PHYA10H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Furlong, Natural Philosophy, Scientific Method
14 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
The science of dealing with properties, changes, interaction of matter and energy. Physics is subdivided into mechanics, thermodynamics, optics, acoustics, etc. Quantitative and quantitative understanding of basic laws of nature to explain phenomenon in the universe. Aristotle (384-322 b. c) is regarded as the first person to attempt physics, and gave physics its name. Matter was composed of: air, earth, water, fire. Every compound was a mixture of these elements, unfortunately there is no predictive power. Galileo galilei (1564-1642) was one of the first to use the scientific method of observation and experimentation. Length: size of nucleus ~ 10-15 m, size of universe ~ 1030m. Time: nuclear vibration ~ 10-20s, age of universe ~ 1018s. Mass: electron ~ 10-30kg, universe ~ 1028kg. Knowing the scale lets us guess the result. Learn rules for determining the number of significant figures in computations. Measurement data has little meaning without significant figures.
