How Many Different Branches of Science Are There?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Branches of Science Web-quest What is science? How many different branches of science are there? What is the difference between a scientific fact, law and theory? Keep going to find the answers to these and other science questions! Follow the directions to find out about the wonderful world of science! Please fill in the question sheet as you go along! But be sure you understand what you are writing down, please! What is “Science”? What is science? Where did the word come from, and what does it mean? Don’t copy the first thing you read but click me to get a definition of science! Be sure to scroll down the page! What is the origin of the word? look under “etyology” Branches of Science Science is broken down into categories, or branches. There are many different branches of science, some you know – some you probably never heard of! Want to take a look? Click me! Click me! Branches of Science Here are some odd branches… have fun looking around! Take note of the ones that you think are really “out there” and record them on your paper! Check out different parts of the list—look beyond the “Gs” Take a look at this!! Scientific Fact, Law & Theory A Scientific Fact is different than a Scientific Theory. A Scientific Law is different than both! Read on to see what is what! Click me for a fact or me Wacky facts! Scientific Fact, Law & Theory Follow me to Scientific Theory! Or here Visit me for a list of theories! Be sure you copy a scientific theory Visit me for the definition of a Law! More on facts, laws & theories! (be sure to scroll down read about laws!) Theory and Law Summary • Scientific theories are the prerequisite before arriving scientific laws. • Scientific theories change whereas laws will not. • Both scientific laws and theories were based on observations. http://www.differencebetween.net/science/difference-between-scientific-laws-and- scientific-theories/ Have you answered all the questions? Hooray you’re done! Double check your work Feel free to go back and re-visit any of the links in this activity for more interesting information! Extra! Extra! Extra Credit! • Here are a few “well-known” Theories: Evolution, Relativity, Atomic, Quantum. • What can you find out about them? (1 pt EC/Theory; up to 2 pts) • Here are a few “well-known” Laws: Gravity, Newton’s Laws of Motion, Thermodynamics, Conservation of Matter & Energy • What can you find out about them? (1 pt EC/Law; up to 2 pts) Scientific Law: statements that describe, predict, and perhaps explain why, a range of events behave or happen as they appear to in nature. A law is a solid and formal statement, generated from repeated experiment. A law is a statement of fact meant to explain, in brief terms, an action or set of actions. It is generally accepted to be true and universal- laws are accepted at face value based upon the fact that they have always been observed to be true. Laws can sometimes be expressed in terms of a single mathematical equation. Some scientific laws, or laws of nature, include the law of gravity, the law of thermodynamics, and Hook’s law of elasticity..

Copy Link

Recommended publications

The Social Sciences—How Scientific Are They?
31 The Social Sciences—How Scientifi c Are They? Manas Sarma or Madame Curie. That is, he social sciences are a very important and amazing in their own way. fi eld of study. A division of science, social sciences Tembrace a wide variety of topics from anthropology A better example of a social to sociology. The social sciences cover a wide range of science than law may be topics that are crucial for understanding human experience/ economics. economics behavior in groups or as individuals. is, in a word, fi nances. Economics is the study By defi nition, social science is the branch of science that deals of how money changes, the rate at which it changes, and with the human facets of the natural world (the other two how it potentially could change and the rate at which it branches of science are natural science and formal science). would. Even though economics does not deal with science Some social sciences are law, economics, and psychology, to directly, it is defi nitely equally scientifi c. About 50-60% of name a few. The social sciences have existed since the time colleges require calculus to study business or economics. of the ancient Greeks, and have evolved ever since. Over Calculus is also required in some science fi elds, like physics time, social sciences have grown and gained a big following. or chemistry. Since economics and science both require Some colleges, like Yale University, have chosen to focus calculus, economics is still a science. more on the social sciences than other subjects. The social sciences are more based on qualitative data and not as Perhaps the most scientifi c of the social sciences is black-and-white as the other sciences, so even though they psychology.
[Show full text]
Outline of Science
Outline of science The following outline is provided as a topical overview of • Empirical method – science: • Experimental method – The steps involved in order Science – systematic effort of acquiring knowledge— to produce a reliable and logical conclusion include: through observation and experimentation coupled with logic and reasoning to find out what can be proved or 1. Asking a question about a natural phenomenon not proved—and the knowledge thus acquired. The word 2. Making observations of the phenomenon “science” comes from the Latin word “scientia” mean- 3. Forming a hypothesis – proposed explanation ing knowledge. A practitioner of science is called a for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a "scientist". Modern science respects objective logical rea- scientific hypothesis, the scientific method re- soning, and follows a set of core procedures or rules in or- quires that one can test it. Scientists generally der to determine the nature and underlying natural laws of base scientific hypotheses on previous obser- the universe and everything in it. Some scientists do not vations that cannot satisfactorily be explained know of the rules themselves, but follow them through with the available scientific theories. research policies. These procedures are known as the 4. Predicting a logical consequence of the hy- scientific method. pothesis 5. Testing the hypothesis through an experiment – methodical procedure carried out with the 1 Essence of science goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. The 3 types of
[Show full text]
Some Thoughts About Natural Law
Some Thoughts About Natural Law Phflip E. Johnsont My first task is to define the subject. When I use the term "natural" law, I am distinguishing the category from other kinds of law such as positive law, divine law, or scientific law. When we discuss positive law, we look to materials like legislation, judicial opinions, and scholarly anal- ysis of these materials. If we speak of divine law, we ask if there are any knowable commands from God. If we look for scientific law, we conduct experiments, or make observations and calculations, in order to come to objectively verifiable knowledge about the material world. Natural law-as I will be using the term in this essay-refers to a method that we employ to judge what the principles of individual moral- ity or positive law ought to be. The natural law philosopher aspires to make these judgments on the basis of reason and human nature without invoking divine revelation or prophetic inspiration. Natural law so defined is a category much broader than any particular theory of natural law. One can believe in the existence of natural law without agreeing with the particular systems of natural law advocates like Aristotle or Aquinas. I am describing a way of thinking, not a particular theory. In the broad sense in which I am using the term, therefore, anyone who attempts to found concepts of justice upon reason and human nature engages in natural law philosophy. Contemporary philosophical systems based on feminism, wealth maximization, neutral conversation, liberal equality, or libertarianism are natural law philosophies.
[Show full text]
Scientific Explanation
Scientific Explanation Michael Strevens For the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, second edition The three cardinal aims of science are prediction, control, and expla- nation; but the greatest of these is explanation. Also the most inscrutable: prediction aims at truth, and control at happiness, and insofar as we have some independent grasp of these notions, we can evaluate science’s strate- gies of prediction and control from the outside. Explanation, by contrast, aims at scientific understanding, a good intrinsic to science and therefore something that it seems we can only look to science itself to explicate. Philosophers have wondered whether science might be better off aban- doning the pursuit of explanation. Duhem (1954), among others, argued that explanatory knowledge would have to be a kind of knowledge so ex- alted as to be forever beyond the reach of ordinary scientific inquiry: it would have to be knowledge of the essential natures of things, something that neo-Kantians, empiricists, and practical men of science could all agree was neither possible nor perhaps even desirable. Everything changed when Hempel formulated his dn account of ex- planation. In accordance with the observation above, that our only clue to the nature of explanatory knowledge is science’s own explanatory prac- tice, Hempel proposed simply to describe what kind of things scientists ten- dered when they claimed to have an explanation, without asking whether such things were capable of providing “true understanding”. Since Hempel, the philosophy of scientific explanation has proceeded in this humble vein, 1 seeming more like a sociology of scientific practice than an inquiry into a set of transcendent norms.
[Show full text]
Two Concepts of Law of Nature
Prolegomena 12 (2) 2013: 413–442 Two Concepts of Law of Nature BRENDAN SHEA Winona State University, 528 Maceman St. #312, Winona, MN, 59987, USA [email protected] ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE / RECEIVED: 04–12–12 ACCEPTED: 23–06–13 ABSTRACT: I argue that there are at least two concepts of law of nature worthy of philosophical interest: strong law and weak law . Strong laws are the laws in- vestigated by fundamental physics, while weak laws feature prominently in the “special sciences” and in a variety of non-scientific contexts. In the first section, I clarify my methodology, which has to do with arguing about concepts. In the next section, I offer a detailed description of strong laws, which I claim satisfy four criteria: (1) If it is a strong law that L then it also true that L; (2) strong laws would continue to be true, were the world to be different in some physically possible way; (3) strong laws do not depend on context or human interest; (4) strong laws feature in scientific explanations but cannot be scientifically explained. I then spell out some philosophical consequences: (1) is incompatible with Cartwright’s contention that “laws lie” (2) with Lewis’s “best-system” account of laws, and (3) with contextualism about laws. In the final section, I argue that weak laws are distinguished by (approximately) meeting some but not all of these criteria. I provide a preliminary account of the scientific value of weak laws, and argue that they cannot plausibly be understood as ceteris paribus laws. KEY WORDS: Contextualism, counterfactuals, David Lewis, laws of nature, Nancy Cartwright, physical necessity.
[Show full text]
Ast#: ___Science Knowledge Study Guide Physical
Name: ______________________________ Pd: ___ Ast#: _____ Science Knowledge Study Guide Physical Science Honors Provide a short response to the following prompts. 1. Describe how scientific knowledge is affected by new evidence (if the new evidence does NOT support the current understanding). Scientific knowledge grows and changes as new evidence is uncovered. 2. What is scientific knowledge built from? (list 3 things) Continuous testing and observation Debate (argumentation) All contribute to the EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE Confirmation (repetition & replication) 3. Why is it important that we use phrases such as “the results suggest…” or “the evidence supports…” rather than using words such as “prove” or “proof”? Using words such as “prove” violate the tentative nature of science. They imply that scientific knowledge is concrete and unchanging. However, scientific knowledge must remain open to change. 4. Under what circumstances will a scientific theory become a law? Explain. A scientific theory will NEVER become a scientific law; it cannot, nor is it supposed to. A scientific theory and a scientific law are two different things with different purposes (an apple will never become an orange). 5. Why are scientific theories rarely discarded (completely abandoned), even when new evidence doesn’t fit within the current theory? Scientific theories are rarely completely discarded because they are heavily-tested and well-supported explanations. It is rare that new evidence completely invalidates a theory; rather, it is more likely that the theory can be “tweaked” or changed slightly to accommodate the new evidence. 6. What represents the BEST explanation that science can offer? Scientific theories represent the best explanations science has to offer.
[Show full text]
A Very Useful Guide to Understanding STEM
A Very Useful Guide to Understanding STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) By Delphine Ryan Version 2.0 Enquiries: [email protected] 1 © 2018 Delphine Ryan – A very useful guide to understanding STEM INTRODUCTION Imagine a tree with many branches representing human knowledge. We could say that this knowledge may be split into two large branches, with one branch being science and the other being the humanities. From these two large branches, lots of smaller branches have grown, and each represent a specific subject, but are still connected to the larger branches in some way. What do we mean by the humanities? The humanities refers to the learning concerned with human culture, such as literature, languages, history, art, music, geography and so on, as opposed to science. A science is an organised collection of facts about something which have been found by individuals and groups of individuals looking into such things as how birds fly, or why different substances react with each other, or what causes the seasons of the year (different temperatures, amount of daylight, etc.). More on this will be discussed in this booklet. In the following section, I aim to give you a balanced explanation of what we call the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in order to help you decide which career path would be best for you: a career in the sciences or in the humanities. I will also talk about art and its relationship to STEM subjects. And finally, I aim to give you a balanced view of the relationship between the sciences and the humanities, and to demonstrate to you, in the final section, how these two large branches of human knowledge work together, always.
[Show full text]
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD and the LAW by Bemvam L
Hastings Law Journal Volume 19 | Issue 1 Article 7 1-1967 The cS ientific ethoM d and the Law Bernard L. Diamond Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_law_journal Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Bernard L. Diamond, The Scientific etM hod and the Law, 19 Hastings L.J. 179 (1967). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol19/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Law Journal by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND THE LAW By BEmVAm L. DIivmN* WHEN I was an adolescent, one of the major influences which determined my choice of medicine as a career was a fascinating book entitled Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. This huge volume, originally published in 1897, is a museum of pictures and lurid de- scriptions of human monstrosities and abnormalities of all kinds, many with sexual overtones of a kind which would especially appeal to a morbid adolescent. I never thought, at the time I first read this book, that some day, I too, would be an anomaly and curiosity of medicine. But indeed I am, for I stand before you here as a most curious and anomalous individual: a physician, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and (I hope) a scientist, who also happens to be a professor of law. But I am not a lawyer, nor in any way trained in the law; hence, the anomaly. The curious question is, of course, why should a non-lawyer physician and scientist, like myself, be on the faculty of a reputable law school.
[Show full text]
Introduction to the History of Science
Intro duc tion to the His to ry of Scien ce . Vol. I, from Homer to Omar Khayyam. By George Sarton, Associate in the History of Science, Carnegie Institution, Washington, D. C. Pub- lished for the Carnegie Institution. Baltimore, Williams and Wilkins Company, 1927. In the introductory chapter to this truly magnificent volume Dr. Sarton, the author, who has already done so much for the history of science by his able editorship of Isis, states that his purpose is to explain briefly, yet as com- pletely as possible, “the development of science, that is of systematized positive knowledge.” He is careful to state that his work will contain but few references to political or economic history, nor to the history of art, not because of any lack of appreciation of their great importance but because there already exist many excellent books dealing with them. On the other hand he does devote much space to the history of religion because we cannot understand the intellectual background of a people without a study of its religious problems and ideas. This is obvious to the most superficial observer if he considers the way in which medieval thought was completely dominated by theological conceptions; “Theol- ogy was at once the core of science and the prop of religion.” Although music is now more generally con- sidered as an art than a science yet Sarton finds it is necessary to incorporate some material concerning its history, recalling that it was one of the main divisions of the quadrivium which dominated medieval education. Much impor- tance is also due to the early history of philology.
[Show full text]
Ecology: Definition, Scope and Relationship with Other Sciences
Ecology: Definition, Scope and Relationship with other sciences By Shalinder Kaur Department of Botany P.G.G.C.G. – 11 Chandigarh The word "ecology" ("oekologie") (coined by German scientist Ernst Haeckel,1866) was derived from the Greek ―oikos” meaning "household" and logos meaning "science:" the "study of the household of nature." Ecology is not synonymous with environment, environmentalism, or environmental science. Ecology is closely related to physiology, evolutionary biology, genetics and ethology. An understanding of how biodiversity affects ecological function is an important focus area in ecological studies. Ecology: branch of science that deals with interaction between living organisms with each other and their surroundings. Ecological systems are studied at several different levels from individuals and populations to ecosystems and biosphere level. Ecology is a multi-disciplinary science, drawing on many other branches of science. Applied ecology is the practice of employing ecological principles and understanding to solve real world problems. E.g. calculating fish population, measuring environmental impact from construction or logging, building a case for the conservation of a species, and determining the most effective way to protect a species. In a broader sense, ecology can also mean: Natural environment: using the principles and methods of ecology. Human Ecology: looks at humans and their interactions with the natural environment. Scope of Ecology Ecology can be studied at several levels, from proteins and nucleic acids (in biochemistry and molecular biology), cells (in cellular biology), organisms (in botany, zoology, and other similar disciplines), and finally at the level of populations, communities, and ecosystems — which are the subjects of ecology. Because of its focus on the broadest level of life and on the interrelations between living beings and their environment, ecology draws heavily on other branches of science, such as geology and geography, meteorology, pedology, chemistry, and physics.
[Show full text]
Rules of Law, Laws of Science
Rules of Law, Laws of Science Wai Chee Dimock* My Essay is a response to legal realism,' to its well-known arguments against "rules of law." Legal realism, seeing itself as an empirical practice, was not convinced that there could be any set of rules, formalized on the grounds of logic, that would have a clear determinative power on the course of legal action or, more narrowly, on the outcome of litigated cases. The decisions made inside the courtroom-the mental processes of judges and juries-are supposedly guided by rules. Realists argued that they are actually guided by a combination of factors, some social and some idiosyncratic, harnessed to no set protocol. They are not subject to the generalizability and predictability that legal rules presuppose. That very presupposition, realists said, creates a gap, a vexing lack of correspondence, between the language of the law and the world it purports to describe. As a formal system, law operates as a propositional universe made up of highly technical terms--estoppel, surety, laches, due process, and others-accompanied by a set of rules governing their operation. Law is essentially definitional in this sense: It comes into being through the specialized meanings of words. The logical relations between these specialized meanings give it an internal order, a way to classify cases into actionable categories. These categories, because they are definitionally derived, are answerable only to their internal logic, not to the specific features of actual disputes. They capture those specific features only imperfectly, sometimes not at all. They are integral and unassailable, but hollowly so.
[Show full text]
Branches of Science Biology
Branches of Science Biology • The study of life. • Biology is concerned with the characteristics, classification, and behaviors of organisms, how species come into existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with the natural environment. Paleontology • Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of the history and development of life on Earth, including that of ancient plants and animals, based on the fossil record. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks, burrows, cast-off parts, fossilized feces and chemical residues. Paleontology Ecology • Ecology, is the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment. The environment of an organism includes physical properties like sunlight, climate, and geology, as well as the other organisms that share its habitat. Ecology: The study of the household of nature Entomology • Entomology is the scientific study of insects. Insects have many kinds of interactions with humans and other forms of life on earth, so it is an important specialty within biology. Entomology Mammalogy • The study of mammals Zoology • Zoology is the biological discipline which involves the study of non-human animals. Botany • Botany is the scientific study of plantlife. Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines that study the structure, growth, reproduction, metabolism, development and diseases of plants. The study of plants and botany began with tribal lore, used to identify edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, making botany one of the oldest sciences. Botany Ichthyology • Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish.
[Show full text]