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In this world. The products of science function with planned efficiency. However political and social affairs. Usually display. All of human failings. Small wonder there's good cause to ask why science works yet. The scope of science has widened progressively doing that last three hundred years. And you know lifetime has been increasing by leaps and bounds.
Man has learned how to use the power of code. And has found in this way the equivalent of whole. Armies of slaves. Man has a allies the dream of humanity in learning to fly. And now we talk to time in this dense. For instance. You are hearing me now. I cost something like six months of time. And i cause a disturbance of perhaps a thousand miles. What can be the secret. Of such an place a dented success and irresistible goal at one time it was thought that science would result from accumulating observations. And comparing them systematically. This was the idea of francis bacon. And even of john stuart mill in the nineteenth century. Now we know better. We have had to find to invent a much more powerful shop or two. In order to bring out the play haven laws of nature. And this chopper two is experimentation. In the lab
but their experiments do not merely tell us that such and such things happen. They use new milica lation ships between physical quantities such as lengths. Temperatures. Voltages. What we call scientific results in the next step. When scientist has collected science. Several more or less suddenly did you make a loss. He feels the need of a theory to unify them. Such a scientific theory is a construction of the imagination. For instance suppose we have found out that us boys did in the seventeenth century. That if we have. Air or any other guess compressed and a base than it takes twice as much force exerted on this piston to use this volume of gas. To one hot. Let us call this law. A and suppose we have found. As worse than at the. And of the eighteenth century. But if we have gas.
And closed in a container of definite value. Such as a pressure cooker. Doubling the temperature doubles the pressure temperature in this case is not the fan high temperature but is measured on another. Appropriate scale. Let us call this new mexico law. Law be that these two laws must have something to do with each other since they connect they pressure the volume. And the temperature of a gas. But on the other hand. Consider the law established in the beginning of the nineteenth century by french chemists that two equal volumes of hydrogen combine with one volume of oxygen. To give us two volumes of water vapor. Off steam. Without any and has a due of hydrogen oxygen. Let us call this lol lol see. Lossie has not any major connection that you might guess with laws a in the.
However when we have a certain number of empirical laws like these that all have to do with gases. We begin to wonder what the gas. Actually consists of whether we couldn't imagine a model of a gas. Which would explain in some way. Why a gas behaves in physics. I call it into laws. A and b.. And in chemistry. According to law see. One such model of the gas. Had been suggested by you newton. Another such model was suggested later. And it's called. The kinetic theory of gases. Now when we are in the presence of two or more theories like these the work of the scientists imagination. We must find some way to decide which one is the most acceptable. It usually happens that the man who has had enough imagination to invent one of these theories. Has invented at the same time a new. Experiment. Some new lab that i set up. Which according to his they really ought to work in such and such a way.
The result of performing. This experiment. Is this. In the most favorable. Cases. A definite decision for all a games. Is there in the case of laws. A b. and c. about gases. A certain hypothesis was suggested. At the beginning of one thousand century. Which said that the number of molecules of hydrogen oxygen. In each of these boxes. Was the same. Although this hypothesis to very helpful throughout the one hundred centuries. It was still nothing but a figment of the magination. And did scientists were able to measure. How many molecules actually were contained in a box of a given size. Such as this person. So i. Which has the standard volume of twenty two point four liters. And this was the work of a french physicist. John. There in one thousand nine hundred
eight he huge several types of experiments. One in particular concern the. Unceasing. Irregular. Motion. Of particles. Suspended in a liquid. Here we have a diagram. Made by hand. Of such a particle which was followed in the field of the microscope. And from time to time as a second thought so one of these particles bumped into another one. And you can see it changing its action. Just like a billiard ball who has been met by another. And they are this inflicting. That is what we actually observe. In a case like this. Now this is only one. Of half a dozen. Type of experiments. From which jump in our show that we could find out. This number of molecules in a given. Box. And all these experiments converge in giving up pollock's them. Play the same value for the number of molecules. Containing this standard box. And that was six.
Followed by twenty three zero zero zero s.. Agreement on such a fantastical a large number. Was most impressive. And from that moment. On the hypothesis was accepted by all scientists. And so was this theory of which it was a constituent part. The so-called kinetic theory of gases. In this way. Science extended. And i'm buying that so to speak. Over laws. A b. c. and several others which i didn't mention. Incidentally then your turn model. Was not found. Not to fit. These experiments. As well as the newer model and therefore. Was a bad. After theory has gained acceptance among scientists. It usually best food for quite a while in several domains. However exciting developments take place when. Observations do not fit into their meaning clear.
This may happen. Either because the new observations. Actually contradicted theories. All because they stand that pop into mulay discovered that science. As an example of the first games. This guy if i could say numerical loss here. We've got them. They very often. They are of a particle an electron. In factions of the speed of light. Zero ten percent and so forth. Ninety percent. And here we plop the mass of the electron. At this certain scale. And you can see that the mass. Is in play jane. At the same time as they have their last city in places. Now this is in direct contact diction with newton's laws which i stood on. The assumption. Of the. Unchanging mass of all particles of the godless of speaking on the other hand. A new experiment may reveal a completely new field quite and connected with a known ones. The discovery of national radioactivity at the end of the last century was such a turning point.
The whole of nuclear physics the hive. On thing. Since that time. Physicists have partially succeeded in including the idea activity and the border by law. Covering most of classical and modern physics. Although one must admit that the task of unification. Is not yet complete. You can see that imagination. Plays a considerable the whole. Impure of science. It is imagination that invents the new theories and devise new experiments to test them. It also takes considerable imagination to devise new machines. On your posts esas. In the after life sciences. They work of the engineer and the applied scientists at that space consist in using existing. Well known laws. To design a new device. Oh i knew substance. With specific properties. Landing at that. For instance. Take the invention of numerous types of electric motors.
Between eight hundred sixty. And the present times. D.c. motors and. Ac motors sync conus induction motors. Three phase and so forth. The inventor of such a motor takes for granted the loss of electricity. As they have been established by m. b.n. fad they and many others. But he invents new ways of our enjoying the components of motors. I don't cause. All dating steel the arms. Implicitly want cars of copper wire. Carrying the electric car. Such engineers create motors which possess certain desirable positives. Which enabled. To perform specific jobs. Particularly well. For instance to stop. And a heavy load to keep a constant power and. Different kinds of loaded so for now is another example. With the development of. Emoticon told machinery. It became necessary to have some means by which a pointer.
On a dial. At some place. Could we made to follow faithfully the motion of a pointer. And accordingly to say the temperature of a furnace. Well this is actually done by means of a small electric motor. Specially designed for that purpose. Although the design of the motor is new. It would have been immediately understood by an engineer and nine hundred. Is an example of such a step. Here we have let us say. The dial. Which would indicate the temperature. In a furnace. And we want to have this temperature. Repeated. In the office of the engineer. Perhaps two hundred off five hundred feet they way. Well to that effect we installed behind this dial an electric generator. Of a certain type. And behind this diode we quit the motor of the i.c. military. And we connect. The motor engine and item by means of. A certain
type of cable. Here i did. And as. I'm going to connect the. These two motors together the motor and the journey and i don't look what's going to happen. Now that i have connected. You see that. The this point is. Points now. For the same number as this one. And this is the master. Dial. And as i as the pointer which my hand. Dives. Moves with a as the temperature of the furnace changes. Five hundred feet that way this far into their indicates. All the evaluations. Of temperature. Ceviche me. And the name of chauvel motor you would for this particular type in a similar way. An electronics engineer invent some new combination of chords and capacitors and existence in vacuum cubes. In order that the circuit he builds should have certain poverty's.
Maybe he wishes to receive a radio wave in a certain domain of frequency. With such and such precision. Moreover the engineers design will have to satisfy certain economic limitations. Now for instance from this design. With familiar components. Are used in a new way. Is produced. This late you said. Which says that there's certain competitive parts. Again. In the same way. It can it's we can make use of no. Procedures in organic chemistry. To create a human it's you. It's what we call an organic synthesis. Which will have certain properties for example. Pharmaceutical with specific clinical benefits. And no delete the a yes effect on the patient's heart. Or digestion. The organic chemist. Has created in this way hundreds of thousands of compounds. Pharmaceuticals. The fumes dyes plastics. Synthetic fibers and so forth.
These are gannett compounds which have never existed in their world before. Our combinations of chains and cycles. Yes. The chain. Is a cycle. Combined. According to well known laws of organic chemist thing. You see that this is quite similar to the design of new electric motors. All idea receives. Well. I have mentioned several times the check. Made on a pop post is a bad law but really expensive and not about experiments. So i think the eighty ments majority of them are not only quantitative. But you mimic them. They don't only say. That's a quantity. In places from the small to a large value. They say. What this quantity. Is and they consist of sensually they are following finding the numerical value of any kwan physical quantity voltage zero
length what is it. Measured with a certain unit. This is usually done particularly nowadays where we have the help of electrical. Methods by reading the position of a needle in front of escape. For instance heres a bad idea and if want to find. How many volts. It produces. Well i connect it to a vote meter and you can see the point the movie. And standing still in the western division. This is what we call a point their rating. You malicorne measurement of pointer leading. Constitutes the ideal definition of what is a scientific fact. You know all the interminable discussions that they are in other fields. Of what constitutes a fact. Is it a fact that seize upon ounce certain memorable words. On costing below because. Is it a fact that there is a best the first was in love with the earl of essex. Is it a fact that they witness to an accident saw the victim costing the state. As such and such a time.
Science makes things very easy for itself. By accusing. To concede the fact of that di it considers that fact. Only point. Readings which mol over. Must be the end product of a set up in a lab and die in which all the high level physical. Variables. Have been identified and taken care of. Some of them. By having them. Carefully measured. And others. By be completely eliminate the result is called a scientific fact. As a result. Any competent that system. Asked to read the position of a pointer at the end of a certain experiment. We find the same result as anyone else and then that his judgment of the coincidence of the pointer. With a certain line on this case is a judgement. Of fact. It is not a value judgement.
Now you know that they are value judgments in all fields of human and never. Not only in art and in poetry. But in ethics in our ledger. In government and so forth. We cannot decide which is the best form of government. Without bringing in assumptions that our value judgments. For instance something that people are the best judges of what they need. But on the other hand. Others might contend that it is the function of the state. To give them. What is good for them and. Of course we know that the essence of value judgments. Is that they are different from one person to the next. On the continent. In science. Because we don't have to make value judgments. Our system. Or any other laboratory work as well as other scientists repeating the experiment under the same conditions in different places. Will find exactly the same number. This more than compensates for their next actions that science has placed upon itself.
In defining what constitutes effect. It makes up for such now unless as we have defined by the absolute confidence we can. Place on a pointer leading. Which has been checked by different people at different places and if. Times. Using similar equipment. This act. Called judgment of fact. At work in the lab but it does now look at the situation in everyday life. Outside the lab but down. Here it is the tightest of observations. That emotions. But the judge momentarily. And violent emotions. Make us incapable of our. Using our reason to act go directly. If a man is on over by a taxi. Causing a street. F one might say. I'm not surprised. I had talked with him five minutes before. And he was so upset by the news he had just received. He just didn't know what he was
doing. Such is the case for all a strong emotions. Joy love hate anger fear. All disturb our children. Well. They don't muck about thing is that. By has thanked ing itself to point their ratings. Science has created a. Save and close the main where this scientist is protected against the effects of his own emotions. The coincidences. Of a pointer with lines on this case are equally after one to all observers. This is one basis of the power behind the famous quantitative method of science. The use of numbers. And here is another. Not only can you have complete confidence in the new medical data. But the fact that they are numerical. Is what enables science to make use of the tremendous force of mathematics. And mathematics. At a certain level. Is nothing but the collection of logical formulas which enable one to give at once
the conclusion of a reasoning. Without having to on. Over all this steps leading up to it. For instance. We know from the. Early steps of algae mav that if we have the product of the sub and of the difference of two numbers. The result is that difference of the squares of those numbers the formula. We had here a minute ago. Well then. Anyone who knows that formula. Gives the result. Without having to do with that long will typically sions. And many much more complicated operation of mathematics. Let us say. Finding the root of the what i think equation. Are second nature to anyone who has had their a good. Cost of first tier algy by in college. So in this way. Considerable time. Is saved. And the result is a pain. Automatically in its present form. The effects of the emotion. It contains no value judgments
whatsoever. Now in the same way. The laboratory would teens. I said. Well established loons like that which of algebra. And if these are followed correctly. They will lead to a specific case as neatly and without errors. In a chemical lab but let us say if you ask an assistant to find out which salt is in solution in this test you ought to distill this so that makes sure he will do it in the approved way. Without having to ponder. About the steps of the. But c.j.. That's exactly what his god retaining was for. In this way imagination. And more generally the emotions. Have been a limb in a thread. From the very large box. Of research work. Which is purely o.t. the point to ratings. The standard laboratory for sieges. The mechanical operations of mathematics. But at the highest level of scientific started gee. Whether theoretical or experimental. We still count on the imagination. To play it in a place of bull.
Consider not. On that one. All that imagination contributed to the advancement of science. The invention of. All the new concepts. Of the new theories. Of the new and tired experiments. Of the new laboratory but see chips. And note on the other hand. That all suggested i pop this no matter how crazy they seem contradictory i the common sense. All to the best established laws as we know them. Those hypotheses. Are suggested to do medical checks. Which are independent of the emotions of the observer. Then you must arrive at the conclusion that science is an extraordinary unique to me. Of human activity. In which we bring together. The advantages of. Unbounded imagination on they went
hand with. On the other hand the power of reason applying cool and. Unemotional chips. No wonder that in this way. We are either. Those products of the imagination. Those scientific theories and procedures which at a given moment. Present the most effective way of dealing with a scientific situation. Because scientific results. Are so solidly established. It is possible to build upon that. This is how it comes about that science's cumulated that newton. Knew so much more physics than get a new. Maxwell is so much more than newton and einstein. Ben maxwell such comparison would be impossible. In any field but science and. Only in science do we have the. Quiet assurance that leading scientists. In nine hundred eighty. Will know much more than einstein. This is why in science. We constantly have to produce new powers. Stations.
Which combine in a short condensed form. Facts which twenty years ago. Fill volumes. There is no end in view. For that cumulated post sets out the present time. We have seen it at work for the last one hundred fifty years. And it is obviously stated x. it is a very like date. Like every other biological. Off social bosis it will someday. If he'd such a nation. Reach a new plateau. As the. Psychologists say this is such an event a very far away from us not. If science goes like a population goes. Starting on a foam or low level. And then slowly growing and reaching a higher level of such elation. Then. Science is stated in the expanding phase of its over such as the phenomenon of the ghost of science. That we see aldous today.
I have tried to explain what causes us that goves. This. It is this double goals which saves us from the combination of the power of the imagination. And the power of. Reason he know the words. We have seen. Why science calls. For. The you the the the and the it the. Uh you know
who or what you are the thank the you you know what. This
national. Educational television.
Series
Of Science and Scientists
Episode Number
22
Episode
Why Science Works
Producing Organization
WGBH Educational Foundation
Contributing Organization
WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/15-01bk3sf0
NOLA Code
OSAS
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Description
Episode Description
A rocket plane stands poised on its landing platform. Then, with all the planned efficiency of science, it thrusts upward toward the stratosphere. Behind it falls away a world where political and social affairs display all the human failings. Small wonder there is good cause to ask an expert why science works. Professor Le Corbeiller suggests an answer in an inspection of the methods and cold judgment of science in the laboratory and their application to technology. He demonstrates with a number of pointer readings and a few simple equations that "science is an extraordinary, unique domain of human activity in which we bring together the advantages of unbounded imagination and the power of reason." (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Episode Description
Demonstrates with numerical measurement and equations how science grows from the imagination and power of man to reason. Inspects methods and judgments of science and their application to technology. Explains how science is an accumulative process whose bounds are unlimited. (Description from NET Film Service Catalog 1960)
Series Description
Americans tend to think of the sciences as potentially useful (air-conditioning) or potentially troublesome (Strontium-90). We accept or marvel at the revolutionary products of science while giving little thought to the basic ideas, concepts, techniques and logic that have gone into exploring, understanding and explaining our universe or in building our technical civilization. Such an understanding of science does not come easily. Limited by time and opportunity, scientists do not often explain themselves to non-scientists. Also, the quality of science is most difficult to the layman to understand is its indirect approach to the discovery of truths. Robert Frost summed up the problem by commenting that to his mind all science rested on the question, "How she differs from what she's like."Without attempting to teach physics or chemistry or geology, these programs suggest the qualities and outlook of science. By analogy and demonstration, they reveal the ideas which guide scientific research and the truths that research uncovers. They give an appreciation of what the scientist can and cannot do. As one speaker says, "The important thing about science is not merely that it gives rise to technological miracles, but that it provides us with one of many guidebooks we need to find our way in this universe." Today, as non-scientists are called upon to make decisions or concur in decisions that may affect the future of scientific research and even the future of life, a knowledge of "how she differs from what she's like," may not only be useful, but necessary. By explaining and demonstrating the guiding principles of science and scientists, these programs attempt to convey that increasingly necessary knowledge. Produced by WGBH-TV, Boston, the producer-director was David Walker and the executive producer Lawrence Kreshkoff.Dr. Phillipe Le Corbeiller is Professor of Applied Physics and of General Education at Harvard University. He is host and program editor for Harvard in the television series, "Of Science and Scientists." A leader in Harvard's general education program since its beginning in 1946, when he started the course, "Principles of Physical Science," Dr. Le Corbeiller was the first to be appointed professor of General Education in 1949, in addition to being professor of Applied Physics. Throughout the series Dr. Le Corbeiller is joined by other scientists. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Broadcast Date
1957-00-00
Asset type
Episode
Topics
Education
Science
Rights
Published Work: This work was offered for sale and/or rent in 1960.
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:29:27
Embed Code
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Credits
Director: Walker, David
Executive Producer: Kreshkoff, Lawrence
Host: Le Corbeiller, Philippe
Producer: Walker, David
Producing Organization: WGBH Educational Foundation
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WGBH
Identifier: 283589 (WGBH Barcode)
Format: Betacam
Generation: Master
Duration: 00:00:30
WGBH
Identifier: 283574 (WGBH Barcode)
Format: Digital Betacam
Generation: Master
Duration: 00:00:30
WGBH
Identifier: 01493 (WGBH Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Kinescope
WGBH
Identifier: c7c89d792fb4b02fd72b7fa53a5da2c3b50c9200 (ArtesiaDAM UOI_ID)
Format: video/quicktime
Color: B&W
Duration: 00:00:00
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2324410-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
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Citations
Chicago: “Of Science and Scientists; 22; Why Science Works,” 1957-00-00, WGBH, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed December 7, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-01bk3sf0.
MLA: “Of Science and Scientists; 22; Why Science Works.” 1957-00-00. WGBH, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. December 7, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-01bk3sf0>.
APA: Of Science and Scientists; 22; Why Science Works. Boston, MA: WGBH, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-01bk3sf0