Physical Science
Notes Chapter 1: The Nature of Science
Chapter 1, Section 1
I. How do Scientists explore the world?
A. Scientists:
 ______________________________________
 ______________________________________
 ______________________________________
 ______________________________________
B. Branches of Science (List and Define the Three main branches and give
examples of each
1.
2.
3.
4. Define TECHNOLOGY:
C. Scientific Laws and Theories
1. Theories explain ________________________________________.
Why might a scientific theory be changed?
2. Laws describe __________________________________________.
Give an example:
Section 2: The Way Science Works
I. Science Skills
A. Define SCIENTIFIC METHOD

List the steps of the Scientific Method
B. List some tools (p. 17) that scientists use
II. Units of Measurement
A. What is SI?

Why do scientists use SI? (2 answers – pg. 18)
COPY THE TABLES ON PAGE 18 (FIG. 5-7) – for fig. 5 only do length,
mass, time and add volume from pg. 20 chart!
B. Converting
K H D M d c
m
C. Describe the difference between weight and mass.
Section 3
I. Presenting scientific data: line graph, pie graph, bar graph
II. Scientific Notation: To reduce very small or very large numbers to simple numbers
multiplied by a power of 10 (ten).
Practice examples:
III. Significant Figures are used to show ____________________________________.
A. Accuracy is:
B. Precision is
Section: Organizing Data
1. Convert the following measurements from scientific notation to long form:
__________________________
a. 2.54  10–3 cm
__________________________
b. 9.5  104 km
__________________________
c. 3.3  10–1 L
__________________________
d. 7.445  102 g
2. Convert the following measurements to scientific notation:
__________________________
a. 325 kg
__________________________
b. 0.00046 m
__________________________
c. 7,104 km
__________________________
d. 0.0028 L
3. Find the number of significant digits in each of the following:
__________________________
a. 0.00326
__________________________
b. 39,010
__________________________
c. 77,900.1
__________________________
d. 1.5300
5. Explain how measurements can be precise but not accurate.
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