GEOL 103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Scientific Method, Hydrosphere

• School: College of Charleston
• Department: Geology and Environmental Geosciences
• Course: GEOL 103
• Professor: Hall

Document Summary

Failure to include the environmental costs of goods and services. If hypothesis is consistent with data, publish it. Law is a statement of equation that accurately predicts events. A theory is the best explanation of observations. A group of parts that function together. All systems require an energy source to drive them. Interaction of many components allows the system to function. All natural processes are interrelated and interconnected. The simplified, linear scientific method implies that scientific studies follow an unvarying, linear recipe. But in reality, in their work, scientists engage in many different activities in many different sequences. Scientific investigations often involve repeating the same steps many times to account for new information and ideas. The simplified, linear scientific method implies that science is done by individual scientists working through these steps in isolation. But in reality, science depends on interactions within the scientific community.