Natural Science Chap 1

3. the earths 4th sphere, the totality of life on earth.
4. deals with processes and phenomena that vary in size from the subatomic scale of matter to the nearly infinite scale of the universe.
5. the span of time since the formation of earth, is about 4.6 billion years, a number that is difficult to comprehend.
6. earths physical environment is traditionally divided into 3 major parts: solid earth (geosphere), water portion (hydrosphere), and the earths gaseous envelope (atmosphere).
9. a well tested and widely accepted explanation that the scientific community agrees best fits certain observable facts.
11. scientists make careful observations, construct tentative explanations for those observations, and test them with field investigations and lab work.
12. seeks to understand the oceans, the atmospheres weather and climate, and earths place in the universe.

1. describes the formation of the solar system.
2. 2 broad subdivisions, physical and historical.
7. as failed hypotheses are discarded, scientific knowledge moves closer to a correct understanding, but we can never be fully confident that we know all the answers.
8. includes geology, oceanography, meteorology, and astronomy.
10. the time scales of phenomena studied in Earth science range from tiny fractions of a second to many billions of years.