1 / 42

Models

Models. Question. How do scientists explain how the world works, how it worked in the past, and how it will work in the future? What makes it hard to do this?. Black Box. Any system that cannot be observed and manipulated directly or understood completely.

teagan
Download Presentation

Models

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Models

  2. Question • How do scientists explain how the world works, how it worked in the past, and how it will work in the future? • What makes it hard to do this?

  3. Black Box • Any system that cannot be observed and manipulated directly or understood completely. • Some black boxes are incomprehensible because our sensory access to them is incomplete

  4. Example #1: Dinosaurs – existed in past

  5. Example #2: Earth’s Core – sealed off from access

  6. Example #3: Plate Tectonics

  7. Example #4: Solar System

  8. Geocentric View of Solar System The idea that the sun is the center of the solar system was not discovered by renaissance astronomers, but rather hypostulated in 300 BC by Aristarchus of Samos.  Aristarchus was a Greek astronomer who attempted to measure the relative distances and sizes of the earth, moon, and sun.  Although his measurements were not very accurate he did propose that the sun was larger then the earth.  This revelation made him consider that the sun was the center of the solar system (heliocentric).  At the time the populous viewed the earth as center of the universe because why would the gods create the center of civilization on the earth, but not make it the center of the solar system. 

  9. Black Box  Model • Gather a few facts about a black box, can develop a working idea about… • what it looks like, • how it works, • what it is made of, etc. • When we do the above, we are building a model

  10. Model • Is a sufficiently accurate and complete representation or explanation of an object or process that is to some degree inaccessible. • Communicates information about that object or process, and is often the basis for further inquiry and discourse • Often develops in stages

  11. Example #Weather Model

  12. Model Stages • Individual approaches an unknown (a black box), makes observations, and organizes those observations into a tentative model that explains the unknown • After collaboration and additional observation (testing) model may be abandoned, revised, or confirmed • Eventually consensus evolves to explain the reality for everyone- until new information provides evidence for another revision of the model

  13. Definition of Model(s) • Conceptual model – an idea that takes form of a description or explanation of an object, system, or action that is not completely understood

  14. What is the smallest form of matter? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IznUYchOBUY • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EogdalfXF4c&feature=related

  15. Aristotle ~400 BCE • 4 elements = air, earth, wind, fire (There are no such things as atoms) • Each element had 2 qualities = dryness, coldness, hotness, wetness • Atoms are continuously divisible (no smallest part of matter)

  16. Democritus’ ‘Atomos’~400 BCE • ATOMOS = indivisible atom • Void where there is space between atoms • Solid hard balls, no internal structure, • Unchangeable & homogeneous • Atom is the smallest piece of matter

  17. Dalton1808

  18. Aristotle v. Democritus • First real model that people believed. • Prevailed overDemocritus and idea of “atomos” for centuries

  19. Thomson’s Model: Plum Pudding Model1904 • Plum pudding model -> positive background with negatively • charged electrons • Discovered sub-atomic particle called the electron. Negatively • charged particle. • Model is unstable

  20. Rutherford’s Model: Gold Foil Experiment1911 • Discovered protons • Discovered nucleus • Helped to solve the mystery of the charge of the atom, but not the mass

  21. Bohr Model1913 • Specific orbits around nucleus • Electrons travel in certain successively larger orbits • Outer orbits hold more electrons • Electrons can jump orbits and on way back down, emit light

  22. Chadwick Model1932 • Discovered neutron

  23. Electron Cloud Model • Model points • 90% chance of finding an electron in the cloud • How discovered? • Used quantum physics to predict where electrons maybe • Many different scientists, major contributor -> Schrödinger • How different from previous model? • Electrons travel in cloud vs. ‘rotaries’

  24. Picture of an Atom

  25. http://www.earthmodels.org/models

  26. 1948 Zenith Color TV

  27. Real World • Scientists don’t have all the answers • Apply the skills and procedures to discover things in the world that they can’t observe directly. • Scientists have to rely on the best available model to explain how the world works, how it worked in the past, and how it will work in the future.

  28. Scientists have to rely on the best available model to explain how the world works, how it worked in the past, and how it will work in the future.

  29. Your challenge… • What does the inside of your black box look like? • Use all senses • Build a conceptual model • Collaborate • Refine model, if necessary

More Related