science and experiments

Science is a way of organising our knowledge of the world we are in

The Rules of Science

Science rules or fundamental laws help to explain what we see happening. But they are also useful for predicting what is going to happen with things we can't see.  

You may not be able to see an apple falling from a tree but you know what will happen if it does - zonk! It goes straight down to the ground, not upwards or sideways.  That is the law of gravity, famously proposed by Sir Isaac Newton.

Scientific laws or theories have to be tested against observations and if differences are found a better theory can be developed to explain what is happening. 

For example, careful measurement shows that different objects fall at different speeds,  so Newton's law was modified to account for air resistance, famously demonstrated by Galileo who correctly reasoned that when an object falls more slowly, it is due to air resistance.

Gas Laws

In refrigeration we use the Gas Laws to explain the behavour of gases, but if we measure very carefully we find that most gases do not exactly follow the rules. Engineers have developed more advanced methods, with the help of computer software modelling, to get more exact answers.

Engineers invent, design and make useful things. Engineering covers a very wide field, from the microscopic computer chips to enormous construction projects, everything man-made that moves, and of course refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps.

The career opportunities for anyone studying engineering are vast and growing.  See our careers section for more information about the kinds of work that refrigeration and air conditioning engineers get inovlved with.

In these pages in the Cooling Science section of this website we are going to take an indepth look at the science and engineering of cooling. 

Find out about our science experiment competition here and win great science prizes! Cool for School