When I mix yellow and blue light, what color will
you see?

• green
• white
• red
• brown
• none of the above

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Light Color

• red green yellow
• red green blue white
• yellow blue __________

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Scientific theories

• Are (Ideally) Simple and Universal
• Must Make Predictions
• Must Explain Observations
• Must Be Falsifiable

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AND THATS WHAT SCIENCE IS