Chapter 1 - How Science Makes Progress
written at 10:04 pm on February 20, 2010These are the notes I took for the first chapter of my astronomy textbook. I call it Chapter 1 - How Shit Gets Done .
- The Scientific Method
- WATCH SHIT Observe a natural phenomenon
- EXPLAIN SHIT Develop hypotheses
- PREDICT SHIT Make predictions for each
- TEST SHIT Experiment with or reobserve the phenomenon to test the hypotheses
- REDO SHIT Compare results, refine hypotheses
- SHIT DON’T STOP Since hypotheses can always be refined, the scientific method is never-ending
- CAUSE SHIT AINT DONE A theory can never be considered final
- The Nature of Science
- SHIT FIXES ITSELF Since models are always being refined, science is self-correcting
- IF SHIT’S GOOD, SHIT CAN BE WRONG Theories also must be falsifiable and lead to further understanding, not merely serve as an explanation
- THIS WAY SHIT GETS GOOD This leads to an increasingly accurate description of nature
- LIKE I SAID, SHIT AINT DONE However science does not produce absolute truth, since none produced are final
- BUT SHIT STILL SORTA EXPLAINS STUFF Instead, we glean tentative descriptions of phenomena
- GIVE IT TIME, SHIT GETS GOOD Over time it will still reveal the objective truth
I hope the class itself is not shitty.
The teacher is a delightful lecturer that sometimes brings his guitar to sing self-composed songs about astronomy!