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Physics 10
Lecture 01: Further Thoughts on Science What is
SCIENCE?

Johnrob Y. Bantang, PhD

National Institute of Physics
College of Science
University of the Philippines, Diliman

Draw FOUR (4) lines to connect all nine dots below

WITHOUT LIFTING YOUR PEN.
Science is thinking…
beyond,
out of, and
of
the “box.”
 Visitors from Twilo Visitors from Twilo
Imagine an intelligent race of beings
from the planet Twilo.

They look more or less like us, they talk

like us, they do everything like humans -
except for one thing…

Source: Leon Lederman, The God of Particle

Making Sense Goal of Science

And though the rules might all be, in a
limited way, correct, none would really
capture the essence of the game. To make sense of the physical world

"Let's postulate," he ventures nervously, "the existence of

an invisible ball." To Learn
Scientia
To Know
Personification of "Science" in front of the Boston Public Library
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SciencePersonificationBoston.jpg
 Contents Basic Tenets of Science
• Basic Tenets of Science
• Science versus Pseudoscience • Test for Scientific
• 5 diagnostic features Correctness

• Physics • Core Values: honesty,

skepticism, fairness,
• definitions and descriptions collegiality, openness

• frontiers http://www.tc3.edu/instruct/sbrown/pic/miracle.jpg

• seven sentences Scientific research is completed with a publication in a peer-reviewed journals.

Science vs.
Pseudoscience
5Diagnostic Features
of Science
Phrenology
from Greek: !"#$, phrēn, "mind"; and • Repeatability
• Economy
%&'(), logos, "knowledge"

shape of the skull • Mensuration

• Heuristics
personality traits
• Consilience
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phrenologychart.png
5Diagnostic 5
EFTL

Features Diagnostic Features

of Science

• Repeatability - the same phenomenon is

sought again, preferably by independent
investigation, and the interpretation given to it is
confirmed or discarded by means of novel analysis
and experimentation.

5Diagnostic 5Diagnostic
EFTL

Features Features
of Science of Science
Economy
• Economy - Scientists attempt to abstract the elegant while yielding
information into the form that is both simplest and the largest amount of
aesthetically most pleasing – the combination information with the
called elegance – while yielding the largest amount least amount of effort.
of information with the least amount of effort.

“Theories must be simple,

but not that simple.”
-- Albert Einstein
http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1946/1101460701_400.jpg
 5Diagnostic
EFTL

Features of
Science

Occam’s Razor • Mensuration - If something CAN be

Law of Parsimony
“Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate.”
The simplest explanation is usually the best.
properly measured, using universally accepted
scales, generalizations about it are rendered
unambiguous.

EFTL EFTL

Fundamental
Fundamental Quantities
physical constants
mass
speed of light in vacuum (defined)
length Determined by c and h
characteristic impedance of vacuum (defined)
time
electric constant (defined)
luminous intensity
magnetic constant (defined)
current (vs. charge) Determined by qe
gravitational constant, G
temperature Planck’s constant h
amount of substance Determined by NA Planck length, mass, temperature, and time
5Diagnostic Features
of Science

• Heuristics - The best science stimulates

further discovery, often in unpredictable new
directions; and the new knowledge provides an
additional test of the original principles that led to
its discovery.

consider:
Discovery of Laser, Discovery of hologram
Einstein´s relativity theory, Quantum mechanics
http://nobelprize.org

http://nobelprize.org http://nobelprize.org
http://nobelprize.org http://nobelprize.org

5Diagnostic Features
of Science

• Consilience - The explanations most likely to

survive are those that can be connected and
proved consistent with one another.

http://nobelprize.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superseded_scientific_theories http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superseded_scientific_theories

!"#$%
Physics
!"#$%
Physics

Statistical Mechanics Astronomy

Particle Physics Thermodynamics

• Study of nature
• Old definition: study of matter and motion all about FRONTIERS...
Optics
Solid State Physics
Quantum Physics Complexity Science
Classical Mechanics
 EFTL

Frontiers Examples of Frontiers

• Low Temperature Superfluidity

• Life Vibrating cloud of ultracold

lithium-6 atoms.

• Charges
Researchers have obtained
evidence that it is a
superfluid, which would

• Granular Matter vibrate for a long time

after being shaken.

• etc. Source:
http://www.aip.org/png/2004/214.htm
16 April 2004

Low Temperature

EFTL EFTL

Examples of Frontiers Examples of Frontiers

Earth sows its The Attraction of Like

seeds in space Charges
Life could be leaking out all over Many large biological molecules
the cosmos. like DNA seem to flout a basic law
Nature 2004 of nature: Although their charges
have the same sign, they can
attract one another and clump
together in water.

Life Charges
 EFTL

Examples of Frontiers

7
A Sticky Distinction.
Particles with differing surface
Ground-breaking
properties will mix when rolled in a
dry tumbler (top) but segregate
when wet. A new theory predicts the
IDEAS in Physics
conditions for each result.

Granular Matter

7 Ground-breaking
IDEAS in Physics
7 Ground-breaking
IDEAS in Physics

• The EARTH is NOT the • The UNIVERSE is a

MECHANISM run by
CENTER of the UNIVERSE.
RULES.

http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/libraries/rare/modernity/
images/copernicus2-1.jpg http://www.antiquetrader.com/upload/contents/290/
field_1751/Isaac%20Newton.JPG
7 Ground-breaking
IDEAS in Physics
7 Ground-breaking
IDEAS in Physics

• ENERGY is WHAT makes it GO. • ENTROPY tells it WHERE to GO.

7 Ground-breaking
IDEAS in Physics
7 Ground-breaking
IDEAS in Physics

• The FACTS are RELATIVE but the • You CAN’T PREDICT or know
LAWS are ABSOLUTE. EVERYTHING.
7 Ground-breaking
IDEAS in Physics !"#$%
Physics

• Fundamentally, things NEVER CHANGE. all about FRONTIERS...

The Nano Bull

PHYSICS
is
FUN!

Kawata, et al, Nature 2003

Levitation Science is FUN!

Kruger, et al. Nature 408, 2000 Somino et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 2005

Science is FUN! Science is FUN!

C. Py et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 2007

 • Science versus Pseudoscience
• 5 Basic Tenets of Science
• Physics
• definitions and descriptions
• frontiers
• seven sentences
Next Meeting...

GR&&K Next Meeting...

?
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.e
xhibit/exhibit/d-mathematics/image
s/math01.jpg
How did we come to
REALIZE that the
EARTH is NOT the
CENTER of the
UNIVERSE?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Euclid.jpg

Next Meeting...
 Pythagoras Plato
(569-465 BC) (427-347 BC)

The Father of Numbers

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dc/Platon-2b.jpg

Nature of Matter