UE2: Are the laws the same in space?

Episode title: UE2 120628 1146 T7 Are the laws the same in space?

(Loose) transcript: [00:00:00.00] Alia: Well, okay...
Tim: Cause we know it's not turning into sound energy.
Alia: I don't know the answer to this question, but are the laws of energy the same in space as on Earth?  Probably not, so they don't follow the rules.

[00:00:14.27] Gayle: Well there are different forces.
Tim: Well they would have to be because they're laws.
Alia: Yeah, but they're laws...
Tim: Laws.
Alia: On our planet, per se.  And the laws of gravity and all that stuff changes on, on each planet, per se, so.

[00:00:30.11] Tim: Well the law doesn't change but the masses change, so the um.
Alia: Energy is neither created nor destroyed, does that law apply in outer space?
Tim: Yes.
Alia: It does?
Tim: I'm pretty sure it does, yeah.

[00:00:40.21] Alia: I mean, I don't know.
Sherry: It's a universal law.
Tim: Yeah.
Alia: I mean, do we know that as fact?

[00:00:45.24] Sherry: A rule.
Alia: As complete truth, like, no doubt about it, like.
Tim: Well that's, I have no proof of it, but that's what I've...
Sherry: I'm not even convinced.

[00:00:51.15] Tim: ...been taught.
Sherry: Yeah, that's right.  But I'm not convinced...
Alia: Yeah, see, I have no idea.
Sherry:...it's neither been created nor destroyed.  I'm struggling with that.  Just plain and simple.  But, but I can believe it, and I've said that before.  So for...

[00:01:07.13] Alia: That's why I wanted to talk about the survey questions, because they were asking us, What's the difference between a theory and a law, and what makes a law?  And, cause a lot of this stuff is just really just people's ideas based on evidence.
Sherry: It is.  It is, it's just theory.  It's maybe all theory.
Alia: It's based, you know, and hard to prove, you know.

[00:01:24.10] Alia: And does it happen every, the same way every time or just as many times as they've done it?  Do you see what I mean?  So it's, something that you can't see or touch or whatever is hard to believe.
Sherry: That's right.  Only the evidence of change.  Evidence of its presence, evidence of change.  Otherwise, it's just blind faith.
Alia: Mmhm.

[00:01:52.00] Sherry: You know?  Like there's little...
Tim: Sounds like a religion to me!
Alia: I was just gonna say that!
Sherry: This is what I've said to my kids, to my students.  You know, really, there are little green men in here that you can't see.

[00:02:02.14] TIm: Mmhm.
Sherry: (Laughing) And I can say anything I want and then, but I have to, I have to have some evidence of it.


Commentary: This episode is clipped from the middle of Phase 1 described in Hunter's earlier post.  Alia (back left), Tim (front left), Gayle (front right), and Sherry (back right) have been briefly discussing sound energy, wondering whether they need to include molecules in their mental model, when Tim poses a question something like, "If you beat a drum in space, what happens to all the energy?  Does it turn into heat energy?"  Alia follows this with the question, "Are the laws of energy the same in space as on Earth?," which is where the clip starts.

I think that Alia asks the question as a response to the (implicit and reasonable) assumption that Tim makes that energy is conserved in space.  I hear her challenging him, wondering whether energy conservation (a 'law' of energy) is true for processes in space.

Things that stuck out to me about this clip:

• That Alia treats "law," "fact," and "complete truth, no doubt about it," as synonymous.  And that she distinguishes this "absolute truth" from patterns in people's observations.  Two things this brings to mind:
  (1) Her statement that "And the laws of gravity and all that stuff changes on every planet" feels to me very much aligned with the epistemological stance that 'science is a collection of facts and formulas.'
  (2) Her statement, "does it happen the same way every time or just as many times as they've done it," suggests to me that she thinks there is a real truth out there that is only imperfectly apprehended by humans. 
• Tim's assertion that "it's a law" implies that it's also true in outer space.  Which feels much less like 'science is a collection of facts and formulas' to me than Alia's statements.
• Sherry's example of the little green men.  I think what she means is that scientists don't just say anything they want (like that there are little green men in here); what they say means something because it's "backed up by evidence."