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Teaching Resources
• TeacherEXPRESS
• Conceptual Physics Alive!
   DVDs Introduction to
   Conceptual Physics
1 REVIEW
Concept Summary
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For: Self-Assessment
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Web Code: csa – 0100
Key Terms
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ASSESS
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Physics is about the nature of basic things
such as motion, forces, energy, matter,
heat, sound, light, and the composition of
atoms.
When scientific findings in nature are ex-
pressed mathematically, they are easier to
verify or disprove by experiment.
Scientific methods include some, if not all,
of the following: recognizing a problem,
making a hypothesis, predicting, perform-
ing experiments, and formulating rules.
If a scientist finds evidence that contradicts
a hypothesis, law, or principle then the hy-
pothesis, law, or principle must be changed
or abandoned.
To determine whether a hypothesis is
scientific or not, look to see if there is a test
for proving it wrong.
Science is a method of answering theoreti-
cal questions; technology is a method of
solving practical problems.
Science is mostly concerned with discover-
ing and recording natural phenomena, the
arts are concerned with the value of human
interactions as they pertain to the senses,
and religion is concerned with the source,
purpose, and meaning of everything.
Progress in our age is much quicker than it
was thousands of years ago.
scientific method (p. 2)
fact (p. 2)
hypothesis (p. 2)
law (p. 2)
principle (p. 2)
theory (p. 3)
think! Answers
1.5
Only (a) is a scientific hypothesis, because
there is a test for its wrongness. The state-
ment is not only capable of being proven
wrong, but it has been proven wrong.
Statement (b) has no test for possible
wrongness and is therefore unscientific.
Some pseudoscientists and other pretenders
of knowledge will not even consider a test
for the possible wrongness of their state-
ments. Statement (c) is an assertion that
has no test for possible wrongness.
If Einstein was not the greatest physicist,
how would we know? It is important to
note that because the name Einstein is
generally held in high esteem, it is a favorite
of pseudoscientists.
All of them! In this book, we focus on sci-
ence, an enchanting human activity shared
by a wide variety of people. With present-
day tools and know-how, we are reaching
farther and finding out more about our-
selves and our environment than people in
the past were ever able to do. The more we
know about science, the more passionate
we feel toward our surroundings. There is
physics in everything we see, hear, smell,
taste, and touch!
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1 ASSESS
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Section 1.1
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Think and Explain
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Section 1.7
8. How are science and the arts similar?
9. How do science and religion differ?
10. Why do citizens have a responsibility to
    have some basic understanding of nature’s
    rules?
Section 1.8
1. Why is physics the most basic science?
11. How does the rate of change of progress
    differ today from the rate in previous
    centuries?
Think and Explain
Section 1.2
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2. Why is mathematics important to science?
Section 1.3
12. Why does science tend to be a “self-
    correcting” way of knowing about things?
13. What is likely being misunderstood by
    someone who says, “But that’s only a scien-
    tific theory”?
3. What are the steps of the scientific method?
Section 1.4
4. Is a scientific fact something that is absolute
   and unchanging? Defend your answer.
5. Scientific theories undergo change. Is this a
   strength or a weakness of science? Defend
   your answer.
Section 1.5
6. What does it mean to say that if a hypoth-
   esis is scientific, then there must be a means
   of proving it wrong?
Section 1.6
7. How do science and technology differ?
14. a. Make an argument for halting the
       advances of technology.
    b. Make an argument for continuing
       advances in technology.
    c. Contrast your two arguments.
Teaching Resources
• Computer Test Bank
• Chapter and Unit Tests
CHAPTER 1
ABOUT SCIENCE
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