Classes

Here you will find the slides from the classes and other supplementary material. Notice that some things are said but not written, so you better take good notes. We recommend taking notes with pen and paper using the Cornell Method.

• Class 11: Statistical uncertainty. (Mar 22, 2023). [Slides].
  Noise.
• Class 1: Why? How?. (Feb 28, 2023). [Slides].
  What is the scientific method? Why do we care? How can we do better science?
• Class 2: How do we know what we know?. (Mar 1, 2023). [Slides].
  Where is the Truth?
• Class 3: Beyond perception. (Mar 2, 2023). [Slides].
  How do we know what we know.
• Class 4: What is Science?. (Mar 7, 2023). [Slides].
  What is the scientific method? Why do we care? How can we do better science?
• Class 5: How do we observe?. (Mar 8, 2022). [Slides].
  Learning to guess.
• Class 6: Divide and conquer. (Mar 9, 2023). [Slides].
  Enrico Fermi’s method.
• Class 7: Uncertainty. (Mar 14, 2023). [Slides].
  Error propagation
• Class 8: Interval Arithmetic. (Mar 15, 2023). [Slides].
  Handling uncertainty carefully.
• Class 9: Practice. (Mar 16, 2023). [Slides].
  Error propagation in complex questions.
• Class 10: Error propagation. (Mar 21, 2023). [Slides].
  Handling uncertainty.
• Class 11: Statistical uncertainty. (Mar 22, 2023). [Slides].
  Noise.
• Class 12: The Barometer Story. (Mar 23, 2023). [Slides].
  How can we measure things. Buildings, barometers.

Homework

Homework is an integral part of this course, since we want to match theory and practice. Besides, without practice we tend to forget more often. All homework should be sent to andres.aravena+msr@istanbul.edu.tr before the deadline to get a grade. Please be careful, otherwise you will get a grade zero.

• Homework 1 (Deadline: Tuesday 7 of March at 14:00).
  What is Science, according to you?
• Homework 2 (Deadline: Thursday 9 of March at 11:00).
  Is the Earth flat?
• Homework 3 (Deadline: Midterm exam date).
  Ask good questions
• Homework 4 (Deadline: Thursday 16 of March at 10:00).
  Handle large numbers
• Homework 5 (Deadline: Thursday 23 of March at 10:00).
  Practice interval arithmetic

Attendance

By regulation from the Rectory, students need to attend at least 70% of the classes. If you cannot attend, you must deliver all homework on time. Late submissions will not be accepted.

The attendance book is updated every class and can be seen in Google Sheets.

Plan

• The Scientific method
• How do we measure things
  • counting
  • measuring is comparing to a reference
  • measurements are numbers with units
  • estimating the order of magnitude
  • margin of error
  • error propagation
• How to design a good experiment: Analyze before doing the experiment
  • See what are the important variables
  • See what are the error sources
  • See if the experiment can really answer your question

Supplementary material