History of Thought and Science
1) How is science unique among the many disciplines? (its process of knowing the truth, its
goals) => Modern science is different from armchair speculation such as philosophy or
religion. Its goal is to understand and utilize the nature. Two features of modern science
are ‘simplification’ and ‘abstraction.’ In order to wrinkle the truth, modern scientists
employ the process of ‘scientific method’, in which the experiment is central. In their
experiments, scientists go out into the world and ‘make observations under carefully
controlled conditions’ so that they can reduce the subjective components of their
perception. Therefore, the simplicity of experimental observation enables its results and
explanation to be publicly verifiable.
In addition, abstraction is a way of finding a broader relationship among apparently
unconnected phenomena. Abstraction helps various knowledge merge into a single whole,
which leads to the synergy effect of modern science resulting in the fast advancement of
modern science.
2) What were the contributions of the Greeks, and Galileo to science? => Galileo introduced
the approach of scientific method to the discovery of knowledge. He put an emphasis on
making observation. His second contribution is that he developed ‘the art of
simplification’ – the isolation of the variables of a problem. For instance, his use of balls
and pendulums instead of real objects in our life in his experiment helped him to avoid
the confusions of reality. Thus, now his descendants are able to disentangle the awesome
complexity of the world, to examine it piece by piece, and to build it up with deeper
understanding.
On the other hand, Greeks, especially Aristotle, heavily relied on speculation about
the nature instead of experimental observation. They also lacked the quantitative
explanatory power in their theory. So Greek’s contributions to science hindered its
development for such a long time.
3) What were the contributions of Newton? They were not about energy. What were they
about? => He established the three laws of motion in classical mechanics, which
summarize the motion of objects in space. He invented a mathematical way, calculus, to
explain physical phenomena, and so opened the way to modern quantitative physical
science. The first law is the law of inertia, which is the same as Galileo’s discovery. His
second law, the law of acceleration, makes possible the prediction of precise trajectories
of moving bodies. The third law is the law of action reaction, which leads to the
conservation of momentum in the universe. The conservation of momentum may explain
the shape of universe because a conservation law is a consequence of symmetry.
4) What is energy, who first described it, and what is difficult about heat? => The term
energy was used first by Thomas Young in 1807. According to him, energy was the
product of the mass or weight of a body into the square of the number expressing its
velocity. Energy is the physical quantity that is defined as the capacity to do work.
Basically, there are only two kinds of form of energy: kinetic and potential. Kinetic energy
is the capacity to do work by virtue of motion; potential energy is the capacity to do
work by virtue of position. The exception to the universality of the terms kinetic and
potential energy is the energy of electromagnetic radiation. The concept of energy is
central to the universe and all the structures and events in it. Energy is the watchful
guardian of propriety, ensuring that causality causes only legitimate actions because
energy is conserved. Newton’s second law proves the fact that total energy is constant.
The conservation of energy is related with the symmetry of spacetime.
Heat is energy transferred between two objects as a result of a temperature
difference. From a hot object to a cold object, energy is conveyed through atomic or
molecular motions. Heat is not the entity but the process in which thermal energy is
passed from a point to another point. Thermal energy is the form of kinetic energy of
molecules(atoms) in matter. Thus, to understand of phenomena related to heat, the
development of quantum mechanics should have proceeded. The transfer of energy as
heat is the transfer of energy that stimulates random motion of atoms in the
surroundings.