1. Living in the Environment
A Quick Review of Basic Concepts in Science, Systems, Matter, and Energy
G. Tyler Miller’s
Living in the Environment
14th Edition
Chapter 3

2. Key Concepts Science as a process for understanding
Components and regulation of systems
Matter: forms, quality, and how it changes; laws of matter
Energy: forms, quality, and how it changes; laws of energy
Nuclear changes and radioactivity

3. The Nature of Science
Science is an attempt to discover order in the natural world and use the knowledge to describe what is likely to happen in nature
GOAL: to increase our understanding of our world
Based upon the scientific process

4. The Nature of Science
Attempt to solve a problem
Follow the process and repeat!

5. Three critical components to any “good science”
The Nature of Science
Three critical components to any “good science”
Skepticism: Do not believe what you see until verified
Reproducible: data and results should be able to be done over and over
Peer Review: other scientists must review work (vs. “Junk science”)

6. Science, and Critical Thinking
Ask a question
Do experiments
and collect data
Formulate
hypothesis
to explain data
Do more
Experiments to
test hypothesis
Revise hypothesis
if necessary
Well-tested and
accepted
hypotheses
become
scientific theories
Interpret data
accepted patterns
In data become
scientific laws
Scientific data
Scientific hypotheses:
IF…THEN…BECAUSE…
Scientific (natural) laws
Scientific theories
Frontier science
Junk Science
Fig. 3-2 p. 33

8. The Nature of Science Scientists can do 2 major things:
Attempts to disprove things
Can establish that a particular model, theory, or law has a high degree of certainty of being true. NOT ABSOLUTELY TRUE
Scientists should not say “Cigarettes Cause Cancer” but can say “There is overwhelming evidence (SUPPORTS/ DOES NOT SUPPORT!) from thousands of studies that indicate a relationship between cigarette usage and lung cancer”

9. Models and Behaviors of Systems
Any action in a complex system has multiple, unintended, and often unpredictable effects.
Regulation of systems
Positive and Negative Feedback loops
Examples???
Synergy

10. Negative feedback loop

11. Positive feedback loop

13. Matter: Forms, Structure, and Quality
What do these terms mean?
Elements
Compounds
Atoms
Ions
Molecules

14. Atoms Subatomic Particles Protons Neutrons Electrons
Atomic Characteristics
Isotopes
Hydrogen 1, 2 and 3
Atomic number
Carbon # 6, Uranium #92
Atomic mass
Uranium 235
Ion
Lost or gained e-

15. Examples of Isotopes
Fig. 3-5 p. 40

16. Acids: 0 – 6.9 Neutral 7.0 Alkaline (Basic) 7.1 – 14 pH
Measures acidity or alkalinity of water samples
Scale 0 – 14
Acids: 0 – 6.9
Neutral 7.0
Alkaline (Basic) 7.1 – 14
Testing your Soil pH for growth of plants video

18. Chemical Bonds - Animations
Chemical formulas
Ionic bonds
Covalent bonds

19. Organic Compounds: CARBON
Organic vs. inorganic compounds
Hydrocarbons
Chlorinated hydrocarbons
Simple carbohydrates
Complex carbohydrates
Proteins
Nucleic acids

22. High quality (more concentrated) vs. Low Quality Matter (more diluted)
Matter Quality – how useful it is as a resource; based on availability and concentration
High quality (more concentrated) vs.
Low Quality Matter (more diluted)
Material Efficiency (Resource productivity) – total amount of material needed to produce each good
Fig. 3-8 p. 43

24. Energy Capacity to do “work” and transfer heat Types:
Kinetic (Heat, electricity)
Potential (stored)
Radiation: Energy & Wavelength

25. Electromagnetic Spectrum Some energy travels in waves at the speed of light
Ionizing Radiation – Enough energy to knock e- from other atoms, changing them to positively charged particles; damaging to cells
Fig. 3-9 p. 44

26. Transfer of Heat Energy
Convection
Conduction
Radiation
Heat from a stove burner causes
atoms or molecules in the pan’s
bottom to vibrate faster. The vibrating
atoms or molecules then collide with
nearby atoms or molecules, causing
them to vibrate faster. Eventually,
molecules or atoms in the pan’s
handle are vibrating so fast it
becomes too hot to touch.
As the water boils, heat from the hot
stove burner and pan radiate into the
surrounding air, even though air
conducts very little heat.
Heating water in the bottom of a pan
causes some of the water to vaporize
into bubbles. Because they are
lighter than the surrounding water,
they rise. Water then sinks from the
top to replace the rising bubbles.This
up and down movement (convection)
eventually heats all of the water.
Heat: total kinetic energy of all moving atoms in a substance.

27. Energy: Quality (ability to do work)
High-quality energy
Low-quality energy
Fig p.46

28. Changes in Matter
Physical: composition
unchanged (water and steam)
Chemical: change in the composition of elements or compounds.

29. Chemical Reactions
Fig. In text p. 47

30. The Law of Conservation of Matter
Matter is not destroyed
Matter only changes form
There is no “throw away”

31. Matter and Pollution
Chemical nature of pollutants – severity based on chemical nature, concentration and persistence.
Concentration (ppm – 1 part pollutant per million parts gas, water etc; ppb, ppt)
Persistence
Degradable (non-persistent)
Biodegradable - bacteria
Slowly degradable (persistent) pollutants – DDT, plastics
Nondegradable (persistent) – lead, mercury arsenic

32. Great Pacific Garbage Patch Lead Poisoning and Gold Mining

33. Half-life
Fig. 3-13, p. 49

34. Radioactive Isotopes Examples:
Iodine (131I): injected into humans to study the function of the thyroid gland. Can be seen through special equipment that picks up on the radiation energy given off by this isotope as it travels through the body.
Carbon-14 (14C): used to treat brain tumors and track the ages of trees and fossils.

36. Nuclear Reactions
Fission
Fusion
Fig p. 50
Fig p. 50

37. Half life Problems!

38. First Law of Thermodynamics (Energy)
Energy is neither created nor destroyed
Energy only changes form
You can’t get something for nothing
ENERGY IN = ENERGY OUT

39. Second Law of Thermodynamics
In every transformation, some energy is converted to heat (lost)
You cannot break even in terms of energy quality