Physics

North Allegheny SH

Mr. Neff

Chapter 1 Review Guide

1.1  THE BASIC SCIENCE – PHYSICS

Physics is the most basic science because the ideas of physics explain ________  __________  ________________. 

In physics, we use many units.  Generally however, the preferred system of units is the ______ system, which means “System Internationale.”  It is a subset of the metric system, including the meter, the second, and the kilogram, among others.

1.2  MATHEMATICS – THE LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE

Mathematics is the language of science because it is e____________, which means it says a lot with very few symbols. 

1.3            THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD   and
1.4     THE SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE

The scientific method is credited to G____________  and B________.  The scientific method is the way any logical p____________  s__________ approaches problems. 

It starts off with o______________________ or f________, which are close agreements by competent observers of the same thing.  These are o____________, and we all agree on them.  They also appeal to the s__________.  They do not require extra t____________.  Sometimes everyone agrees on something, so it is a fact, but it may turn out to be __________.  Consequently, even facts can c_________. 

The second step is the h__________________  or i________________, which is when you take facts and come up with a statement that hopefully will hold up in an e__________________.  Most people remember this as an e______________  g_________. 

When a hypothesis is supported over and over, it gets closer to becoming a t__________, which is a statement we are pretty sure is true. 

When a theory is not disproven in many years, (often over ________ years), mostly everyone believes it and it gains widespread acceptance.  We then call it a ______, even though it could still be proven __________. 

Above all, the scientist must strive to be o________________, and not see what s/he wants to see.  Any scientist has the vast ability to fool t__________________.  Consequently, many times tests are misinterpreted to mean something they really don’t mean.

Additionally, scientists must strive to keep a humility about themselves.  In science, there is no knowing for certain, nor is there proving.  Instead of proof, there exists very strong evidence, sometimes so strong that we are NEARLY 100% certain about an outcome, but evidence might be right around the corner to discredit what you just thought as an almost certainty. 

1.5 SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESES MUST BE TESTABLE

There are scientific hypotheses and non-scientific hypotheses.  Scientific hypotheses must be t______________.  That means, if a hypothesis is scientific, there must be a way to test whether it is r________ or w________.  There is always a way to show something __________, but only sometimes does there exist a test to show something __________.  This considered, we say that for a hypothesis to be s__________________, there must exist a test to prove it __________. 

This is not to say that all scientific hypotheses are wrong.  On the contrary, it says that if a scientific hypothesis WERE wrong, we’d need a way to tell it were wrong. 

Moreover, scientific hypotheses are not opinions.  They are objective, testable facts with tests to unanimously show right or wrong. 

1.6 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY

______________ is a method of answering theoretical questions, while ____________________ is a  method of solving practical problems.  Science discovers w______ and h____, and tries to understand our environment.  Science does not invade on human life.  Technology is different.  Technology uses science to i__________ human life, hopefully for the better. 

1.7 SCIENCE, ART, AND RELIGION

Science and art are different in that art is full of e____________, while science tries to take all e____________ out of its discoveries and stay o________________. 

Science and religion are different too.  Both science and religion try to answer different q________________.  Science asks w______ and h____, while religion asks w____.  Science also believes only in what it can verify, while religion calls for a level of f________ in something that cannot be seen.  Clearly, science and religion have different domains.  Because of this, the two can c__________________ each other, rather than c__________________ each other, as some people think. 

1.8 ACCURACY AND PRECISION

The a______________  v________ of a measurement is the value we take to be c____________.  Sometimes we know it is correct, but usually sit is just the value for which we have the most s__________________  e____________. 

When we describe a number as “a______________,” we mean that the a______________  v________ falls within the number’s u____________________  r________. 

Every measurement has an u____________________  r________ associated with it.  When p________________ is high, we are dealing with a __________ amount of uncertainty.  Conversely, when precision is ______, we are dealing with a __________ amount of uncertainty.  Precision can be viewed then as a reflection of the size of a measurement’s uncertainty or how s______ we are about a certain measurement. 

Significant digits are numbers that c____________________ a measurement’s u___________________ r________. 

How many significant figures do these numbers have?

Precision is reflected in a number’s s____________________ f____________ - the more places to the __________ of the decimal point, the more precise a measurement is. 

For example, the number 12 cm has an uncertainty range between ______ and ______.  The number __________ is ten times as precise because its uncertainty range is only from _______  to _______.  The number ________ is ten times more precise (or _______ times as 12 cm) because its uncertainty range is only from _______ to _______. 

Taking care of significant digits during mathematical calculations is easy.  There are ______ rules:

1.     Adding and Subtracting: round answer to have the same number of ________________  ____________ as the o____________ with the least number of ______________  ____________. 

2.     Multiplying and Dividing: round answer to have the same number of ______________________  ____________ as the operand with the __________ number of ______________________  ____________. 

Also, be careful of round off error.  When doing a problem with multiple steps, only round off ________, rather than over and over throughout the problem.  Keep track of your significant digits throughout the problem though, with an ________________ under significant digits. 

When measuring with any device, always record as many digits as you are sure of (for which marks exist on your device), plus one digit that you estimate.  We call this last digit our __________  __________.  Also, measuring devices usually tell you what the smallest division on the ruler is.  For instance, if a ruler was stamped with _______, we would assume the distance between the smallest marks is one _________________________. 

1.9 Scientific Notation

Scientific Notation is a way to handle _____________  or _____________ numbers easily.  Numbers in scientific notation take the form:

with M being the ________________, which must be between _____ and ____.  The exponent, n, must be an ______________. 

To put a number into scientific notation, move the decimal point on your number until only ______ non-zero digit remains to the ________ of the decimal point, and then count the number of times you have moved the decimal point.  This is the ________________.  Remember that if you moved the decimal point to the left, (made the number look ______________ than it really is) the exponent is ________________.  If you moved the decimal point to the right, (made the number look ____________ than it really is) the exponent is n______________.  Large numbers have p______________ exponents, while small numbers have n______________ exponents.

Put these numbers into scientific notation. 

Doing mathematical operations on numbers in scientific notation is ________. 

Addition and Subtraction:

1.  When adding or subtracting numbers in scientific notation that have the ________ __________________, simply add or subtract the ________________ and keep the same ________________. 

2.  When the adding or subtracting numbers in scientific notation that do not have the same exponents (but the exponents are c________), make the exponents match by multiplying/dividing the x 10^exponent part and doing the i____________ operation on the mantissa.  Then proceed as in case 1. 

3.  When one number's magnitude is i______________________ (at least 10^4 times smaller) compared to the other number, simply ________________ the smaller number if it will not make a difference when significant digits are considered. 

Multiplication:

________________ the mantissas and ______ the exponents.  Be sure that your answer stays in standard form (with the mantissa between 1 and 10).  If not, adjust it, making the corresponding inverse adjustment to the exponent.

Division:

____________ the mantissas and ________________ the exponents.  Be sure that your answer stays in standard form (with the mantissa between 1 and 10).  If not, adjust it, making the corresponding inverse adjustment to the exponent.

1.10 INTERPOLATION AND EXTRAPOLATION

The point behind doing an experiment is to come up with a __________ that can be used to predict ____________ or untested occurrences.  Usually, this model is in the form of a line/curve of ________  _____.  This model can be used to find predict data points that were not observed in an experiment.  If the data points are within the original d__________ of the data, we call the process _________________________, and if the data points are outside that region, we call the process __________________________. 

Generally _________________________ is more reliable than __________________________.  This is because we can’t be sure the model is a good predictor beyond the experiment’s original domain. 

Lines of best fit or models can be of many types.  A d___________ relationship occurs when one variable goes up, the other goes ______.  An i____________ relationship occurs when one variable goes up, and the other goes d_______. 

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