Big Questions in Science series, (3 of 9). Class taught at AUC (University of Amsterdam) during the 2012-2013 fall semester.

1. Big Questions in Science

2.  Scientific revolutions
 Copernicus: the Solar System
 Newton: gravity
 Today's idea of unification
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 2

3. • Oldest still working planetarium in the world, 1774-1781.
• Reproduces the motion of the planets around the sun in real time.
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 3

4. The mechanism
http://www.planetariumzuylenburgh.com/CZ/Collectie_Z/Globes/Blaeu/Blaeu_EN.htm
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 4

5. • Medieval science (12th century renaissance): trust in human reason
• Humanism of Renaissance:
• Challenge Aristotle Technique: bridges, cathedrals,
• New neoplatonic ideas fountains, optics, cartography,
• Methodology machines
• Value of technique
• Other factors: cities, trade, voyages, warfare.
Artificio de Juanelo, 16th century Toledo, Spain
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificio_de_Juanelo

6. • Applying the machine
principle everywhere in
science: animal bodies
as complex machines.
• Discovery of new worlds
in the large and small
scales: the universe is
huge and packed.
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasbourg_astronomical_clock

7.  Galileo showed all machines based on lever
principle.
 Kepler applied it to the planets (second law).
“My aim is to show that the machine of the
universe is not similar to a divine animated
being, but similar to a clock.”
 Galilei: also falling stones tick like a clock.
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 7

8.  Atoms.
 Cartesian geometry.
 “Most of the major steps forward in mechanics during
the seventeenth century involved the contradiction of
Descartes” (Westfall). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes
http://800millionparticles.blogspot.nl/2009/09/rene-descartes.html
8

9. Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 9

10. Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 10
http://www.redorbit.com/education/reference_library/space_1/universe/2574692/geocentric_model/

11. http://astronomy.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=203863
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 11

12. Explanation of retrograde motion
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 12

13. Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 13

14.  Ptolemaic Model Simulation
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 14

15. Heliocentric model: Sun at the center Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 15

16.  Planetary Orbit Simulator: Kepler’s First Law
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 16

17. Phases of Venus
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 17

18. Jupiter and its satellites: Saturn’s rings Sunspots
Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 18

19.  Planetary Orbit Simulator: Kepler’s 2nd & 3rd
Laws
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 19

20. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Newton-Principia-Mathematica_1-500x700.jpg
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 20

21.  Why does the Moon not fall on Earth?
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 21

22.  It is in constant fall but direction keeps changing.
Kepler’s laws follow
The Moon should behave asBig Questions in physical 2012. SdH, AUC instance an apple.
any other Science, fall object, for 22

23. Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 23

24. Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 24

25. Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 25

26. Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 26

27.  Read the first page of Kuhn’s “Revolutions as
Changes of World View”.
 What does he mean by “scientists see… different
things”, “scientists are responding to a different
world”?
 Give examples (dealt with in class and not dealt
with in class).
 Explain how the gestalt experiment relates to this.
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 27

28. http://www.platypusart.com/
 Clockwork universe
 Ptolemy geocentrism
 Copernicus: heliocentrism
 Gelileo: moons of Venus, Jupiter's satellites,
Saturn's rings, sunspots
 Kepler's laws
 Newton unifies heavens and earth: law of
gravity
 Scientific revolutions
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 28

29. The Unity of Science
 Goal: unity of knowledge.
 Place of science within the pursuit of truth.
 Common to modern science, Greek tradition,
Enlightenment.
 Unity of science can no longer be taken for
granted:
 Exponential growth of factual knowledge.
 Increasing specialization and fragmentation.
 Skepticism towards grand unifying schemes.
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 29

30.  Big Question: what justifies our belief in the
underlying unity of knowledge?
 Interdisciplinary approach assumes this.
Disciplines are communicating vessels.
 Success of LAS program hinges on this
assumption.
 Possible answer: reductionism. Everything
can be reduced to physics.
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 30

31.  Reduction still the goal in the natural
sciences.
 Explain new kinds of phenomena:
complexity, pattern formation, emergence,
self-organization, information.
 New paradigm includes cultural and social
dimensions of natural science.
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 31

32.  Ethics, cosmos, logos:
 Man is central to the stage of science
(Kuhn’s revolution).
 Complexity of the world rooted on order
accessible to human enquiry and
experimentation.
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 32

33.  Education should reflect both order and
complexity of nature.
 Approach problems from a multitude of academic
disciplines.
 Adopt and adapt different methodologies.
 Aim at synthesis.
Big Questions in Science, fall 2012. SdH, AUC 33