Q1: Some of the most profound statements on the nature of science have come from Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientists of all time. What do you think did Einstein mean when he said: “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible”?
Answer: The Physical world around us is full of different complex natural phenomena so the world is incomprehensible. But with the help of study and observations, it has been found that all these phenomena are based on some basic physical laws and so it is comprehensible.
Q2: “Every great physical theory starts as a heresy and ends as a dogma”. Give some examples from the history of science of the validity of this incisive remark.
Answer: The statement above is true. The validity of this incisive remark can be validated from the example of moment of inertia. It states that the moment of inertia of a body depends on its energy. But according to Einstein’s mass-energy relation \(E=m c^{2}\), energy depends on the speed of the body.
Q3: “Politics is the art of the possible”. Similarly, “Science is the art of the soluble”. Explain this beautiful aphorism on the nature and practice of science.
Answer: It is well known that to win over voters, politicians would make anything and everything possible even when they are least sure of the same. and in Science, the various natural phenomena can be explained in terms of some basic laws. So as ‘Politics is the art of possible’ similarly ‘Science is the art of the soluble’.
Q4: No physicist has ever “seen” an electron. Yet, all physicists believe in the existence of electrons. An intelligent but superstitious man advances this analogy to argue that ‘ghosts’ exist even though no one has ‘‘seen’’ one. How will you refute his argument?
Answer: No physicist has ever seen an atom but there are practical pieces of evidence that prove the presence of electrons. Their size is so small, even powerful microscopes find it difficult to measure their sizes. But still, its effects could be tested. On the other hand, there is no phenomena that can be explained on the basis of the existence of ghosts. Our senses of sight and hearing are very limited to observe the existence of both. So there is no comparison between the two given cases.
Q5: The industrial revolution in England and Western Europe more than two centuries ago was triggered by some key scientific and technological advances. What were these advances?
Answer: More than two centuries ago, England and Western Europe invented the steam engine, electricity, the theory of gravitation, and explosives. Steam engines helped them in the field of hat and thermodynamics, the theory of gravitation in the field of motion, and making guns and cannons. These progress brought about the industrial revolution in England and Western Europe.
Q6: “It is more important to have beauty in the equations of physics than to have them agree with experiments”. The great British physicist P. A. M. Dirac held this view. Criticize this statement. Look out for some equations and results in this book that strike you as beautiful.
Answer: An equation that agrees with the experiment must also be simple and hence beautiful. We have some simple and beautiful equations in Physics such as
\(\rightarrow \mathrm{E}=\operatorname{mc2}\) (Energy of light)
\(\rightarrow \mathrm{E}=\mathrm{hv}\) (Energy of a photon)
\(\rightarrow \mathrm{KE}=1 / 2 \mathrm{mv} 2\) (Kinetic energy of a moving particle)
\(\rightarrow \mathrm{PE}=\) mgh (Potential energy of a body at rest)
\(\rightarrow \mathrm{W}=\) F.d (Work done)
All have the same dimensions. One experiment shows the dependency of energy on speed, and the other shows dependency on frequency \& displacement. That’s the beauty of equations in Physics coming from different experiments.
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