Week 3 Chapter Questions

Part II: The Birth of the Scientific Method

Chapter 11: Boyle (1661) and Hooke (1665)

1. Where does the modern term “laboratory” come from, according to the text?

2. What new technology did Boyle and Hooke develop together? What experiments did they perform with it? How did it “torture nature”?

3. Describe Boyle’s Law in your own words.

4. Compare and contrast the sciences of alchemy with chemistry.

5. Centuries before Boyle, Aristotle had described the four elements earth, air, water, and fire (he later added either as a heavenly and unchangeable element). Explain Boyles work to disprove Aristotle’s assumptions about fire as an element.

6. This chapter mentions that Boyle published his work as a dialogue amount characters, much as Galileo had done. Why did scientists use this method to relate their findings, in your opinion?

7. Why did Boyle feel that only results that could be replicated over and over again should serve as the basis for a theory?

8. Robert Hooke might today be described as a Renaissance Man. Explain.

9. Hooke is most famous for his findings using a microscope. Describe his description of fossilized wood and why this was a significant event at the time.