Science Mondays--- and how would they know such a thing

So I tell my students the speed of light and I hope for a question like... Why should we believe that? After all it moves at 299,792.458 kilometers in one second. The question I throw out, how is it possible to measure something that for all practical purposes moves at the rate of, instantaneous? Don't believe me, turn on a light bulb and try to see it go from the light to the wall.

I talk about Ole Christenson Romer who was puzzled at how a moon of Jupiter was not where it was supposed to be when it should be there and how it varied and how that variance was proportional to distance from the Earth and so in 1676 he concluded light had a constant speed.

Then we jumped to France and a man who went by Hippolyte Fizeau (cool names can get fading students to perk up) and with some mirrors came within 5% of the speed in 1849. Leon Foucault gets us within 500km/sec by adapting the experiment then an American named Michelson takes the same idea to much longer distances and gets it down to within 50km/sec by 1879. The story goes on until the final two steps in the process--- the laser and the exact distance of a meter.

Science unfolds just like our lives. It is a story of better evidence throwing out what needed tweaking. So we trust light moves fast, but a mystery is still there...

Why is it constant, if it remains in the same medium? But who knows, is it really constant? I have never measured it, but if it is not constant, that would throw astrophysicists for a spin. For now the evidence leans towards being constant.

Science Mondays--- a plan takes shape

Tomorrow I will start another year of teaching and the last thing on my syllabus (after a threat to feed my dog any cell phone that rings) is this...

"Science and Religion: These are two different ways to view the world. It is not the responsibility of either to prove or disprove the other. This is a science class and we will keep to a scientific view of the world and not spend energy trying to disprove religious beliefs, unless those beliefs are presented as being scientific."

On Wednesday we will work our way through this video and we will see science as the way to disprove what is baloney--- whether the baloney is put out by a religion or a scientist, whose world view or desire for fame or need for funding has affected their claims.

I want the students also to have a deeper understanding of how science works beyond the "scientific method." Yes, I will teach that method, because that is what they will be tested on by the state. But on Thursday and Friday they will also learn a bit on how these folks view how science really works.

and, yes, I don't own a dog.