Website

Your hosts for the semester
The evil and charismatic
Jonathan Price (prof)
JSC 1W13, 276-2372 pricej@rpi.edu
Teaching assistants:
Karen Merill
Lingbo Xing
Mailboxes are in the outer office of JSC 1W19
Class Website: http://ees2.geo.rpi./edu/PE1GEO1

Our Subject:
A guide to your planet inside and out

Why is this class important?
Humankind faces a number of challenges in the near future
• Energy resources
• Carbon budgeting - climate change
• Waste management
• Agricultural production
• Water resources
• Natural disasters
A working knowledge of the Earth is needed by all to make useful progress on any of these fronts.

This is as simple as it gets…
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

Not so long ago, Geology I and Planet Earth I were offered as separate and distinct courses. These grew to be so similar over time that they were merged into one glorious learning experience.
In short - one course with two numbers

Required learning aids
Text
Author: Stephen Marshak
Title Earth: Portrait of a Planet, 3rd Edition
Publisher Norton
ISBN 0-393-92502-1
Lab book
Authors: Norris W. Jones and Charles E. Jones
Title Laboratory Manual for Physical Geology, 8th edition
Publisher McGraw-Hill
The online lecture slide set
Related on-line reading
Google Earth placemark sets (on-line)

You may collaborate on these assignments, but your submitted paper should reflect your own unique, individual effort.
Working Together
• A good thing!
• Discuss Text
• Assignments
But… all submitted work should be your own
Needless to say –exams and quizzes are an individual effort.

• 3 in-class examinations
• Weekly quiz (you may drop two)
• Only offered on single date
• Lab assignments
• Cannot miss more than three and pass
• Labs/recitations start Sept. 10.
Excuses offered in advance always sound better

Academic Integrity (Trust):
• You trust that we’ve made appropriate decisions about this course
• We trust that all assignments and exams are your own work.
• Various forms of academic dishonesty are in the
Rensselaer Handbook.
• All forms are violations of student-teacher trust and ultimately undermine the validity of your degree.
• Penalties for cheating are quite harsh!

A word about vocabulary
• Large number of new terms
• Helps to know word roots (origins)
• Watch out for your instructor’s assumptions
• Ask questions when you do not understand a word or a concept.
• Familiarize yourself with the material on a daily basis.

The Nature of Science
The Science of Nature
“Supposing is good, but finding out is better.”
-Mark Twain

 Science is often misrepresented by popular culture
 Specifically, it is often confused with advocacy
 Fair-and balanced coverage of advocacy correctly requires varying opinions.
 However, science seeks to understand nature in ways that should be self-evident from observations.

 Science is not about finding truths.
 It’s about asking perceptive and often difficult questions about nature
 It’s about discovering interrelationships
 It seeks increase human understanding of our world in an observer-independent fashion.
 It acknowledges that our current understanding is subject to revision in the light of new and better observations

 Observation
Independent of the individual observer
 Explanation
Consistent with other explanations
 Prediction
Ideas are transferable in time and space
 Validation / Observation
Further observations validate or reject explanation
Science is driven by critical thought

Observation
26.5
26.0
25.5
25.0
24.5
-50 0 50
Temperature (F)
100 150
The above graph shows a relationship between automobile mileage and temperature.
Generally: MPG a
T Specifically: MPG = (T - 25) 2

Observation



Always empirical and consistent – but not necessarily unbreakable.
A "scientific principle" is usually more specific than a law, but the distinction is not always clear.

Observation
Note:
• It is incorrect to say that something
occurred because of a particular law.
• It would be correct to say that an observation is consistent with a particular law.

Explanation
Models – conveying an idea
Atoms in NaCl (Table Salt)
Bohr model of an atom
Cooling a sphere over time

Explanation
Theory and theory theory: An explanation consistent with observations but not necessarily tested (not very different from an hypothesis or idea)
Theory: A unifying explanation
 usually of a complex natural system or phenomenon
 that is widely accepted on the basis of extensive testing.
Probably as close to "truth" as you can get in science. Examples: Relativity; Evolution; Plate
Tectonics.

Explanation
Reproducibility
Neither
Accurate
Both
Precise

Observations
25
20
15
10
5
0
50
45
40
35
30
0
Interpolation
5 10 blebs
15
Extrapolation
20 25
Bleebs = 2 blebs

Observations
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 5 10 blebs
15 20 25

Observations
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 20 40 blebs
60 80 100
Bleebs = 2 x blebs

Observations
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 20 40 blebs
60 80 100
Bleebs = blebs 5/4

Cyclic behavior allows for precise predictions
(extrapolations)

Ideas (even sound ones) are ideally always open to scrutiny and evaluation.
Modern procedure:
• Develop idea
• Get someone to pay for it
• Test idea thoroughly
• Present idea to others
• Submit idea and results of test in written form
• Receive critical review from a small group of peers
• Respond to criticism
• Idea and results are evaluated by scientific community

Research
Present
Write
Review
Publish Popular Press

Non science
That which is untestable, and varies between individuals
• Aesthetics
• Values
• Beliefs
• Extranatural
Examples: Art, spirituality and religion, philosophy, love, taste, and fashion.
Non science is not inferior to science – they are different facets of the human experience
(i.e. it is not science vs. religion)

Non science
Jacob Jordaens
Three Musicians
Pablo Picasso

Without nonscience…
You are an insignificant mass in the universe bent on your own survival and the replication and survival of your genome.
The known universe
10 26 m
10 55 g
10 1 m
10 4 g
© M. Crawford Samuelson

Psuedoscience
Claims to be validated by the scientific method, but is not.
• Good – makes scientist examine weaknesses
• Not so good – never overcomes its criticisms
Examples: Advertising, astrology, “creation science,” perpetual motion machines, etc…
Pseudoscience is inferior to science – (i.e. it is science vs. psuedoscience)

Science Theory
An explanation consistent with the bulk of observer independent data
Nonscience belief
A statement of faith based on individual experience and societal interactions.
Pseudoscience
Co-opting selected scientific terms or process to forward a favored explanation
Evolution is the accepted explanation that is consistent with observations.
The belief that nature is ordered by a designer is one philosophy (a nonscience endeavor).
A good scientist will concede that this
Theory may be discarded in light of new observations
Nonscience is very important - don’t do science without it!
All observations must prove that there is a designer; those that do not are disregarded
One can’t prove nonscientific concepts using science.

The classic (but oft misunderstood) example of scientific persecution
Galileo’s observations (Jovian mooons, sunspots, lunar features) confirm the Copernican hypothesis - the Earth and the other planets orbit around the sun. Presented to the common man…in Italian
Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (1632) A tale of three people discussing the two theories, Salviati (Copernican), Sagredo (undecided), and Simplicio (Ptolemaic*).
Science vs. Psuedoscience
Heresy vs. Religion
Tactlessness vs. Spite
Galileo Galilei Pope Urban VIII
Maffeo Barberini
Note - the inquisition of the Church officially supported the Tychonic system stationary Earth with Venus and Mercury orbiting the Sun.

Copernican hypothesis contradicted an interpretation and tradition that planetary bodies revolve around Earth.
Heaven surrounds the world, and Hell is beneath it.
• Copernican hypothesis dismissed because of predisposition of the church (psuedoscience)
• Galileo was determined to be a heretic by the inquisition, perhaps exacerbated by the accessibility of his publication (religion)
• Galileo’s presentation of the hypothesis was personally insulting to the Pope and conservative philosophers (spite)

A kinder, gentler inquisition …
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.
Giordano Bruno was imprisoned for seven years, tried, and burned at the stake in 1600. His heretical views are thought to include those of an infinite universe, a heliocentric solar system, and multiple star systems

Example: increases human health and life expectancy result from advances in medical science
Example: we can prepare for inclement weather, as opposed to appeasing the wrath of the gods.
Example: we can allocate energy sources to provide the most work for the least cost.

It must play a key role in issues ranging from environment and energy to biotechnology and the world's food supply. Many of the answers lie at some confluence of science, politics, ethics and sociology.
Sometimes scientists don’t do the right thing.
Luckily, there are some self-correcting mechanisms built in.

• Science labors to describe the universe in understandable terms.
• This is achieved by careful, repeatable measurement, and deduction of connections between measurements.
Explanations for repeatedly observed phenomena are called Laws
Consistently supported deductions are called
Theories.
• Science is intrinsic to human behavior, and can be applied to enrich human life.