Angelica Krauss

4/08/2014
Section 1B
ASTRO 5: Homework 1
Page 7
Microbial life on Earth predates intelligent life like us by at least 3-4 billion years. Do you think this fact
tells us anything about the likelihood of finding intelligent life, as opposed to finding any life, on
extrasolar planets? Explain.
The early origin of life on Earth suggests that the same process might occur on other worlds, and makes
it seem reasonable to think that intelligent life would emerge just as quickly on other worlds with similar
conditions.

Chapter 1
5: What do we mean by a habitable world? Does a habitable world necessarily have life?
A habitable world contains the basic necessities for life. It does not necessarily have life, but offers
environmental conditions under which life could arise/survive.
6: What do we mean by the universality of physics and chemistry? Although we dont know yet
whether biology is similarly universal, what evidence makes it seem that it might be?
The universality of physics and chemistry is what makes us confident that we will find planets and
other worlds throughout our Milky Way galaxy and the universe. Lab experiments suggest that chemical
constituents found on the early Earth would have combined readily complex organic molecules,
including many of the building blocks of life.

Chapter 2
11: How did the Copernican revolution affect scholarly thought regarding the question of life beyond
earth?
It proved that Aristotle was wrong and the earth was, in fact, not the center of the universe, after all. It
marked a turning point in the debate about extraterrestrial life because it made clear that the Moon and
the planets really are other worlds, (not just mere lights in the sky), which made it more plausible to
imagine life elsewhere.

12: What is the difference between a hypothesis and a theory in science?
A theory is a claim that is backed by the support of a broad range of evidence that others have tested
and confirmed, while a hypothesis is a claim or speculation that does not have such extensive backing.
14: What is Occams razor? Give an example of how it applies.
It is the idea that scientists should prefer the simpler of two models that agree equally well with
observations. For example, we should choose the Copernican view over the geocentric model because
its predictions would be just as accurate yet would follow a much simpler model of nature.
15: Why doesnt science accept personal testimony as evidence? Explain.
Science doesnt accept personal testimony as evidence because of its demonstrated unreliability.
Personal testimony cannot usually be verified or evaluated by another, even in principle.
17: What is Newtons universal law of gravitation? Write it in equation form, and clearly explain what
the equation tells us. What do we mean when we say that the law is an inverse square law?
Equation:

F
g
is the force of gravitational attraction, M
1
and M
2
are the masses of the two objects, and d is the
distance between their centers; G is the gravitational (measured as 6.67 x 10
11
m
3
/(kg x s
2
)). It is an
inverse square law because the strength of gravity between two objects decreases with the square of
the distance between their centers.