HIN K LIK E A T S T CIEN T IS HOW DOES IT WORK INTRODUCTION A screen across the room was glowing Physicist Wilhelm Röntgen wondered what was going on He was experi menting with cathode ray tubes similar to modern light bulbs Röntgen had placed an electric volt through each cathode tube The tubes glowed even when he covered them with paper That was when he noticed the green light glowing on the screen and realized he had created a new type of light ray His ray was passing through solid materials some thing that should have been impossible He wondered whether it would penetrate other subjects What would happen if he tried to pass his new ray through the human body Röntgen placed his wife’s hand over a pho tographic plate and cast the ray An image of her bones and wedding ring appeared on the plate It was 1895 and Röntgen had just taken the first X-ray Physical science is all about how things work in nature Physics studies the most basic forces at work in our world and universe It deals with the relationships between matter and energy Chemistry looks deeper into the structure of that matter examining how substances interact with energy and one another In using the scientific method a physical scientist understands how something works by asking questions and making observa tions Experiments in the physical sciences give people a closer look at the world’s inner workings and can lead to important problem-solving discoveries From X-rays of broken bones to the chemistry needed to make TVs and phones work everything in our world runs on the physical sciences 5 5
Hin K LiK T E A s CiEn T isT HOW DOEs iT WORK CHAPTER 1 EUREKA MOMENTS Many consider physics to be the oldest subjects from the smallest atomic particle science physics covers a wide range of to enormous galaxies physicists scientists who study physics conduct research in subjects such as electricity astronomy forces light and sound objects on our planet and throughout our universe affect each other so it is the job of some physicists to study these interac tions Much of the technology we use today comes from discoveries physicists have made in the last few centuries since ancient times people have noticed and attempted to understand the extraordinary natural occur rences or events around them When they looked up at what was happening in the sky they tried to explain the concepts of night and day When they observed the seasons they invented reasons for those as well in 1400s europe explanations for the changing Observations of the universe led to theories of its physical makeup and workings seasons and how day turned into night involved the belief that earth was the 7
