GDST1013 The Power of Science and Technology

1. GDST1013 The Power of Science and Technology An Introduction

2. Content • Course Introduction • What is Science • A Brief Introduction to the Scientific Revolution • The Power and Limits of Science

3. Course Introduction • Course Code: GDST1013 • Title: The Power of Science and Technology • Textbook: none • Website: ISpace

4. Teachers • Instructor: Prof. Ken Tsang • Office: E409 • Phone: 3620606 • Email: kentsang@uic.edu.hk • Teaching Assistant (TA) • Ms. Garbo Hu • Email: garbohu@uic.edu.hk

5. Time & Venue (3) • 8:00-9:50am, Tuesday C208 • 13:00-13:50pm, Thursday E301

6. Course Content & schedule (subject to adjustment) • Week 1: Introduction • Week 2~4: Statistics Module • Week 5: Quiz • Week 6-7: Group presentation • Week 8-10: Computer Module • week 11: Guest Lecture or other activity? • Week 12-13: Group presentation • Week 14: Review for Final Exam

7. Assessment (from syllabus) • Class Participation 10% • Written assignment/Project 40% • Quiz/test (week ~5) 10% • Final Examination 40%

8. Part I: What is Science

9. What is Science • Can we describe what science is using your own language? • Can you give a few examples of what you consider to be science? • Can you name a few scientists? • And a few examples of what is NOT science?

10. Science in Chinese-- 科学 • 据说文解字，科，会意字：“从禾从斗，斗者量也”；故“科学”一词乃取“测量之学问”之义为名。 • 从唐朝到近代以前，“科学”作为“科举之学”的略语，“科学”一词虽在汉语典籍中偶有出现，但大多指“科举之学”。 • “科学”一词由近代日本学界初用于对译英文中的“Science”及其它欧洲语言中的相应词汇。

11. Science -- 科学 • 中国传统上将所有的知识统称“学问”，关于自然物道理的学问称为“物理” 。因此古代的物理即是自然科学， “数学”则独立于“物理”。 • 自明代以后中国称研究自然物道理的学问为格致学(王阳明)，即格物致知之学。 • 中国近代最早使用“科学”一词的学者大概是康有为。他出版的《日本书目志》中就列举了《科学入门》、《科学之原理》等书目。“科学”一词才逐渐取代“格致学”。

12. Definition: Science • (knowledge from) the careful study of the structure and behavior of the physical world, especially by watching, measuring and doing experiments, and the development of theories to describe the results of these activities. – from the Cambridge Dictionary

13. Science: (From Wikipedia) • Science (from Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. • In an older and closely related meaning, "science" also refers to a body of knowledge itself, of the type that can be rationally explained and reliably applied.

14. Definition: Measure & Experiment • Measure: to discover the exact size or amount of something, or to be of a particular size. (quantification) • Experiment: a test done in order to learn something or to discover is something works or is true (verification) • Can you give a few important scientific experiments in the history?

15. Definition: Theory • Theory: a formal statement of the rules on which a subject of study is based or of ideas that are suggested a fact of event or, more generally, an opinion or explanation • Theories are powerful explanations for a wide range of phenomena.

16. Definition: Technology • Technology: (the study and knowledge of) the practical, especially industrial, use of scientific discoveries • Can you give a few examples of technology?

17. Discussion & Sharing • Is mathematics science? Why? • Is Chinese medicine science? Why? • Is Feng shui(风水)science? Why? • Is Astrology science? Why?

18. Example of Scientific Study: Free Falling Objects • Given two balls, one is ten-pound and the other one-pound. If dropping both balls off at the same time, which ball will hit the ground first? The heavier one, or the lighter one?

19. What Aristotle Said • Aristotle (384BC-322BC) • A Greek philosopher, student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great • He studied many subjects encompassing physics, logic, politics, ethics, aesthetics and metaphysics • He had taught: that heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones, in direct proportion to weight. • Is this theory true or false? How to prove?

20. What Galileo Did • Galileo (1564-1642) • An Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. He is considered as the “father of modern science” • A biography by Galileo's pupil Vincenzo Viviani stated that Galileo had dropped balls of the same material, but different masses, from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to demonstrate that their time of descent was independent of their mass.

21. Discovering the Laws of Nature • Galileo was willing to change his views in accordance with observation. • Galileo was one of the first modern thinkers to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical

22. Galileo: physics should be mathematical Philosophy [i.e. physics] is written in this grand book — I mean the universe … but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures

23. Galileo’s On Motion (1590) • “Some superficial observations have been made as, for instance, that the free motion of a heavy falling body is continuously accelerated. But to just what extent this acceleration occurs has not yet been announced. For so far as I know, no one has yet pointed out the distances traversed during equal intervals of timeby a body falling from rest stand to one another in the same ratio as the odd numbers beginning with unity.”

24. Galileo's Inclined Plane Experiments • Start the ball rolling at time t-zero and count equal intervals of time as it rolls down the plane. • Take the distance covered in the first time interval as a unit of measure

25. Experiment Results

26. Galileo’s Result on Free Fall Objects • In the absence of air resistance, all objects experience the same acceleration due to gravity • g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s2 near the surface of the earth)

27. What Can We Predict • Using Galileo’s theory, if we drop a feather and a stone at the same time from the Pisa’s Tower, which will hit the ground first? Why? • What else can we predict? • What experiment condition do we need to verify Galileo’s theory?

28. Hammer and Feather Drop • In 1971, Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott on the Moon recreating Galileo's famous experiment. • A 1.32-kg aluminum geological hammer) and a light object (a 0.03-kg falcon feather) were released simultaneously from approximately the same height (1.6 m) • the objects were observed to undergo the same acceleration and strike the lunar surface simultaneously

29. Practical Application of the Theory • To estimate how deep the well is • Count the number of seconds (n) taken for the stone to hit the water at the bottom of the well. • Add up the first n odd numbers starting at 1. • Multiply the result by 5 metres. • For example, the stone takes three seconds to fall. That means the water is 1+3+5=9*5m or 45 metres down the shaft.

30. Summary: the Scientific Method • Testing ideas with evidence gathered from the natural world • Ask a question • Formulate a hypothesis • Perform experiments • Collect and analyze data • Draw conclusion (Induction) • Make predictions (deduction) • Further Verification to confirm

31. The Scientific Community • The progress of science depends on interactions within the scientific community – that is, • the community of people and organizations that generate scientific ideas, test those ideas, publish scientific journals, organize conferences, train scientists, distribute research funds, etc.

32. The Scientific Community • This scientific community provides the cumulative knowledge base that allows science to build on itself. • It is also responsible for the further testing and scrutiny of ideas and for performing checks and balances on the work of community members.

33. Think Science • Question what you observe • Why does an apple fall onto the ground? • Investigate further • Find out what is already known about your observations (literature review) • Be skeptical • Challenge existing ideas

34. Think Science • Try to refute your own ideas • Look at things from the other side of the argument • Seek out more evidence • Be open-minded • Change your mind if the evidence warrants • Think creatively • Try to come up with alternate explanations

36. What Science Does Not Do • make moral judgments, • make aesthetic judgments, • tell you how to use scientific knowledge, • draw conclusions about supernatural explanations. Science is an important part of human knowledge, but it isn’t everything.

37. Part II: A Brief History ofScience

38. A Brief History of Science • The Origin of Classical Science • The Scientific Revolution

39. Human History & technology • Human history has always been shaped by science & technology. In the pre-history, there were: • The Stone Age • The Neolithic Era (New Stone age, the Agricultural Revolution) • The Bronze Age • The Iron Age ?? Beginning of history

40. The Origin of Science • Ancient Greeks are seen as the intellectual forefathers of the western civilization • Greek philosophers made great discoveries of theorems by deductive reasoning (logic) • Pythagoras (570-495BC毕达哥拉斯): “number is the ultimate nature of reality” • Euclid’s (欧几里德) Elements of Geometry • Plato: “let no one ignorant of Geometry enter”

41. The Origin of Science • Greek scholars were in general mostly theoretical thinkers in philosophy & logic … • With some exceptions: • Aristotle （亚理斯多德, 384BC ~ 322 BC） • Archimedes （阿基米德, 287 BC ~ 212 BC） • Euclid （ 欧几里得, "Father of Geometry" ~300BC） • They sowed the seed of modern science.

42. A brief history of ancient Western Civilization 800 BC (Greek epic poem) Iliad & Odyssey Socrates 470? ~ 399 BC; Plato 424? ~ 348 BC Aristotle 384? ~ 322 BC Greek First Roman Emperor: Augustus 63 BC-14 AD Roman Empire Constantine I legalized Christianity in Roman Empire, 330 AD moved the capital to Constantinople 395 AD Christianity became official state religion Byzantine Empire 330-1453 AD 476 AD End of the western Roman Empire Germanic Roman general Odoacer deposed Emperor Romulus Augustulus

43. Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey: Trojan War The Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The ancient Greeks thought that the Trojan War was a historical event that had taken place in the 13th or 12th century BC, and believed that Troy was located in modern-day Turkey.

44. Alexander the Great (356 –323 BC)

45. Shakespearean tragedy: Antony and Cleopatra The last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra, consummated a liaison with Julius Caesar that solidified her power. After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, she aligned with Mark Antony (Roman general and important supporter of Julius Caesar) in opposition to Caesar's legal heir, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Augustus). After losing the Battle of Actium to Octavian's forces, Antony & Cleopatra committed suicide.

46. Greek: Fate and Order of Nature • The Greek view of nature was dramatic • Their vision of fate, remorseless and indifferent, urging a tragic incident to its inevitable end, is the vision possessed by science • Fate in Greek Tragedy becomes the order of nature in modern thought • The laws of physics are the decrees of fate

47. Medieval Europe • After centuries of civil war and corruption the western Roman Empire disappeared when Odoacer deposed the last Roman Emperor in 476AD. Barbarian hordes swept over the west and razed the last vestiges of this once mighty empire. Europe entered what is commonly called "The Dark Ages". Most major city centers lay in ruins, however, monasteries, because they were remote and hard to access, remained and within them were retained the culture and book knowledge lost everywhere else. • In medieval Europe only the monks and nobility could read and write and study knowledge. Monasteries became the keeper of knowledge and center of education, until Johann Gutenberg invented the first printing press in the 1450's and changed the situation so that knowledge was made available to everyone.

48. Medieval Europe: Rationality & God • In the Middle Ages, there was a belief in the rationality of God (Christianity) • There is a secret in the nature that can be unveiled: every detailed occurrence can be correlated with its antecedents in a perfectly definite manner, exemplifying general principles • The search of natural laws could result in the vindication of the faith in rationality

49. Precursors to the Scientific Revolution • Fall of Constantinople 1453: the migration of Greek scholars and texts to Italy • Renaissance • Leonardo da Vinci 1452–1519, Michelangelo 1475–1564 • The Printing Press: Gutenberg Bible ~1450 • Discovery of America:Christopher Columbus 1492

50. Renaissance: rediscovery of the Greek spirit Venus de Milo Created ~130 - 100 BC Statue of David Michelangelo 1504