How the Great Scientists Reasoned: The Scientific Method in Action

✍ Scribed by Gary G. Tibbetts

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 148
• Series: Elsevier Insights
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The scientific method is one of the most basic and essential concepts across the sciences, ensuring that investigations are carried out with precision and thoroughness. The scientific method is typically taught as a step-by-step approach, but real examples from history are not always given. This book teaches the basic modes of scientific thought, not by philosophical generalizations, but by illustrating in detail how great scientists from across the sciences solved problems using scientific reason. Examples include Christopher Columbus, Joseph Priestly, Antoine Lavoisier, Michael Faraday, Wilhelm Röntgen, Max Planck, Albert Einstein, and Niels Bohr. Written by a successful research physicist who has engaged in many studies and years of research, all in the attempt to extract the secrets of nature, this book captures the excitement and joy of research. The process of scientific discovery is as delightfully absorbing, as complex, and as profoundly human as falling in love. It can be a roller coaster ride of despairing valleys and exhilarating highs. This book sketches the powerful reasoning that led to many different discoveries, but also celebrates the "ah-ha moments" experienced by each scientist, letting readers share the thrilling instant when each scientist reached the critical revelation in his research.

✦ Table of Contents

Content:
Front-matter, Pages i,iii
Copyright, Page iv
Dedication, Page v
Acknowledgments, Page ix
1 - Introduction: Humanity’s Urge to Understand, Pages 1-3, Gary G. Tibbetts
2 - Elements of Scientific Thinking: Skepticism, Careful Reasoning, and Exhaustive Evaluation Are All Vital, Pages 5-24, Gary G. Tibbetts
3 - Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of the “Indies”: It Can Be Disastrous to Stubbornly Refuse to Recognize That You Have Falsified Your Own Hypothesis, Pages 25-44, Gary G. Tibbetts
4 - Antoine Lavoisier and Joseph Priestley Both Test the Befuddling Phlogiston Theory: Junking a Confusing Hypothesis May Be Necessary to Clear the Way for New and Productive Science, Pages 45-60, Gary G. Tibbetts
5 - Michael Faraday Discovers Electromagnetic Induction but Fails to Unify Electromagnetism and Gravitation: It Is Usually Productive to Simplify and Consolidate Your Hypotheses, Pages 61-77, Gary G. Tibbetts
6 - Wilhelm Röntgen Intended to Study Cathode Rays but Ended Up Discovering X-Rays: Listen Carefully When Mother Nature Whispers in Your Ear—She May Be Leading You to a Nobel Prize, Pages 79-87, Gary G. Tibbetts
7 - Max Planck, the First Superhero of Quantum Theory, Saves the Universe from the Ultraviolet Catastrophe: Assemble Two Flawed Hypotheses About a Key Phenomenon into a Model That Fits Experiment Exactly and People Will Listen to You Even if You Must Revolutionize Physics, Pages 89-99, Gary G. Tibbetts
8 - Albert Einstein Attacks the Problem “Are Atoms Real?” from Every Angle: Solving a Centuries-Old Riddle in Seven Different Ways Can Finally Resolve It, Pages 101-124, Gary G. Tibbetts
9 - Niels Bohr Models the Hydrogen Atom as a Quantized System with Compelling Exactness, but His Later Career Proves that Collaboration and Developing New Talent Can Become More Significant than the Groundbreaking Research of Any Individual, Pages 125-141, Gary G. Tibbetts
10 - Conclusions, Status of Science, and Lessons for Our Time, Pages 143-148, Gary G. Tibbetts