Philosophical Background Matters

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-30
Author(s):  
Bradley E. Alger
Keyword(s):  
Public Debate ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
Elliptical Orbit ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Public ◽  
Levels Of Organization ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Philosophical Background ◽  
Technical Issues ◽  
Organization Of Science

This chapter discusses the rift between science and philosophy, but argues that scientists can benefit from philosophical insights without becoming philosophers. It presents an elementary introduction to philosophical concepts that recur throughout the book, including deduction, induction, inference, and others. It covers the problem of induction and the Uniformity of Nature assumption, and reviews Hume’s critique of induction. Other technical issues that confuse the public debate about science, concern explanation, uncertainty, and levels of organization of science, are in here as well. A central issue is the question of how we can resolve two opposing notions: the widely agreed on principle that scientific findings are never completely certain, and our conviction that some findings are certain: e.g., the earth goes around the sun in an elliptical orbit. The chapter sorts out this and other common misunderstandings.

VROUWENKIESRECHT ALS OMSTREDEN KWESTIE ONDER NEDERLANDSE FEMINISTEN, 1870-1900

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-299
Author(s):  
Ulla Jansz
Keyword(s):  
Public Debate ◽  
Controversial Issue ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
The Public ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Parliamentary Politics ◽  
Women’S Suffrage ◽  
Social Reformers

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE AS A CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE AMONG DUTCH FEMINISTS, 1870-1900 Female suffrage was not the Dutch women’s movement’s central issue from the beginning, nor did contemporary social reformers conceive it as part of the democratisation process they favoured. This article explores the public debate on women’s suffrage against the backdrop of the movement towards universal suffrage in its first three decades. Due to sources refraining from stating the obvious, it remains obscure why exactly parliamentary politics continued to be seen as an exclusively male domain for so long. What is clear, is that conservative feminists associated the demand for women’s suffrage with a radical strand of feminism which they abhorred.

scholarly journals Geodesic Effect Near an Elliptical Orbit

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Alina-Daniela Vîlcu
Keyword(s):  
Gravitational Field ◽  
Elliptical Orbit ◽  
Newtonian Mechanics ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Classical Approach ◽  
De Sitter ◽  
Lagrange Equations ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Elliptical Motion

Using a differential geometric treatment, we analytically derived the expression for De Sitter (geodesic) precession in the elliptical motion of the Earth through the gravitational field of the Sun with Schwarzschild's metric. The expression obtained in this paper in a simple way, using a classical approach, agrees with that given in B. M. Barker and R. F. O'Connell (1970, 1975) in a different setting, using the tools of Newtonian mechanics and the Euler-Lagrange equations.

One Lump or Two?

English Today ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Poole
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Burden Of Proof ◽  
Elliptical Orbit ◽  
Bertrand Russell ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Single Word ◽  
The Earth

In a well-known and much discussed article, the philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote as follows (Russell, 1952): If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes.Setting aside Russell's reasons for writing this sentence (in context, to do with both the burden of proof and the existence or otherwise of a deity) I would like to focus on what, in the above extract, is a single word: ‘teapot’. If you, as a reader and no doubt writer of the English language, were required to convey in writing the same concept (a ceramic or metal receptacle with a handle, spout and lid, in which tea is brewed and from which it is poured) would you go for ‘teapot’, ‘tea-pot’ or ‘tea pot’? In other words, to use a phrase commonly heard when the amount of sugar in a cup of tea is discussed, do you think teapot/tea pot should be one lump or two?

scholarly journals The design of solar synoptic chart for space weather forecast

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (S320) ◽  
pp. 324-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiao Song ◽  
Jing-Song Wang ◽  
Xue-Shang Feng ◽  
Xiao-Xin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
Space Weather ◽  
Coronal Holes ◽  
Active Regions ◽  
Weather Forecast ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Synoptic Chart

AbstractThe Sun drives most events of space weather in the vicinity of the Earth. Because the activities of the Sun are complicated, a visualized chart with key objects of solar activities is needed for space weather forecast. This work investigates the key objects in research during the past forty years and surveys a variety of solar observational data. We design the solar synoptic chart (SSC) that covers the key objects of solar activities, i.e., active regions, coronal holes, filaments/prominences, flares and coronal mass ejections, and synthesizes images from different heights and temperatures of solar atmosphere. The SSC is used to analyze the condition of the Sun in March 2012 and October 2014 as examples. The result shows that the SSC is timely, comprehensive, concise and easy to understand. It has the potentiality for space weather forecast and can help in improving the public education.

Edmond Halley and Newton’s Principia

1991 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-138
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
Public History ◽  
Elliptical Orbit ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Public ◽  
Inverse Square Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
Third Law

Halley’s part in the conception, development, printing and publication of the Principia , as seen from Newton’s side, is well known and well documented,1 and to that I have nothing to add. Without Halley, the stimulus, the critic, the supporter, editor and publisher, there would have been no Principia , or at least no published Principia as we now have it. Newton would probably have remained in relative obscurity in Cambridge and be known to us for his mathematics and optics but perhaps not as an outstanding figure in the history of science. Without Halley we should not have had Newton’s grand conception of how physical science should be pursued, the conception that still guides us. Although well established, the public history of still raises questions. It runs as follows. In the evening of 24 January 1684, at the Royal Society, Wren, Hooke and Halley discussed Halley’s demonstration that Kepler’s third law implied that the attraction of the Sun upon the planets was as the inverse of the square of the distance from them, and Wren offered to give books to the value of 40 shillings to whomever of Hooke and Halley could first show (before the end of March) that the inverse square law led to an elliptical orbit. March came and went. Wren’s books were not claimed, but not until August did Halley call on Newton in Cambridge. Why so long a delay? All three seem to have appreciated that the question was very important, but more than four months passed from the end of March before Halley went to Cambridge. Hooke would hardly have admitted his failure by asking Newton, and Wren was no doubt much occupied with building St Paul’s and otherwise, but Halley might surely have gone at his first opportunity. In fact it seems that he did.

BepiColombo and Solar Orbiter coordinated observations: scientific cases and measurements opportunities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Hadid ◽  
Melinda Dosa ◽  
Madar Akos ◽  
Tommaso Alberti ◽  
Johannes Benkhoff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
The State ◽  
Elliptical Orbit ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Earth ◽  
To Come ◽  
Inner Heliosphere

<p>BepiColombo and Solar Orbiter are two spacecraft that will be both travelling in the inner heliosphere for 5 years, between the launch of Solar Orbiter (planned in February 2020) and the end of the cruise phase of BepiColombo (2018 - 2025). Both BepiColombo (ESA/JAXA) and Solar Orbiter (ESA/NASA) are carrying exceptional and complementary plasma instrumental payloads and magnetometers. Besides, the remote-sensing instruments on board of Solar Orbiter will provide invaluable information on the state of the Sun, and therefore some contextual information for BepiColombo observations. During the five years to come, BepiColombo will evolve between the Earth and the orbit of Mercury, while Solar Orbiter’s highly elliptical orbit will cover distances from 1.02 AU to 0.28 AU.  We present here the scientific cases, modelling tools, measurement opportunities and related instruments operations that have been identified in the frame of potential coordinated observations campaign between the spacecraft.</p>

Environment, Banking, and Education: The Connections and Opportunities

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-28
Author(s):  
Colin Lacey
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Preventive Action ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Industrial Societies

The Earth is entering a period or unprecedented change due to the destruction of the natural systems that have enabled and sustained human life over thousands of years. The public debate about the contributing factors to this destruction has begun, and many prominent leaders and major governments have demonstrated their awareness of the problem. Despite the shift in public opinion, and a new awareness, little has been achieved that is likely to prevent further damage. The damage is being caused mainly by processes that are fundamental to the production of food and industrial goods. It follows that preventive action in agricultural and industrial societies will need to be far-reaching and involve a reappraisal of both individual styles of life and major institutions.The 1990 UN Bergen Conference recognized that education would need to be central to the process of reassessment and redirection. It also recognized that education takes place in the workplace as well as in schools and colleges. This article argues for an education that is linked to the development of a new intelligence. It further argues that banks are key institutions, acting as channels for investment in the future and staffed by highly-qualified professionals who are nevertheless constrained and ‘educated’ by their institutional roles. The article examines the new and emerging responsibilities of institutions such as banks. It proposes some steps towards recognizing and fulfilling these responsibilities, and also towards redirecting the educational and investment functions of banks.

Seti Space Missions

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 761-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Maccone
Keyword(s):  
Electromagnetic Waves ◽  
Space Missions ◽  
Gravitational Lens ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Space Antenna ◽  
Focal Distance ◽  
Large Space ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Space Antennas ◽  
New Space

AbstractSETI from space is currently envisaged in three ways: i) by large space antennas orbiting the Earth that could be used for both VLBI and SETI (VSOP and RadioAstron missions), ii) by a radiotelescope inside the Saha far side Moon crater and an Earth-link antenna on the Mare Smythii near side plain. Such SETIMOON mission would require no astronaut work since a Tether, deployed in Moon orbit until the two antennas landed softly, would also be the cable connecting them. Alternatively, a data relay satellite orbiting the Earth-Moon Lagrangian pointL2would avoid the Earthlink antenna, iii) by a large space antenna put at the foci of the Sun gravitational lens: 1) for electromagnetic waves, the minimal focal distance is 550 Astronomical Units (AU) or 14 times beyond Pluto. One could use the huge radio magnifications of sources aligned to the Sun and spacecraft; 2) for gravitational waves and neutrinos, the focus lies between 22.45 and 29.59 AU (Uranus and Neptune orbits), with a flight time of less than 30 years. Two new space missions, of SETI interest if ET’s use neutrinos for communications, are proposed.

Spots on the Sun and Life on the Earth

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-77
Author(s):  
Valentina V. Ukraintseva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
The Earth
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