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GEOG 202
Chapter 2
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Science | The pursuit of discovering order in nature and using that knowledge to make predictions about what is likely to happen in nature. |
| data | Factual information collected by scientists. |
| scientific hypothesis | A proposed explanation of a scientific law or certain scientific observations. Compare scientific law, scientific methods, scientific model, scientific theory |
| model | Approximate representation or simulation of a system being studied. |
| scientific theory | A well-tested and widely accepted scientific hypothesis or group of related hypotheses. Compare scientific hypothesis, scientific law. |
| peer review | Process of scientists reporting details of the methods and models they used, the results of their experiments, and the reasoning behind their hypotheses for other scientists working in the same field (their peers) to examine and criticize. |
| scientific law/law of nature | Description of what scientists find happening in nature repeatedly in the same way, without known exception. |
| Reliable science | Concepts and ideas that are widely accepted by experts in a particular field of the natural or social sciences. Compare tentative science, unreliable science |
| unreliable science | Scientific results or hypotheses presented as reliable science without having undergone the rigors of the peer review process. Compare reliable science, tentative science |
| tentative science | Preliminary scientific data, hypotheses, and models that have not been widely tested and accepted. Compare reliable science, unreliable science. |
| Matter | Anything that has mass (the amount of material in an object) and takes up space. On the earth, where gravity is present, we weigh an object to determine its mass. |
| element | Chemical, such as hydrogen (H), iron (Fe), sodium (Na), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), or oxygen (O), whose distinctly different atoms serve as the basic building blocks of all matter. |
| compounds | Combination of atoms, or oppositely charged ions, of two or more elements held together by attractive forces called chemical bonds. Examples are NaCl, CO2, and C6H12 O6. Compare element. |
| atom | The smallest unit of an element that can exist and still have the unique characteristics of that element; made of subatomic particles, it is the basic building block of all chemical elements and thus all matter. |
| atomic theory | Idea that all elements are made up of atoms; the most widely accepted scientific theory in chemistry |
| neutrons | Elementary particle in the nuclei of all atoms (except hydrogen-1). It has a relative mass of 1 and no electric charge. Compare electron, proton. |
| protons | Positively charged particle in the nuclei of all atoms. Each proton has a relative mass of 1 and a single positive charge. Compare electron, neutron. |
| electrons | Tiny particle moving around outside the nucleus of an atom. Each electron has one unit of negative charge and almost no mass. Compare neutron, proton. |
| nucleus | Extremely tiny center of an atom, making up most of the atom’s mass. It contains one or more positively charged protons and one or more neutrons with no electrical charge |
| atomic number | Number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. Compare mass number. |
| mass number | Sum of the number of neutrons and the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. It gives the approximate mass of that atom. Compare atomic number. |
| isotopes | Two or more forms of a chemical element that have the same number of protons but different mass numbers because they have different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. |
| molecule | Combination of two or more atoms of the same chemical element (such as O ) or different chemical elements (such as H O) held together by chemical bonds. Compare atom, ion. |
| ion | Atom or group of atoms with one or more positive (+) or negative (–) electrical charges. Examples are Na and Cl . Compare atom, molecule. |
| acidity | Chemical characteristic that helps determine how a substance dissolved in water (a solution) will interact with and affect its environment |
| pH | Numeric value that indicates the relative acidity or alkalinity of a substance on a scale of 0 to 14, with the neutral point at 7. Acid solutions have pH values lower than 7; basic or alkaline solutions have pH values greater than 7. |
| chemical formula | Shorthand way to show the number of atoms (or ions) in the basic structural unit of a compound. Examples include H2O, NaCl, and C6H12O6. |
| organic compounds | Compounds containing carbon atoms combined with each other and with atoms of one or more other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, and fluorine. All other compounds are called inorganic compounds. |
| cell | Smallest living unit of an organism. Each cell is encased in an outer membrane or wall and contains genetic material (DNA) and other substances that enable it to perform its life function. |
| cell theory | The idea that all living things are composed of cells; the most widely accepted scientific theory in biology. |
| genes | Coded units of information about specific traits that are passed from parents to offspring during reproduction. They consist of segments of DNA molecules found in chromosomes. |
| trait | Characteristic passed on from parents to offspring during reproduction in an animal or plant. |
| chromosome | A grouping of genes and associated proteins in plant and animal cells that carry certain types of genetic information. |
| physical change | Process that alters one or more physical properties of an element or a compound without changing its chemical composition. |
| chemical change/chemical reaction | Interaction between chemicals in which the chemical composition of the elements or compounds involves changes. Compare nuclear change, physical change. |
| law of conservation of matter | In any physical or chemical change, matter is neither created nor destroyed but merely changed from one form to another; in physical and chemical changes, existing atoms are rearranged into different spatial patterns or different combinations |
| energy | Capacity to do work or to transfer heat. |
| kinetic energy | Energy that matter has because of its mass and speed, or velocity. Compare potential energy |
| heat/thermal energy | Total kinetic energy of all randomly moving atoms, ions, or molecules within a given substance, excluding the overall motion of the whole object. Heat always flows spontaneously from a warmer sample of matter to a colder sample of matter. |
| Temperature | A measure of the average heat or thermal energy of the atoms, ions, or molecules in a sample of matter. |
| electromagnetic radiation | Forms of kinetic energy traveling as electromagnetic waves. Examples include radio waves, TV waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, Xrays, and gamma rays. |
| potential energy | Energy stored in an object because of its position or the position of its parts. Compare kinetic energy |
| Energy quality | Ability of a form of energy to do useful work. High-temperature heat and the chemical energy in fossil fuels are examples of concentrated high-quality energy. Low-quality energy such as low-temperature heat is dispersed or diluted |
| High-quality energy | Energy that is concentrated and has great ability to perform useful work.Examples include high temperature heat and the energy in electricity, coal, oil, gasoline, sunlight, and nuclei of uranium-235. |
| low-quality energy | Energy that is dispersed and has little ability to do useful work. An example is low-temperature heat. Compare high-quality energy. |
| first law of thermodynamics/law of conservation of energy | Whenever energy is converted from one form to another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed, but energy can be changed from one form to another; |
| second law of thermodynamics | Whenever energy is converted from one form to another in a physical or chemical change, we end up with lower-quality or less usable energy than we started with. |
| system | A set of components that function and interact in some regular way. Most living systems have inputs, throughputs, and outputs of matter and energy from the environment. |
| inputs | Matter and energy from the environment that is put into a system. See system. Compare outputs and throughputs. |
| throughputs/flows | Matter and energy that flowing through a living system. See system. Compare inputs and outputs. |
| outputs | Matter and energy that leaves a living system and enters the environment. See system. Compare inputs and throughputs. |
| feedback | Any system output of matter, energy, or information that, when fed back into the system, increases or decreases a change to the system. |
| feedback loop | The process that occurs when an output of matter, energy, or information is fed back into the system as an input and causes the system to change further in the same direction. |
| positive feedback loop | The process that occurs when an output of matter, energy, or information is fed back into the system as an input and causes the system to change further in the same direction. |
| ecological tipping point | Point at which an environmental problem reaches a threshold level, which causes an often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system |
| negative (corrective) feedback loop | The process that occurs when an output of matter, energy, or information is fed back into the system as an input and slows or stops a change occurring to the system or causes the system to change in the opposite direction. |
Created by:
lmyles
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