Referents (some old)

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Referents (some old)
Referents are used to describe the properties of
an object green as grass, big as a horse,
slow as molasses , tough as shoe leather,
stubborn as a mule. Measurement Attempts
something more price about a particular property
of an object Length Measurement. Foot, inch (end
joint of the thumb), cubit (length of elbow to
fingertip), fathom (fingertip to fingertip
outstretched hands) Volume Measurement. Jigger
(two mouthfuls), cup (8 jiggers or 16
mouthfuls) Time. (1/86400) of a solar day.
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Terms (Scientific Investigations) cont.

• Valid Well grounded on Principle or Evidence
• Evidence Something that tends to prove grounds
  for belief.
• Scientific Law An explanation concerned with
  wider-ranging phenomena than a principle
  (Sometimes identified by the name of a
  scientific). Can be expressed verbally, with an
  equation, or with a graph. Ex. E M C2
• Equation A statement of equality between two
  quantities
• Law A sequence of events in nature observed to
  occur with unvarying uniformity, happen time
  after time
• Scientific Method The task of collecting
  observations, developing explanations and testing
  explanations.

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Terms relating to Science Investigation

• Scientific Investigations Provides understanding
  through experimental evidence
• Hypothesis An unproved theory tentatively
  accepted
• Theory A formulation of underlying principles
  which have been verified to some degree (Theory
  of Gravity)
• Principle A fundamental truth upon which others
  are based
• Concept An idea or thought
• Experiment A test or trial undertaken to
  discover something not yet known
• Controlled Experiment A trial which compares
  two situations in which all influencing factors
  are identical except one

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How do you view the idea of atoms?

• Have you seen an atom
• Is there evidence for you to believe in atoms
  even though you may never have seen one?
• Would your concept of atoms be an hypothesis,
  theory or principle?
• Would it help if you saw a picture of an atom?

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Standards of the SI System (Metric System)
Formulated by French Academy of Science 1791,
adopted world wide 1960 as the SI System of
Units. Meter (1/10 millionth of the distance
between the North Pole and the Equator. A metal
bar was made previous to 1960, in 1960 standard
referred to a certain number of wavelengths of a
spectrum, in 193 was changed to the distance
light traveled in a certain time period Second
(1/86,400 of a solar day). Today, an atomic clock
is used (accurate to a few millionths of a second
per year). Kilogram A unit of mass. Mass is
represented by the inertia an object has.
Standards for a mass where a given platinum
plated mass standard kept somewhere in France.
Later standards developed. Ampere (defines
charge), Kelvin (temperature), mole (mol) also a
unit measuring the amount of substance and
Candela (cd) a unit measuring the intensity of
light.
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Observations on The Whirly-gig of Time1

• Time Perhaps there is no such thing as Time.
  The past is memory, the future is fantasy, and
  the present (exactly now) is the part most
  difficult to understand.
• Science Its purpose to to make humans make sense
  of the world. Science must be brought into
  perspective with common sense.
• Concepts of Archaic Time and Absolute Time Early
  ideas on time. Archaic time (natural time).
  Absolute time (flows without relation to anything
  external)
• The Arrow of Time (1) Imagine a Q ball in
  billiards striking the eight ball. (a collision
  occurs). Run the event backward in time in your
  mind. Is it feasible.

1A term first described by William Shakespere
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What Physics Tells Us About Time
On Monday afternoon, January 14, 2002 at 400
P.M. Professor Hans von Baeyer of William and
Mary College presented a Lilly Science and
Society lecture in the Science Building of the
I.S.U. campus entitled "That Relentless
Whirligig What Physics Tells Us About Time" The
Instructor of this course acknowledges that the
following notes were taken from this wonderful
lecture for this class and he is indebted to Dr.
von Baeyer
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The Whirly-gig of time continued

• (2) Now imagine the a break in the game of
  billiards. Rack them up and strike the group head
  on hard with the Q ball.
• Run this sequence backwards in your mind. Is
  there a difference between (1) and (2)? What is
  that difference?
• The difference between (1) and (2) is order.
• Now we have a newer physical definition of
  time. Time runs in the direction of growing
  disorder.
• Let us examine the arrow of time as it might
  pertain to our aging universe. In the beginning
  there was order. Simply because the universe
  (although extremely chaotic in its early stages)
  was much smaller in size. As the universe ages
  disorder increases. (an example is the burn
  cycle of stars. Hydrogen is converted to helium
  by nuclear fusion and eventually ends up in
  elements as large as iron. Thus the aging of a
  simple star indicates the growing state of
  disorder.
• However there are pockets in the growing state
  of disorder. One example of a pocket is life.

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• Nature delights in creating pockets or order in
  this sea of growing disorder.
• Another name for the state of order is Entropy.
  Entropy is a word taken from a branch of physical
  science called Thermodynamics. Entropy is a
  measure of the state of order. As the universe
  ages its entropy increases. However, as life
  begins such as the birth of a babyentropy is
  reduced or low in this human entity. As the baby
  grows up to be an adult, its entropy increases.
  Although still ordered with respect to the
  universe around it still itself is increasing
  disorder. Examine the newborn babys skin in
  comparison to that of a very old human adult. A
  baby drinks milk (a simple ordered molecule). The
  milk breaks down (the baby extracts energy from
  it) thus the disorder of the milk increases.

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• Thus, the concept of time, as explained by
  entropy (a term gained from statistical mechanics
  and a scientist named Boltzmann) seems to serve
  as a good explanation for the arrow of time.
• Now enter Einstein (1905) and the Special Theory
  of Relativity. The Special Theory states that an
  observer in a moving frame of reference cannot
  tell he is moving and that the speed of light is
  constant in any moving frame of reference.
• However, Einstein muddied up the water since
  moving clocks run slow. The best way to
  understand this is to perform a gedanken
  experiment. This has lead to the idea of a twin
  paradox which is not really a paradox at all.

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• Thus moving clocks run slow. But only as seen by
  me, the stationary observer. The twin paradox
  (which is not really a paradox) simply states
  that two twins on earth decide one twin is to go
  on a space trip at 99.9 the speed of light. The
  moving clock is slow. Hence the speeding twin
  does not age as fast as the twin on the earth.
  The twin returns back to earth to find that he or
  she is much younger than the earthbound twin.
• This principle has been verified experimentally
  today with atomic clocks in satellites.
• Thus travel into the future is possible. Travel
  backward through time is impossible.
• In 1915 with the publishing of the General Theory
  of Relativity by Einstein it became obvious that
  gravity also affected the arrow of time. Time
  creeps near a black hole.