What is

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What is Inquiry in the Natural World?

• Clare 102 - Inquiry in the Natural World
• Ted Georgian
• 19 January 2005

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Natty-world is a great course - really!
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Two simple questions

1. What is the natural world?
2. What does it mean to inquire about it?

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What is the natural world?
http//www.howardhallis.com/artgallery/tpoe/index.
html
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Whats a physical object?
http//the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Dec
/10/ln/ln12a.html
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Is love a physical object?
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Are there physical objects that we cant sense?

• Dogs know whos been at the fire hydrant

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Are there physical object that we cant sense?

• Do Honey bees see objects that we cant?

Medical and Scientific Photography An online
resource for doctors, scientists and students
(http//msp.rmit.edu.au/Article_01/13.html)
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Are there physical objects that we cant sense?

• Modern instruments have greatly extended our
  detection abilities

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Can we make predictions about the natural world?

• Given a knowledge of the laws of physics, can
  you predict where this car will go if you release
  the parking brake?

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Can we make predictions about the natural world?

• Given the same knowledge of the laws of
  physics, can you predict where a car will go if
  its hijacked by a 14-year old?

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Whats inquiry in the natural world?

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Scientists ask a lot of questions, like kids

• Some common questions kids ask
• Why is the sky blue?
• Where do babies come from?
• Why does the moon follow my car?

• And my favorite
• How can a brown cow eat green grass and make
  white milk?

home.att.net/rwskinner/ pictures/brown-cow-2.jpg
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Two different sorts of answers

• 1. Descriptions The sky is dark blue.

http//www.albforumi.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ub
bget_topicf16t000024p

• ExplanationsThe sky is blue because

www.sciencemadesimple.com/ sky_blue.html
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Why inquire into the natural world?

• Two fundamental reasons
• Curiosity

• Problem solving

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Curiosity-driven science

• Basic or pure
• Often leads to surprisingly practical discoveries

Teflon
Lasers
DNA
Serena Parente Charlebois
Flubber (?)
X-rays
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Problem-solving science

• Applied or practical
• Gives us substantial power over the natural world

Contraceptives
Weapons
Transgenic crops
Internal combustion engines
Computers
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Problem-solving science
http//www.colostate.edu/programs/lifesciences/Tra
ngenicCrops
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Why do physical objects behave the way they do?

• Anthropomorphic explanation

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Why do physical objects behave the way they do?

• Mechanistic explanation

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A complex and very general explanation is often
called a Model
Isaac Newtons model of Universal Gravitation
darwin.apnet.com/ www/ap/newton.htm
www.prometheus-delft.org/ Isaac20Newton.jpg
http//www.metaresearch.org/cosmology/cosmology.as
p
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Newtons model of Universal Gravitation has
been very successful
Craft launched to dive into comet By MARCIA DUNN
Associated Press1/13/2005
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A NASA spacecraft with a
Hollywood name - Deep Impact - blasted off
Wednesday on a mission to smash a hole in a comet
and give scientists a glimpse of the frozen
primordial ingredients of the solar system. With
a launch window only one second long, Deep Impact
rocketed away at the designated moment on a
six-month, 268 million-mile journey to comet
Tempel 1. It will be a one-way trip that NASA
hopes will reach a cataclysmic end on the Fourth
of July. Nothing like this has ever been
attempted before. Little is known about comet
Tempel 1, other than that it is an icy, rocky
body about nine miles long and three miles wide.
Buffalo News, 13 Jan 2005, A8
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How do we investigate physical objects?

• perl.plover.com/yak/ regex/samples/slide004.html

www.geocities.com/ jkostaras/big_ben.jpg
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What are physical objects made of?
Heres one early idea atomism(Leucippus and
Democritus, 500 BC)
Trefil, J. R. M. Hazen. The Sciences. 2nd ed.
P. 163
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What are physical objects made of?

• Heres an alternate view elementalism

• http//astsun.astro.virginia.edu/jh8h/Foundations
  /chapter2.html

Aristotle (384 322 BC)
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Aristotles model of physical objects

• Heres how it worked

• http//www.chem.uidaho.edu/honors/history.html

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Aristotles model was widely accepted as true
from 300 B.C. until 1700s
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Atomism was revived in the 1800s
John Dalton, 1808. A New System of Chemistry
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How do scientists decide which explanations are
best?

Democritus
Aristotle
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The hypothetico-deductive scientific method

More of a description of what usually works than
a set of directions that every scientist follows
Still no better way of investigating the
natural world has been invented inthe past 400
years
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Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

• Stressed observation over philosophical
  speculation
• Proposed a new method of studying nature
• Argued that if we understand nature we can
  dominate it

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Steps in the scientific method

• Step 1 Observations

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Steps in the scientific method

• Step 1 a decide what to study

Too much
Better
http//svdp.org/santaclara/images/Car_Lot.jpg
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Steps in the scientific method
In western New York, cars in winter!
http//www.bigfoto.com/themes/nature/winter/
http//www.heatherandpatrick.com/Kitten-Library/de
tails.php?photoID194
http//www.budinas.narod.ru/current/winter4/winter
4e.htm
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How can we answer our questions about the natural
world?
Step 1b look for a general pattern

• This step uses a process calledInductive
  Reasoning
• in which we develop a rule based on many
  individual examples

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Steps in the scientific method
Step 1b look for a general pattern
http//emd.wa.gov/5-ppt/trng/pubed/winterprep/star
ting-car-cold.htm
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How can we answer our questions about the natural
world?
Step 2 Think up explanations (hypotheses)
for the patterns observed

• A useful hypothesis

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Steps in the scientific method
Step 2 Think up explanations (hypotheses)
for the patterns observed
1. Car wont start because the coolant is frozen
solid.
2. Car wont start because the battery is too
weak.
3. Car wont start because it wants to be in
Florida and its sulking.
4. Car wont start because snow banks are
actually alien spaceships and the aliens have
ray guns that disable cars.
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Ockhams Razor
Start with the simplest possible explanation
and go to more complex explanations only if the
simpler explanations dont work.
William of Ockham (1280 1347)
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But the natural world isnt necessarily simple!
Make everything as simple as possible, but not
simpler."  --  Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
sprott.physics.wisc.edu/ images/einstein.jpg
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Steps in the scientific method

• These two seem like reasonable hypotheses
• Car wont start because the coolant is frozen
  solid.
• Car wont start because the battery is too weak.

How can we tell which hypothesis is a better
explanation of our observations?
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How can we answer our questions about the natural
world?
Step 3 Make a testable prediction

• This step uses a process calledDeductive
  reasoning
• in which we use the rules of logic
• to generate a prediction

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Steps in the scientific method
Step 3 Make a testable prediction

• IF the trouble starting the car is caused by the
  coolant being frozen,

THEN we should see ice when we open the radiator
cap.
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Steps in the scientific method
Step 4 Make observations or do experiments
to test our explanations

• A good experiment
• 1.2. 3.

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Steps in the scientific method
Step 4 Make observations or do experiments
to test our explanations

• Observation open the radiator cap and look.
• Result antifreeze is fine not frozen.

Now what???
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Start over again!
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Steps in the scientific method
Step 3 Make a testable prediction

• IF the trouble starting the car is caused by the
  battery being weaker at low temperatures,

THEN replacing the battery should enable the car
to start on cold mornings
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Steps in the scientific method
Step 4 Make observations or do experiments
to test our explanations

• Observations use a voltmeter to test the
  battery each time the car wont start
• Experiment try a new battery

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Good experiments have
Controls Need 2 identical cars
Experimental car remove old battery and install
a new one.
Control car remove old battery and reinstall
it.

• Replication The experiment needs to be repeated
  by other people on many other cars before we can
  be sure its generally reliable.

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How can we test Aristotles model?
Aristotle (384 322 BC)

• http//www.chem.uidaho.edu/honors/history.html

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What predictions does it make?
According to Aristotle, each element has a
natural resting place, and will return to it
D. Park. 1988. The How and the Why An essay
on the origins and development of physical
theory. Princeton University Press, p. 49
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Heres an example
Whats mud made of?

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Heres another example
What happens when wood burns?

• Observations at first bubbling liquid comes out
  of the end of the wood, then yellowish flames
  leap up, releasing light and heat.
• When the fire goes out, gray ash remains at the
  bottom of the fireplace. The ash helps plants
  grow in the garden.

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What happens when wood burns?

• Explanation wood is a mixture of mainly Earth
  and Fire, with varying amounts of Air and Water.
• When wood burns, the Fire escapes as flames and
  rises to its natural resting place, leaving
  behind ash, which is mostly Earth and so
  nourishes plants.

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How can we decide if this model is a good
scientific explanation?

1. Lets not burn down Murphy Hall
2. Pick an easier object to study water
3. Do experiments rather than just observe

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What does Aristotles model predict?

1. If the electric current heats the Water, it
   should produce Air
2. The resulting Air should rise
3. Pure Water should produce only one type of Air

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Heres what the experiment looks like
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What actually happens?

• Results
• Air from one tube floats, one sinks
• One is flammable, one isnt

Conclusion two different types of Air were
produced
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What do we do now?
"The great tragedy of Sciencethe slaying of
a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact."
Thomas Huxley

1. Give up and go to work at McDonalds

1. Modify the hypothesis

1. Develop a better explanation of the nature of
   matter

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Heres another model of water

• The mechanical model of the 1800s

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So is this the right answer?
Not since 1900! Stay tuned for details later.
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How does science make progress?

1. Occurs in cycles
2. Gradually eliminates poor explanations, but ...
3. The process is never complete.

M. Johnson. 2003. Human Biology. 2nd ed.
Benjamin Cummings.