CHEM 133 - Describing Nature

FDR: SC, GE5c
Credits: 3
When Offered: Fall

This writing-based seminar considers how scientists describe natural phenomena and express scientific theories in terms of mathematics, graphical representations, and prose. Students examine a collection of topics from physics, chemistry and biology and examine how accepted explanations of these phenomena in terms of mathematical models are verified by experiment and then translated to concepts using ordinary language. In essence, if a scientific theory is expressed as an equation, how can we understand it in terms of pictures and words? Topics include entropy, the uncertainty principle, and definitions of life.Desjardins.