Week 2 Notes: Induction, Pseudoscience, Astronomy & History of Science

Overview

  • Week 2 topics in Phys 102 with Prof. Justin Bergfield
  • TA: Kameron Bartels (klbart2@ilstu.edu)
  • Topics this week:
    • How to identify pseudoscience
    • Modern science
    • The “first” science: astronomy
    • Galileo, uniform motion vs uniform acceleration
    • Lab: Graphical Analysis
    • Homework: HW1 due Thursday
  • Do NOT put units in the box for numerical questions!

Induction

  • Review from last time: Scientific Method / Critical Thinking
  • Pseudoscience as a test of predictions
  • Quote by Karl Popper (1902 - 1994):
    • “If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories.”
  • Key process: Hypotheses → Deduction → Predictions → Observation by Experiment
  • Source reference: Resources.com / iStockphoto (visuals shown in slide)

Question: Can data prove a hypothesis entirely right?

  • Slide prompts two statements:
    • No, data supports a hypothesis but doesn’t prove that that hypothesis is entirely right
    • Yes, if a hypothesis is consistent with the data then that hypothesis is correct
  • Conclusion emphasized: Can data prove a hypothesis entirely right? No

What isn't Science? Pseudoscience

  • Example graph: Global Average Temperature vs. Number of Pirates (illustrating misinterpreted correlations)
    • Axes presented: Global Average Temperature, °C vs Number of Pirates (Approximate)
    • Visuals show misleading correlations when not grounded in causal mechanisms
  • Lesson: Correlation does not imply causation; need underlying physical mechanisms and testable predictions

Pseudoscience: Examples and Claims

  • Quote/example: “There are times when I’m very accurate and times when I’m not as accurate,” with a smile; “It (dowsing) quickly tells me where there is a tile or not.”
  • Dowsing cited as a pseudoscience example

More Pseudoscience

  • List of examples often cited as pseudoscience or non-scientific claims:
    • Crop circles
    • Face on Mars
    • "Toxins" in diet products
    • Diet soda weight gain claims
    • Dowsing rods
    • Astrology
    • Telepathy
  • Advertising/appeal example shown: “MUCH MILDER CHESTERFIELD IS BEST FOR ME!” (quasi-scientific promotion with selective evidence)
  • Medical advertising case: “News Science” style claim, selective reporting of studies, e.g., a group of Chesterfield smokers showing no adverse nose/throat effects after ten months in a biased promotion

More Examples of Pseudoscience (continued)

  • Intelligent Design
  • Phrenology
  • UFO-ology
  • Ghosts
  • Claims of global cooling (historical pseudoscience)
  • The “Intelligent Design Zoo” metaphor: Empty cage as a visual critique of ID arguments, illustrating observer vs. thinker dynamics

Critical Thinking: How to Evaluate a Claim

  • Key questions to assess any claim:
    • Are the facts true as stated?
    • Is there a simpler alternative?
    • Is the claim falsifiable?
    • Have they been tested?
    • Do claims require changes in accepted ideas?

The Branches of Science

  • Physics – Fundamental aspects of Nature
  • Chemistry – Atoms in combination
  • Biology – Living systems
  • Astronomy – Objects in space
  • Geology – Earth

The Web of Knowledge

  • Concept: Laws of Nature underpin scientific knowledge
  • Visual reference: Logos (Illinois State University / Alma mater branding)

Types of Research

  • Slide titled “Types of Research” (no explicit content listed on the page) – indicates categorization in the course materials

Clicker Questions (Applied vs Basic Research)

  • Question 1 (most applied research discovery):
    • Options:
    • Found the Higgs particle (mass-giving subatomic particle)
    • Built a new, higher-efficiency engine
    • Discovered a new dinosaur
    • Developed a new vaccine
    • Cured cancer
  • Question 2 (most basic research discovery):
    • Same options as above
  • Note: These are prompts used in-class to distinguish applied vs basic research; no single correct answer provided in the slide excerpt

Funding for Science (US) – Overview

  • President’s proposed discretionary spending (FY 2015 snapshot):
    • International Affairs: 3%
    • Science: 3%
    • Transportation: 2%
    • Food & Agriculture: 1%
    • Energy & Environment: 3%
    • Social Security, Unemployment & Labor: 5%
    • Medicare & Health: 5%
    • Housing & Community: 5%
    • Government: 6%
    • Education: 6%
    • Military: 55%
  • Source: National priority projections (OMB / National Priorities Project)

Funding for Science in the US (Overview)

  • US Government funding for science: approx. $130 billion
  • Agencies involved: NSF, NIH, DOE, DOD, EPA, NASA, NOAA
  • Grant process: Apply for funds via grant proposals
  • Review process: Ranked by independent scientists
  • Competition level: Highly competitive

Major Research Laboratories (Table 1-2)

  • Argonne National Laboratory — Type: Govt/Univ; Location: Near Chicago, IL
  • Bell Laboratories — Type: Industrial; Location: Murray Hill, NJ
  • Brookhaven National Laboratory — Type: Government; Location: Long Island, NY
  • Carnegie Institution — Type: Private (historical); Location: California, Maryland and DC
  • Dupont R&D Center — Type: Industrial; Location: Wilmington, DE
  • Fermi National Accelerator Lab — Type: Government; Location: Near Chicago, IL
  • IBM Watson Research Laboratory — Type: University/Industrial collaboration; Location: Yorktown Heights, NY
  • Keck Telescope — Type: Government; Location: Mauna Kea, HI
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory — Type: Government; Location: Los Alamos, NM
  • National Institutes of Health — Type: Government; Location: Bethesda, MD
  • (Additional entries listed across Tables 17 and 18 include other facilities such as National Institutes of Standards & Technology and Stanford Linear Accelerator, etc.; note that the table spans pages 17–18 with similar structure across columns.)

Communication Among Scientists

  • Collaboration emphasized
  • Scientific Meetings and Peer-Reviewed Journals (e.g., APS Physics, ACS Chemistry for Life, Nature, Physical Review Letters)
  • Role of journals: Dissemination and validation of results
  • Examples of journals and professional networks highlighted
  • Career prospects and the flow of information in the scientific community

Summary

  • Science is an active, creative discipline driven by passionate people
  • The scientific method provides guiding principles:
    • Make a guess and test it
    • Identify patterns and build laws of Nature
    • All results must be verifiable, repeatable, and falsifiable

The First Science

  • Heading indicating the transition to astronomy as an early science
  • Related prompts in the lecture: exploration of how the night sky has shaped scientific thinking

A Question: How Does a Wireless Mic Work?

  • Quick references to two resources:
    • Simple explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_crXXbuEKE
    • More technical explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60FP5ciU0s&t=265s

The Night Sky

  • Slide placeholder indicating discussion of observational astronomy and night sky phenomena

Moon to Scale / Related Visuals

  • Visuals to scale relations (Moon, scale comparisons) depicted in the slides

Interdisciplinary Connections: Physics, Biology, Technology, Chemistry, Health & Safety, Geology, Astronomy

  • Physics: Newton’s laws of motion and gravity as foundational ideas for predicting motion

  • Biology: Land plants and animals must develop strong supporting structures to counter gravity (Ch. 20)

  • Technology: Space shuttle launches illustrate laws of motion

  • Chemistry: Chemical bonding requires a force (not gravity) to hold atoms together (Ch. 10)

  • Environment / Health & Safety: Gravity’s role and how laws of motion inform safety design (car safety, airbags) and groundwater impacts on geology (Ch. 18)

  • Astronomy: Universal law of gravitation and its explanatory power for celestial orbits (Moon around Earth, Earth around the Sun)

  • Geography/Geology: Gravity and groundwater pumping effects on land stability

  • Great idea: Newton’s laws of motion and gravity predict behavior of objects on Earth and in space

Astronomy Timeline and Milestones

  • 3500 BC – Stonehenge construction begins (astronomical alignments)
  • 2500 BC – Pyramids in Egypt reflect horizon-based culture
  • 2300 BC – Megaliths at Stonehenge
  • 1400 BC – Chinese record solar eclipse
  • 500 BC – Babylonian astronomy reaches a high point
  • 300 BC – Greek astronomy at its peak
  • ~250 BC – Eratosthenes determines size of the Earth
  • ~135 BC – Hipparchus develops first star catalog and measures star brightness
  • Antikythera Mechanism (~100 BC) – an ancient astronomical computing device

Stonehenge and Astronomy Layout (Illustrative)

  • Ditch, bank, upright stones, heel stone, midsummer sun alignment, solstice indicators
  • Illustrative cross-section showing the astronomical relationships observed at Stonehenge

Stonehenge Astronomy: Solstices and Moon Rises

  • Sunrise alignment with summer solstice documented
  • Winter solstice minimums and moonrise timings shown in the layout

Further Astronomy Timeline

  • 100 BC – Chinese estimates of Earth and Moon size
  • 28 BC – Chinese records of sunspots
  • 200 AD – Teotihuacan reaches its height (Mexico)
  • 250 AD – Rise of Mayan civilization
  • 300 AD – Nazca culture in Peru
  • 500 AD – Rise of Anasazi in the American Southwest
  • 820 AD – Abbasid Caliphate and rise of Islamic astronomy

Additional Timeline Details

  • 900 AD – El Castillo at Chichen Itza; 920 AD – Mayan Uxmal in Yucatan
  • 940 AD – Oldest Chinese star map; 1000 AD – Caracol at Chichen Itza
  • 1100 AD – Anasazi disappear; 1200 AD – Rise of the Inca (horizon-based culture) astronomy

Calendars and Timekeeping

  • Why so many calendars?
    • Knowing the time of year relative to the seasons is critical for crop planting
    • Months roughly 30 days; a year ~365 days; counting schemes drift over time and need resets
    • Religious/commercial reasons for calendar accuracy (e.g., Islam: Mecca prayerTimes and fasting during Ramadan)

Critical Thinking: Visual Illustrations

  • A cartooned section showing an ancient construction (dirt ramp, lintel stone, upright stones) to illustrate historical reasoning

Western Astronomy Origins

  • Mesopotamia (Babylonians) ~3000 BC
    • Priests maintained long-running observations on cuneiform tablets
    • Used math to predict eclipses and planetary positions
    • ~350 BC – Seleucus of Seleucia proposed a heliocentric model (early heliocentrism)
  • India – ~300 BC – Indus Valley calendars (lack of surviving documents)
  • Greek – ~400 BC – Eudoxus & Callippus develop 3D concentric sphere models
  • ~300 BC – Aristarchus of Samos argues for heliocentric system
  • ~150 AD – Ptolemy of Alexandria develops geocentric model (Almagest)

Astronomy in the Islamic World

  • Following the fall of Rome and during the Abbasid period (~750-1258)
  • Baghdad as a major scientific center
  • Translations and synthesis of Greek, Iranian, and Indian data expanded astronomy

The Greeks and Early Models

  • Babylonian data used to predict eclipses and measure celestial phenomena
  • Thales (~500 BC) predicted eclipses
  • Eratosthenes (~200 BC) measured the size of the Earth

Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy) and the Almagest

  • Main astronomical work: Almagest
  • Geocentric model: Earth at the center; planets move on crystalline spheres
  • Geocentric tradition established; later the Maragha Revolution (~1200 AD) introduced Arab scholarship leading to theories similar to Copernicus (~1500 AD)

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)

  • Initiated the paradigm shift toward heliocentrism (Sun-centered view)
  • Worked as a cleric in the Catholic Church
  • De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) – published near death; initial resistance but later sparked major scientific upheaval
  • Context: Other scholars had evidence supporting heliocentrism prior to Copernicus; church opposition intensified about 60 years after publication, followed by Galileo and the Inquisition

Two Theories: Ptolemy vs Copernicus (Diagrams)

  • (a) Ptolemaic system – Earth at center, planets including Sun and Moon revolve on epicycles on crystalline spheres
  • (b) Copernican system – Sun at center with planets including Earth orbiting the Sun; simplified arrangement in diagrams
  • Visual comparison illustrates the shift from geocentric to heliocentric thinking

Formulas and Numeric Notes (for quick reference in study):

  • Gravitational force (universal law of gravitation): F=Gm<em>1m</em>2r2F = G \frac{m<em>1 m</em>2}{r^2}
  • Newton’s second law (motion): F⃗=ma⃗\vec{F} = m \vec{a} and/or F=maF = ma
  • Kept as context for the discussion of motion, gravity, and celestial dynamics throughout the astronomy sections