3
TOK THINGIE
BY: OHMIEDAHOMIE
AGE OF EARTH
RLS
Debate between Kelvin and Darwin about how old the Earth is
KQ
KQ:
To what extent is disagreement a positive factor in the progression of knowledge?
Darwin
Used evolutionary biology to estimate the age of the Earth
Evolving organisms
Darwin
AGE?
At least couple HUNDRED million years old...
Kelvin
Kelvin
Does the sun not have to as old as the earth in order for the theory of evolution to be valid?
Operating under the assumption that the Earth began as a totally molten object that cooled over millions of years.
Based on how big the Sun was, he figured out the rate it must be contracting to emit the amount of energy it was giving off.
SUN AGE?
1) the mass of the Sun,
2) how gravity and gravitational energy worked, and
3) the rate of energy emitted by the Sun.
20-40 million years
WINNER?
Both Darwin and Thomson couldn't be right! You can't have many hundreds of millions of years of evolution if the Sun is only a few tens of millions of years old!
CONNECTION
Darwin was seen as the better option
connection
EFFECTS:
- Disagreement allowed for more debate on which source of knowledge is more reliable
- Led to more scientific development
- Different reasonings
- Different effects on different people
- How does different forms of reasoning lead to new knowledge?
- To what extent can we use reason to evaluate two competing perspectives?
- How can we distinguish between innovation and progress?
- To what extent is a scientific explanation more convincing than other types of explanation?
OTHER KQs
LINK TO RLS
- More scientific approach on perspectives
- The factor of reasoning on the decision of the age of Earth
- How this debate led to a better understanding of our historical knowledge
OTHER RLS
- Conflict between 3 2013 nobel economic prize winners
- The debate between the heliocentric and geocentric model