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• The World Around You
• Objects and Properties
• Your physical surroundings include naturally occurring and manufactured objects such as sidewalks and buildings.
• Objects are physical "things" in our environment
– How we experience these things are due to our experiences as we grow and mature.
• Properties
– Properties of objects are those qualities that make an object what it is.
– We need some common way of describing the properties of objects in our physical environment.
• Referent
– A referent is how we view things due to our experiences.
– It can be viewed as our window on the world.
– In physical science we need a common referent by which to begin our study of our physical universe.
• What is your concept of a chair? Are all of these pieces of furniture chairs? Most people have concepts, or ideas of what things in general should be, that are loosely defined. The concept of a chair is one example of a loosely defined concept.
• Could you describe this rock to another person over the telephone so that the other person would know exactly what you see? This is not likely with everyday language, which is full of implied comparisons, assumptions, and inaccurate descriptions. • Quantifying Properties
• In science we need to eliminate any vagueness of communication • We attempt to do this by having standard measurements with which to make comparisons between objects
• A measurement consists of three parts
– The numerical value which describes how much of the measurement we are making
– The unit which tells us what the measurements are in
• Grams
• Meters
– The type of measurement which tells us the physical attribute that we are measuring
• Length
• Volume
• Area, or the extent of a surface, can be described by two length measurements. Volume, or the space an object occupies, can be described by three length measurements. Length, however, can be described only in terms of how it is measured, so it is called a fundamental property.
• A
• Objects and Properties
• Your physical surroundings include naturally occurring and manufactured objects such as sidewalks and buildings.
• Objects are physical "things" in our environment
– How we experience these things are due to our experiences as we grow and mature.
• Properties
– Properties of objects are those qualities that make an object what it is.
– We need some common way of describing the properties of objects in our physical environment.
• Referent
– A referent is how we view things due to our experiences.
– It can be viewed as our window on the world.
– In physical science we need a common referent by which to begin our study of our physical universe.
• What is your concept of a chair? Are all of these pieces of furniture chairs? Most people have concepts, or ideas of what things in general should be, that are loosely defined. The concept of a chair is one example of a loosely defined concept.
• Could you describe this rock to another person over the telephone so that the other person would know exactly what you see? This is not likely with everyday language, which is full of implied comparisons, assumptions, and inaccurate descriptions. • Quantifying Properties
• In science we need to eliminate any vagueness of communication • We attempt to do this by having standard measurements with which to make comparisons between objects
• A measurement consists of three parts
– The numerical value which describes how much of the measurement we are making
– The unit which tells us what the measurements are in
• Grams
• Meters
– The type of measurement which tells us the physical attribute that we are measuring
• Length
• Volume
• Area, or the extent of a surface, can be described by two length measurements. Volume, or the space an object occupies, can be described by three length measurements. Length, however, can be described only in terms of how it is measured, so it is called a fundamental property.
• A