Space, Time, Matter

The following is the note I first sent to my physical science students January 2010, there are some provisos in my original blog entry. 

This particular blog entry is really self-intended, this is my own bizarre filing system so that I can find this again next term. Think of this as a first day hand out, only this hand out goes out via email. In the blogosphere the running joke is that most blogs are read only by the parents of the blogger, an audience of one or two at best. My own pathetic audience count is zero: I am writing as a record for my own future use. Next term, should I live so long, I can copy and paste this into a future email. Thus utilizing the cloud as a filing system. Maybe someday simply teaching in the cloud...

You are receiving this email because you are on the pre-registration class list for SC 130 Physical Science summer 2010. Please pardon me if this is in error or if your plans have changed. I will send this note out again after registration to the final first day class list.

Welcome to physical science! In physical science we study the inanimate world. Physical science includes physics, thermodynamics, earth sciences, vulcanology, geology, meteorology, climatology, sonics, optics, electromagnetism, astronomy, cosmology, and many more fields. There is too much to cover in a single term, and the amount of potential content exceeds what one could learn in a lifetime. Thus this class focuses on process more than on memorized content. Science is a process, a way of exploring the world, not a set of memorized fun facts to know and tell. Science is a way of thinking.

At the core of every science is mathematics, and mathematics will be a regular core feature of the class. Do not be afraid, mathematics is simply another tool science uses. Science often makes math more understandable.

The original and ongoing intent of the course this particular summer is to include a focus on the potential use of physical science in the elementary and secondary school classroom. While this has always been a curricular thread in the course, I hope to emphasize this during the summer. Many of you are either in an education major, the child of a teacher, or will one day be a teacher - even if you do not now plan to do so.

A schedule of the summer term is currently under construction at:
http://www.comfsm.fm/~dleeling/physci/psa2/index.xhtml
The above link can only be "opened" by the FireFox, Safari, Google Chrome, or Opera browsers. The Internet Explorer browser cannot "open" that page. The technical term is that Internet Explorer cannot "render" the page. Most of the computers at the college have and use FireFox.

Here are some observations and questions to ponder about some of the fundamental quantities in physical science. These questions are "rhetorical" questions, that is, these questions do not necessarily have an answer nor is an answer expected.

• Space is about choice. Forward, backward, left, right, up, or down. You can go any direction. Up to you.
• Time leaves no choice. Relentlessly marching ever forward into the future. There is no going back. No left time, no right time. No up, no down. Only one direction. No choice.
• Mass is the mystery. Mass has no direction. Mass has no forward, no backward. No left. No right. No up. No down. Mass simply exists.

• Space is the questions how close, how far, which way, where am I, how high, how deep, how wide, how long. Space has lots of questions.
  
• Time is the questions when, how old, how young. Time has only few questions.
  
• Mass is the question how much. Mass has the fewest questions.
  

• Space is near, far, over there, here, on, over, under, above, below, big, small, narrow, tall, short, wide, in front, in back, across. Space has many descriptors.
  
• Time is now, never, sooner, later, forever, immediately. Time has a only few descriptors.
  
• Mass is a lot, a little. Mass has the fewest descriptors.
  

Everything else is pure energy.