Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Science of Electricity and Electronics

Timeline	Electron Flow Commentary	Terminology	Symbols
Circuits: Series and Parallel	Static Electricity	Electric Charge	Electroscope

Introductory Commentary

1. The general scheme of things

2. A law is an analytic statement, usutally with an empirically determined constant.

It is a concise but general statement about how nature behaves.

To be called a law, it must be experimentaly valid over a wide range of observed phenomena.

3. Principle. Used for less general statements than those in a law.

4. A theory may contain a set of laws, or a theory may be implied from an empirically determined law.

Note: The term theory has two broad sets of meanings, one used in the empirical sciences (both natural and social) and the other

used in philosophy, mathematics, logic, and across other fields in the humanities. There is considerable difference and even dispute

across academic disciplines as to the proper usages of the term.

I will go no further in this course than the description given above. Remember the first quote from Richard Feynman

5. Examples

Ø Theories

Astronomy: Big Bang

Biology: Evolution

Mathematics: Chaos

Ø Laws

Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion

Newton’s three laws of motion

Conservation laws: mass, energy, momentum

Ø Principles

Heisenberg’ Uncertainty Principle

Archimedes’ Principle (buoyancy)

6. The "Scientific Method"

Ø From observations, determine the nature of the phenomenon that is of interest

Ø Develop one or more hypotheses, or educated guesses, to explain this phenomenon.

This hypotheses should be predictive - given a set of circumstances, the hypothesis should predict an outcome

Ø Devise experiments to test the hypotheses. All valid scientific hypotheses should be testable

Ø Analyze the experimental results and determine to what degree the results fit the predictions of the hypothesis

Ø Modify if necessary and repeat