The Senses of Science
Our environment stimulates our senses, either directly or indirectly. The five senses
- Sight
- Hearing
- Touch
- Taste
- Smell
These five senses make it possible for us to know about the environment, the senses are vitally important in studying and understanding the physical world.
Most information about our environment comes through sight. Hearing ranks second in supplying the brain with information about the external world.
Touch taste and smell although important, rank well below sight and hearing in providing environmental information.
All the senses have their own limitations. Foe example, the unaided eye cannot see the vast majority of stars and galaxies.
We cannot immediately distinguish the visible starts of our galaxy from the planets of our solar system, which all appear as points of light.
The limitations of these senses can be reduced by using the measuring and by using the instrument such as microscope and telescopes. There are few other examples of limitations are our temperature sense of touch being limited to range of hotness and coldness before injury and also our hearing being limited to a certain frequency range.
Not only do the senses have limitations, but they also can be deceived, thus providing false information about our environment.
For example, perceived sight information may not always be true representations of the facts because the brain can be fooled.
There are many well known optical illusions. Some people may be quiet convinced that what they see in actually exists as they perceive it. However, we can generally eliminate deception by using instruments, For example we use the rulers to answer the questions like are the horizontal line parellel are do they slope.
Sight and hearing give us the greatest amount of information about our environment.
The limitations of the senses can be reduced by using instruments such as microscopes and telescopes.