Chapter 1

Question 1

Science

Answer 1

A branch of human activity that consciously aims at explaining the Universe around us.

Question 2

Observations

Answer 2

Experiences that we describe in words, numbers, or diagrams.

Question 3

Exponential format

Answer 3

For very small and large numbers.

Question 4

Hypothesis

Answer 4

A statement of an idea about how observations are related to each other, and especially a statement of how observations can be explained.

Question 5

Theory

Answer 5

A hypothesis that has survived many observational or experimental tests, and that explains more than a single phenomenon.

Question 6

Scientific Law

Answer 6

Part of a theory that has survived rigorous testing, and can be stated in a simple sentence or two, or in a mathematical equation that relates numerical observations.

Question 7

Plate tectonics

Answer 7

both the continents and the ocean floor moved together as rigid plates, and that movement occurred along narrow plate boundaries.

Question 8

Models

Answer 8

Simplifications of the natural world in which we can control the input variables.

Question 9

Global climate models

Answer 9

general circulation models that are continuously running on major computer installations.

Question 10

Paradigm

Answer 10

The combination of a new theory with new ideas about what could and should be explained. Devised by Kuhn.

Question 11

Uniformitarianism

Answer 11

Principle holds that processes that operated in the Earth’s past can all be explained by processes that continue to operate at the present day.

Question 12

Actualism

Answer 12

Principle that events in the past can be explained in terms of physical, chemical, or biological processes and laws that operate at the present day.

Question 13

Atmospheric scientists

Answer 13

Focus on the Earth’s gaseous atmosphere.

Question 14

Meteorologists

Answer 14

Focus on day to day changes in the weather.

Question 15

Climatologists

Answer 15

Investigate longer term changes in the atmosphere.

Question 16

Oceanographers

Answer 16

Study the Earth’s seas and oceans.

Question 17

Hydrologists

Answer 17

Study water on the land surface.

Question 18

Hydrogeology

Answer 18

Deals with water within the pore spaces in the outer parts of the solid Earth, the geosphere.

Question 19

Glaciologists

Answer 19

Study water in solid form, ice.

Question 20

Geologists

Answer 20

Study the geosphere, the largely solid Earth.

Question 21

Geophysicists

Answer 21

Study the geosphere, but using indirect methods of observation based on its physical properties such as the Earth’s magnetism, the behaviour of seismic waves, the flow of heat through and from the Earth, and the electrical behaviour of the Earth’s interior.

Question 22

Paleobiologists

Answer 22

Study ancient life forms, principally through observations of fossils.

Question 23

Paleontology

Answer 23

Concerns animal fossils.

Question 24

Paleobotany

Answer 24

Concerns plant fossils.