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Earth 002
Monday, January 12, 1999
Announcements: TA Info...Jen Eigenbrode,
312 Deike, eigenbro@geosc.psu.edu, 863-3965
Lecture notes:
IN EARTH 002
- Take a system-oriented approach
- Understand the components of each of the systems
- Review Earth's history to see how it has changed
- Make predictions for the future
- Ask what do we do?
VOCABULARY TERMS
- Gaia-"mother earth"; a system that
interacts and is self-regulating
- GARLIC TEST : G-global, A-application, R-relevance,
L-learn, I-image, C-character
INTRODUCTORY TERMS
- Systems-a set of interacting components
- Subsystems-a smaller system with its own
interacting components
- Reservoirs-consisting of both mass and
energy
- Transfers-exchanging components of one reservoir
to another
- Variables (ex. temp, size, etc.)
HOMEOSTASIS
- A system that stays in balance even though the
environment around it is changing
- Ex.: Human Body...maintains normal body
temperature when healthy and the environment hasn't
changed too drastically.
- Is the earth a homeostatic thing? It is
capable of acting as an interactive whole.
SYSTEMS
- Isolated System-a totally closed
system that exchanges energy but not mass
- Open System-a system that exchanges both energy
and mass outside of the system (ex. Earth; gets energy
from the sun and gives it up too)
- Steady State-a system that is in balance through
time
UNDERSTANDING THE SYSTEM
Deductive Approach-to understand the system
deductively, you must reason from the general to the specific to
reach a conclusion
Inductive Aproach-to understand the system inductively,
you must use particular facts to reach a general conclusion
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