I’d like to know who these people are and why they believe that!
Let me now show you why astronomy is important and affects us all (I prefer not to use ‘impact’ in this sense: using ‘impact’ as a verb in that way is a modern invention of illiterate businessmen — best not to get into the habit unless your employer forces you to in future).
I think sciences can be important in two main ways:
A. It is through science that people answer questions to which they “just want to know the answer” (such as how old the universe is, or what matter is made of, or why a ball drops if you let it go, or why there are seasons).
B. Sometimes, but not always, these scientific discoveries can be turned into technologies that we can “use” in our everyday life.
Perhaps some people believe astronomy is unimportant because
(i) they’re only thinking about B, not A, which is a great pity because interest in A rather than just B is one of the things that sets human beings apart from other animals, and
(ii) they don’t realise that astronomy is important in Way B as well.
Here are some examples of how astronomy has been, and still is, important in both Way A and Way B.
1. Without astronomy, we would still think that the Sun goes round the Earth. (This is a Way A reason.) Now, although farmers managed to work out when the Sun would cause different seasons for two thousand years while thinking the Sun goes round the Earth (so this discovery seems not so important in Way B), these days we would think someone pretty ignorant if they thought the Sun went round the Earth.
2. As astronomers worked out exactly how Earth moves relative to the Sun and the Stars, they also developed instruments for doing their work that led to better navigational instruments for explorers. Without these instruments, Captain Cook would have got lost. So it turns out that working out what the Sun-Earth system looks like was important in Way B, too.
3. Now for some modern examples. Astronomy (along with physics) gives us — or will give us — answers to questions such as: ‘How old is the universe and how did it begin?’, ‘What is our place in the universe’ and ‘Are there other planets that could be home to alien life?’. This is a Way A example, of course.
4. The Way B benefits come almost for free as astronomers and physicists look for answers to Way A questions. There would be no GPS without Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. (No nuclear power either.) Wireless internet relies on mathematics developed by an astronomer at CSIRO who was trying to improve radio telescopes. The internet itself was developed by physicists who were trying to re-create what was happening in the first minute after the Big Bang (that was the beginning of the universe).
And there are plenty more examples, but I’ve made this answer far too long already. 🙂
I’d like to know who these people are and why they believe that!
Let me now show you why astronomy is important and affects us all (I prefer not to use ‘impact’ in this sense: using ‘impact’ as a verb in that way is a modern invention of illiterate businessmen — best not to get into the habit unless your employer forces you to in future).
I think sciences can be important in two main ways:
A. It is through science that people answer questions to which they “just want to know the answer” (such as how old the universe is, or what matter is made of, or why a ball drops if you let it go, or why there are seasons).
B. Sometimes, but not always, these scientific discoveries can be turned into technologies that we can “use” in our everyday life.
Perhaps some people believe astronomy is unimportant because
(i) they’re only thinking about B, not A, which is a great pity because interest in A rather than just B is one of the things that sets human beings apart from other animals, and
(ii) they don’t realise that astronomy is important in Way B as well.
Here are some examples of how astronomy has been, and still is, important in both Way A and Way B.
1. Without astronomy, we would still think that the Sun goes round the Earth. (This is a Way A reason.) Now, although farmers managed to work out when the Sun would cause different seasons for two thousand years while thinking the Sun goes round the Earth (so this discovery seems not so important in Way B), these days we would think someone pretty ignorant if they thought the Sun went round the Earth.
2. As astronomers worked out exactly how Earth moves relative to the Sun and the Stars, they also developed instruments for doing their work that led to better navigational instruments for explorers. Without these instruments, Captain Cook would have got lost. So it turns out that working out what the Sun-Earth system looks like was important in Way B, too.
3. Now for some modern examples. Astronomy (along with physics) gives us — or will give us — answers to questions such as: ‘How old is the universe and how did it begin?’, ‘What is our place in the universe’ and ‘Are there other planets that could be home to alien life?’. This is a Way A example, of course.
4. The Way B benefits come almost for free as astronomers and physicists look for answers to Way A questions. There would be no GPS without Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. (No nuclear power either.) Wireless internet relies on mathematics developed by an astronomer at CSIRO who was trying to improve radio telescopes. The internet itself was developed by physicists who were trying to re-create what was happening in the first minute after the Big Bang (that was the beginning of the universe).
And there are plenty more examples, but I’ve made this answer far too long already. 🙂
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