PHYSICS 20E Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Design Of Experiments, Copernican Revolution, Statistical Hypothesis Testing
Document Summary
20% of the stars in our galaxy have habitable earth-like planets. If simple life is common on these planets, there is a real chance that we will detect it at some point in our lifetime. The first recorded ideas about worlds other than the earth come to us from ancient greece. Lived in miletus, wealthy lonian port city. Had radical notion: humans can understand workings of the world in material terms (no spirits) Taught that the heavens were composed of physical objects. Proposed that many worlds exist throughout the cosmos. Said some of those worlds are populated with life. Believed everything is made of indivisible units he called atoms . Believed in many worlds, all different and the possibility of life on those worlds. Heavens = non-earthly material, perfect and unchanging. Earth = place of decay, death (& life), unique.
