Science Analysis Essays - Philosophy Of Science, Critical Thinking

Science Analysis The late 19th and 20th centuries have seen advances in technology and scientific understanding the likes of which have not been seen before in such a short amount of time in known Human history. In the last hundred and fifty years science has advanced so much that one would barely recognize the lifestyle of Humans before all these technological wonders. In fact, if the scientists and thinkers of pre-industrial society had had a glimpse of the technology available to the average early 21st century man they would probably surely think some sort of sorcery was involved and would not believe for one moment that all these technological innovations were based on concepts of the governing laws of the universe that have applied all through mankind's history. In fact, modern science looks pretty solid when one examines all of its wondrous creations and the fact that new ones keep coming out daily. For instance, it would appear that modern science has correctly solved the understanding of concepts and principles which govern how electricity flows in a circuit. After all, computers, hair dryers, TV's and other such electronic devices use this scientific understanding to function properly and in turn most people use such devices every day, thus is this science proven every time such a device is used successfully? It is easy to classify such scientific understanding as fact when devices built upon the science work and work very dependably at that. However is this science fact as would appear, or is merely conjecture based upon an observable phenomenon? Perhaps something entirely different happens when we throw the switch on a light bulb and it illuminates than what science says happens. Even though the light bulb lights up every time, that does not necessarily mean that the scientific understanding of how the light bulb works is true. Take for instance the scientific principles of projectile motion. In a simplified form, current physics explains that projectile motion is composed of two components. A y component which describes the objects path in a vertical direction and the x component which describes the object's motion in relation to a horizontal direction. This explanation show that projectiles travel in an arc and its has been proven countless times through experiment upon experiment since its original conception. However, the modern principles of projectile motion is not how scientists have always explained the phenomenon. In fact, the theory proposed by medieval scientists in drastically different from what is now accepted. This scientists of yesterday tried to explain projectile motion from what they observed and the most likely example of projectile motion that a medieval scientist would have seen would be a catapult or some other similar device. When someone on the ground observes such a device in action it is hard to see that the object moves in an arc because the object is usually observed from the back (hopefully not the front) rather than from the side. Scientists would observed that object appeared to move up at a fairly constant rate then go smashing into the ground some distance later. Thus, the theory that they adopted to explain this motion was that an object had a certain amount of energy when it was thrown. This energy, which they called "impetus" caused the object to go up in a straight line at whatever angle it was fired at and once the object reached its maximum height, it used all of its impetus and fell straight down in a vertical line to the ground. This theory of projectile motion existed for some time and it was not until scientists such as Galileo started conducting sound scientific experiments that the modern ideas of projectile motion were formed. Thus it is evident that even if a device (the catapult in the above example) harnesses some phenomenon, the explanation for the phenomenon is not necessarily true just because the device works. This example instead shows what science really is. Science is an attempt by Humans to explain the world around us. When something is observed, a scientist begins to propose ideas as to why something is happening the way it is. The scientist uses all the current scientific theories to support his new idea and also uses experimentation to test the new idea. Over time through experimentation the idea is refined and if it appears to be sound then it is accepted as theory. However, in the future a new breakthrough may come about which renders this old theory obsolete and scientists at the time of the discovery will realize