The Law of Conservation of Mass

To identify the parts of a chemical equation. Students need to identify subscribe pets, coefficients, reactants, products, chemical formulas, and chemical symbols 2. To appreciate that scientific discoveries are often the result of inquiry. 3. To distinguish between an element, a compound, and a mixture (and between heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures) 4. To balance a chemical equation in order to prove that the Law of Conservation n of Mass works quantitatively as well as conceptually 5.To respect that chemicals can be both helpful and harmful safety must be a p rarity and the intention of scientists can play a large role in determining if chemicals do ended hurt or help humanity 6. To prove experimentally the Law of Conservation of Mass that matter is not car dated or destroyed in a chemical reaction Standards NJ CORE CURRICULUM (SCIENCE) STANDARD 5. 2 (science and society) All stud .NET will develop an understanding of how people of various cultures have control etude to the ad vancement of science and technology', and how major discoveries and even TTS have advanced science and technology.You can either print o t the story or tell the story in your own words. This lesson corresponds with slides 14 on the pop written presentation. Slide 4 contains a short video (approximately 5 minutes) in which h the work of Lavisher is discussed. Be sure to mention the connection between his scientist fix work and the necessity of the work for Paris at this time in history. Why did he begin this pr Eject? And similar questions can be used to place this work in its proper historical context. B. Introduce the law of conservation of mass experiment.Be sure to emphasis zee the purpose of the experiment, mainly, to serve as a comparison to the work of Lavisher. C. Students should perform the activity. You may want to have students perform ram part A in day 1 ND save part B for day 2 unless you have a nice block of time. D. Following the conclusion of parts A and B, as well as the conclusion queue's ins, discuss the conclusion questions. Specifically, spend time on number 7 and 8. Number 7 asks students to draw connections between Lavaliere's work and what they have done.Number r 8 asks students to brainstorm ideas for other law of conservation of mass experiments. This is is unification because students will be choosing one of these ideas and designing an experiment lat err on. Lesson 2 Instructions for Teachers: Tell the story of Lavaliere's work with combustion. Make the connection bet en science and mathematics. Precise measurements were not common until Lavisher m dad them so. Observations, estimations, and generalizations were commonly found in ice once investigations.If you are planning on handing out the story rather than tell it be sure to explain what is meant by call. Powering slides 57 pertain to the connection between the law of conservation of mass and math, namely balancing equations. Slide 7 is a short video (approximately 5 minutes) in w hich balancing is explained as well as a short e explanation on naming compounds. Math teachers can teach balancing equations. This ca n be done in edition to the time that we spend balancing equations in science or the mat h teacher may take full responsibility for the balancing of equations. To further explain call a demonstration may be valuable. You can burn magma enemies and allow students to make observations, qualitatively and quantitatively. 2. First, introduce coefficients and subscripts and explain how they can help to s how us how the law of conservation of mass is present in every chemical reaction. Balance a simple equation, the formation of water is a good one to start with since most studs ants are familiar with the chemical formula for water.After 1 or more examples have students attempt to balance equations based on level of comfort with balancing. Have an answer key posted in the room so that students can see that they have correctly balanced the aqua actions. Ther e are many websites dedicated to balancing equations. I usually have my more am obvious students Google search a good site and write it on the whiteboard so that pee people who need extra practice or more of a challenge know where to go. 3. The selfsameness rubric can be completed by students at the end of this less son or at the end of this minutia. Suggest completing it at the end of the unit since you m y introduce more equations within the context of the lessons thus allowing students audit IANAL opportunities to improve their understanding. Lesson 3 Instructions for Teachers Begin this lesson by telling the story of Lavaliere's role in discovering oxygen. Be sure to mention the role played by Joseph Priestley. This is a good opportunity to disc us how technology, or the lack of technology played a role in the dispute regarding car edit for the discovery.Language barriers, difficulty in traveling far distances, and slow communication definitely played a role. Slides 810 should a ccompany this less son. Slide 10 contains a short video narrated by Bill Nee in which he discusses, with a m ember of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the story of the work of Lavisher and his role discovering oxygen. Joseph Priestley role in this discovery is also mentioned. Have students refer back to our first law of conservation of mass experiment, specifically conclusion question number 8.Students will now decide on a scientific quests on that relates to the law of conservation of mass and design a controlled experiment in which they attempt to explain data and confirm or refute a hypothesis on the basis of this data. I live that students should be encouraged to choose a question that allows for a lengthy study, requiring multiple measurements. This will reinforce the concepts pert air-ling to the law of conservation of mass and allow you, the teacher, to draw connections between the law and your other chemistry topics. The final activity is a reflection pertaining to a scienc e demonstration.The bur inning of paper ties in nicely with many aspects of Lavaliere's work. See the attachment and ask students to discuss, in words, the similarities, or differences that they notice. This can be completed in class or it can be a homework assignment. A homework assign meet may be more appropriate if you feel that students need time to review the story of the e law of conservation of mass that you have told. Towards this end it is also useful to post your notes of the story on your aboard or whatever form of communication you ha eve with students.While I have dedicated the story of Lavatories work to some of his experiment s there is another story that can be told. Lavisher, who founded a business whose prim responsibility was collection of taxes, was beheaded during the French Revolt Zion. This sad story can be told in science of course, or it can take place in humanities (h story) or in language arts (English). The stow of Lavisher can tie in to the American and F ranch Revolutions for history class. In English class it can be told within the scope of excerpts or entire books that tell stories relating to revolutions.An example might be while e reading Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. The language arts connections offers the teacher an opportunity to focus on the irony that with the beheading of Lavisher the Free inch people removed a person who had arguably helped them a great deal and who wool d most likely have made many more significant contributions to the life of Parisian. Background Information A: the Antoine Lavisher lived and worked in the 18 century, during the time of the French revolution (Grey, 1982).Lavisher is often referred to as the father of modern chemistry (Discovery Education, 2005). Lavaliere's first experiment to lead him toward the e discovery of the law of conservation of mass was part of an experiment to study the CLC manliness of the drinking water in Paris (Culled, 2005). Lavisher boiled drinking water. Acc ording to Culled (2005) the first part of this experiment involved cleaning a glass flask, drying it, and then carefully weighing it. Next, a precisely assured sample of water was poured into the flask and for 101 straight day s heated.The water was heated so that it just reached the point of boiling. Eventually, solid sediment formed on the glass walls of the flask. Culled adds that after weighing the flash k Lavisher concluded that the weight of the flask, the water, and the solid sediment was exactly the same as the mass of the flask and the water with which he started this experiment. If anally, Lavisher removed the water and found that the mass of the water had not chi engaged. However, the mass of the flask and the solid sediment was equal to the mass of the origin anal clean flask.At this point in the experiment Culled (2005) tells us that Lavisher concluded t hat due to the longer exposure to high temperatures the flask some part of the flask muss t have turned into a new su bstance, although mass had not been lost. It is worth noting that in his time, many, if not all scientists believed that the e earth was comprised of the four elements of earth, fire, air, and water (Culled, 2005). Du ring the aforementioned experiment Lavisher wondered if water could be converted t o earth, which at the time, Culled states, included any solid substance.Because the mass oft he water in the experiment did not change Lavisher concluded that the answer was that no, water was not converted into earth. A less perceptive scientist would have concluded others sis due to the presence of the particulate. It was his attention to the mass and to exactness in measurement that allow De him to conclude that contrary to what others were espousing, the water did not Chain GE. Grey (1982) adds that the mass of the particulate was exactly equal to the mass that was missing when Lavisher measured the weight of the dried flask at the end of the 101 days.L bolster included that part of the glass flask had undergone a change due to constant t exposure to high temperatures. Grey adds that this experiment was also significant because SE it lead Lavisher to conclude that â€Å"just looking at an experiment wasn't enough to fin d out what was really going on† (p. 40). This experiment, notes Culled (2005) was significant n tot only because it lead Lavisher toward the law of conservation of mass but also beck cause lead Lavisher to the realization that precise measurements are critical in experiment notation, something that most scientists did not deem a necessity at the time.Many of Lavaliere's experiments, including the water experiment, involved co marring the weight of reactants to the weight of products. In other words, comparing the mass Of the substances he was experimenting with before a reaction to what he had after a reaction. Due to his emphasis on precise measurements Lavisher was able to show that the difference in weight between reactants and product s was always small (Culled, 2005).Whew n he initially started these experiments Lavisher was not certain if these tiny differences in mass were due to his inability to make more exact measurements or if matter was indeed bee g created or destroyed, a view that many scientists of the time thought was possible (Grey, 1982). Read about the science of alchemy if you are interested in how and why scientists o f the time believed that this was possible. It's worth noting that Lavisher was eventually able to conclude that matter is not able to be created or destroyed in part because he asked the question, a simple queue's n actually, concerning the missing mass.Grey, (1982) notes that â€Å"He believed there were lots of questions about the world all around him that needed answers. He wanted to look for things no one else had ever found† (p. 26). As we learn more regarding the stories be hind science discoveries, large and simple, we will notice that almost every one involves in acq uisitiveness on the part of the scientist followed by an experimental procedure designed t o answer the question, but it all starts with the question. Background Information B: Lavaliere's next area of interest was combustion.By the time Lavisher turned to the question of combustion he was well known for his emphasis on precise mess ornaments (Culled, 2005). This was helpful in experiments in which he was attempting to determine if mass had indeed been created, destroyed, or remained the same. Lavaliere's combustion experiments consisted of burning metals and compared weights of the metal s before and after heating (Mechanical, 2004). When Lavisher burned sulfur, tin, lead, and phosphorus he found that the m ass of the metal actually increased.However, he also found that when burned in a closed flask the mass of the air inside the flask decreased by the exact amount that the metal increased (G ere, 1982). When Lavisher heated the scales, metal bonded with air due to combustion) he f ound that air was given off as the mass of the metal decreased while the mass of the air in t e container increased by the same amount. Mathematics, which provides quantitative data, allowed Lavisher and later, tot her scientists, to prove that matter was not created or destroyed (Tab, 2004). The word co inspiration means that nothing has been lost.After Lavisher, scientists began to conclude e that in an isolated system (for example, a closed flask) mass is a constant (Johnson, 200 8). We know that a constant does not change. If we are able to find the mass of the â€Å"system m† before anything reacts we can compare it to the mass Of the System after the reaction and the difference should be zero, according to Lavisher. Johnson (2008) notes that Lavisher was the first to conclude that the total ma as of a system must be equal to the mass obtained in the beginning of the experiment, regard idles of changes in states of matter.Johnson adds that in France, the law of conservat ion of m ass is still known as Lavaliere's law. We will attempt to prove experiment with chemical r actions in an open system as well as a closed system and yes, we will use mathematics to a assist us in doing so! As scientists learned more about elements and compounds (again, thanks to Lavisher) they ere able to further explain, in more detail, what is indeed happening in chew magical reactions in terms of elements and compounds being rearranged. Today we know that this accounting is done through balanced equations.Balancing chemical equations is a techno queue employed by scientists in which simple, and sometimes complicated, mathematics IS use d to demonstrate the specific ratios of the substances involved in a chemical aqua Zion. We will also partake in the balancing Of equations and I think that you will find it inter sting to see that what Lavisher, the pioneer, first hypothesized over 200 years ago, because e he dared to ask a question, is now being analyzed and proven in our middle school science e class.Background Information C: Lavisher is credited with discovering the element oxygen. He arrived at the co inclusion that oxygen must exist as a result of his interest in combustion. Prior to Lavisher, scientists such as Joseph Priestly who was based in London, had found that when something burned, like metal, the weight of the metal call would be greater than the mass of the origin IANAL substance (Mechanical, 2004). This Priestley explained, was due to the presence of a most absence that was thought to be found in any substance that burns, called p Hollister (Grey, 1982).Scientists reasoned that the added mass (to the call') after something b runner was attributed to phlogiston. Grey notes that at this time scientists were aware that t the mass of the original piece of metal also decreased, which lead them to the conclusion, alb tit falsely, that phlogiston was transferred when something burns. While most scientists were satisfied with the explanation, others such as Olivia sire found a problem. When metals were burned the mass of the burned metal (called call ) actually increased (Mechanical, 2004).

Desert Flower (Waris)

Desert Flower Every country has their own cultures and traditions, some of the cultures and traditions control us. In Africa, a girl named Waris, she was 3 years old who forced to have a FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) as others girls who had this brutal practice. But, she had no choice to run away from this practice because it’s one of the traditions that the woman has to get circumcision to be a pure girl and virgin until getting married.Waris kept her pain inside of her heart, inside of her body until she grows up and her family decided to marry her to an old man but she escaped from the village to London where she ended up to be a global fashion than fought against FGM. Waris faced a lot of struggles while she was developing. The Two main things are mentally and physically. Mentally, she kept remember the pain that she had when they circumcised her on a rock in the desert with dirty instruments and aggressive human being who doesn’t have any mercy for those children . In addition, physically, as we all know, females develop menstruation at a young age.As we have seen in Desert Flower the Movie, during Waris menstruation, she kept having a pain in her abdominal area because she developed medical issues including Wound infection, tetanus, syncope, and clotting which inhabited the free flow of blood from her genitalia. Which I think that happened to all female who had FGM and some who had bled to death after the mutilation and some woman who died during childbirth as with Sophia and Amena. Unfortunately, this brutal practice still continues but I’m sure that it will stop one day because nothing that God gives us is unclean.

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Assessing and Recommending Quantitative Research Designs - Coursework Example This is to say that at the beginning of the quasi experimental design, the researcher would often have a set of hypotheses in mind. These hypotheses are further broken down to give rise to dependent and independent variables. Once these dependent and independent variables are outlined, the researcher designs an intervention to use to drill for the achievement of the hypothesis. It would therefore take a pretest to give the researcher a fair idea of the current situation as hypothesized and then a posttest to get a true indication of whether or not the hypothesis materialized (Wade et al., 2009). The structure of the hypothesis, independent variable, dependent variable, and intervention above informed the rationale for the researcher’s choice of using a quasi experimental design. This is because with the quasi experimental design, the researcher was offered the advantage of critically manipulating all of the hypothesis, independent variable, dependent variable, and intervention into coming out with a conclusive study (Tanigoshi, et al., 2008). This is because the researcher would have to undertake a pretest to know the current academic grading of respondents, who would of course be members of a given university. Leading on, the researcher would have to apply the intervention, which would be the start of an extra classes segment. This would subsequently conform to the achievement of the independent variable, which is a 2-tier curriculum. Then after the intervention has been applied for a while, the researcher would have to undertake a posttest to test for the dependent variable, which is improved academic grading. In effect, the rationale for recommending a quasi experimental design was in the fact that it offered the opportunity to put all of the hypothesis, independent variable, dependent variable, and intervention to an integrated

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Oracle Database 11g - Assignment Example In case there are numerous databases that exists on the very same server, then there is a distinct and separate database instance for every database. It is not possible or recommendable to share a database instance. Connection in a database instance is the communication that occurs between the instance and the user process. Session in a database instance, on the other hand, is the specific connection of a database user to an instance through the database user process that it stands for in the current user login to the instance. Whenever an Oracle Database user runs the process for the first time, it calls for a specific piece of data. The Oracle searches for the data from the database buffer cache. The search process can either find the data or not find it. If the data is found, it is referred to as a cache hit, and when it misses the data it is called a cache miss. When it is a cache hit, the data is read from the memory directly. If it is a cache miss, the data must be copied from a data file on the disk then into a buffer in the cache before the data is accessed freshly. To accommodate several users and to maximize performance, an Oracle Database multi-process system uses some extra Oracle Database process named background processes. There are numerous background processes in an Oracle Database instance. The Database Writer Process, abbreviated as DBWn, writes the buffer contents to the data files. The DBWn are tasked with writing the modified buffers in the database buffer to the system disk. Even through a single database is sufficient for most systems (DBW0), additional processes can be configured to enhance write performance if the system heavily modifies the data ((DBW1, DBW9, DBWa and through to DBWz). The control files constitute the database data (physical database information). The files are very important to the database, without them, the data files cannot be opened. The information can also contain the

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Domain Name Dispute - Assignment Example Before dealing with the three elements necessary for substantiating the complainant’s case, it is necessary to deal with the trademark issue raised by the respondent.   What distinguishes the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UNDRP) from the au. The policy is that under the au. Policy, it is not necessary for the complainant to have a registered trademark.   All that the complainant is required to prove under the au. The policy is that he or she have acquired a common law trademark through ‘sufficient evidence of use or reputation in the trademark to justify reliance on a common law trademark’.1 The Complainant has provided sufficient evidence of its common law trademark through evidence indicating that Quickileaks has been operating as a well-recognized and accessed online media outlet prior to the respondent’s registration of its domain name.   It is therefore concluded that the complainant does have a common law trademark in Quickileaks.Before dea ling with the three elements necessary for substantiating the complainant’s case, it is necessary to deal with the trademark issue raised by the respondent.   What distinguishes the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UNDRP) from the au. The policy is that under the au. Policy, it is not necessary for the complainant to have a registered trademark.   All that the complainant is required to prove under the au. The policy is that he or she have acquired a common law trademark through ‘sufficient evidence of use or reputation in the trademark to justify reliance on a common law trademark’.1 The Complainant has provided sufficient evidence of its common law trademark through evidence indicating that Quickileaks has been operating as a well-recognized and accessed online media outlet prior to the respondent’s registration of its domain name.   It is therefore concluded that the complainant does have a common law trademark in Quickileaks.Identical or Confus ingly Similar When a domain name is identical to the tradename in question, this element of cybersquatting is easier to prove. The difficulty arises with respect to proving confusingly similar. While some cases the use of a qualifying word can do nothing to distinguish the domain name from the trade name. For example, in L’Oreal/L’Oreal Australia Pty v Namewise Pty Ltd /Nicholas Bolton, a domain name L’Oreal Store could not distinguish the domain name from the trade name since adding the word Store to L’Oreal does not account for the fact that L’Oreal products are sold in stores.

Indian Premier League Essay Example for Free

Indian Premier League Essay Cricket is a very fast-paced, high-energy sport but it’s also big business. Professional teams that belong to the Indian Premier League pay each of their players, the estimated value that could range from INR 20 lakh (INR 2 million) to INR 2 crore (INR 20 million) per year depending on his experience and stature. For that amount of money, member teams expect a great deal and are constantly on the watch for ways of improving their performance. During a 59-game season, every nuance a coach can pick up about a weakness in an opponent’s offense or the shots of one of his own players will translate into more runs on the scoreboard, more wins, and ultimately more money for the team. Traditional cricket game statistics failed to capture all of the details associated with every play and was not easily related to videotapes of games. As a result, decisions about changes in tactics or how to take advantage of opponents’ weaknesses were based primarily on hunches and gut instincts. Coaches could not easily answer questions such as â€Å"Which types of plays are hurting us? † Now professional cricket coaches and managers are taking their cues from other businesses and learning how to make decisions based on hard data. The software available with the Indian Team was very generic and did not produce any analytical information. For the same reason, John Wright wanted to have quite a few reports to help him make decisions based on the statistical data. A company called Sports Mechanics has found a way to collect and organize fine-grained statistical data and relate the data to associated video clips. Sports Mechanics employs just 5 people to match up video of each play with statistical information about every ball bowled within the match. For example, who bowled it, who is the batsman, who is the non-striker, where did the ball pitch, what did the ball do, where was the ball hit, how many runs were scored off it, who fielded it, how did he field it, which end did he throw, what was the outcome of the ball, etc. Once the tagging is done, when the query is done according to the tag, then the relevant video plays. Queries can be done by multiple layers of filters by bowler, by batsman, by type of ball, etc. Each game is dissected and tagged, play by play, using hundreds of descriptive categories and these data are linked to high-resolution video. Coaches then use an index to locate the exact video clip in which they are interested and access the video at a protected Web site. Within seconds they are able to watch streaming video on the protected site or they can download it to laptops, iPods, play stations, etc. For example, if the Kolkata Knightriders have just lost to the Rajasthan Royals and gave up too many runs, Knightriders coach can use Sports Mechanics’ service to see video clips of every Rajasthan Royals’ batting performance in the game. He can also view every Kolkata Knightriders transitional situation for the entire season to see how that game compared with others. According to Kolkata Knightriders owner Shahrukh Khan, â€Å"the system allows us to look at every play, in every way, and tie it back to stats. So we can watch how we played every ball, track our success rate, and see how other teams are doing it. The service helps coaches analyze the strengths and weaknesses of individual players. For example, Sports Mechanics’ system has recorded every offensive step of the Kolkata Knightriders’ Shoaib Akhtar since he joined IPL. The system can show how successfully he is blowing in either home or away games, with the ability to break games and player performance into increasingly finer-grained categories. If a user clicks on any statistic, that person will find video clips from any of the games of any season of IPL that show Shoaib’s particular bowling move. Mr. S. Ramakrishnan, the Indian Cricket Team Analyst and the founder of Sports Mechanics has since 2003 helped over 5,000 cricketers and provided analysis and soft ware to ICC and 21 countries. About 7 teams in the IPL; all except Royal Challengers have already signed up for the Sports Mechanics’ service, and are using it to help them scout for promising national and international players. Although nothing will ever replace the need to scout players in person, the service has reduced IPL teams’ skyrocketing travel costs. Sources: Sports Mechanics; Base 1 USD = 50 INR as of 11, January, 2009 The challenges facing IPL teams show why information systems are so essential today. Like other businesses, professional cricket faces pressure from high costs, especially for team member salaries and travel to search for new talent. Teams are trying to increase revenue by improving employee performance, especially the performance of cricket team members. The chapter-opening diagram calls attention to important points raised by this case and this chapter. Management was unable to make good decisions about how to improve the performance of teams and of individual players because it lacked precise data about plays. It had to rely on â€Å"best guesses† based on videotapes of games. Management found a new information system to provide better information. The information system is based on a service provided by Sports Mechanics. 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Kant and the Categorical Imperative Essay Example for Free

Kant and the Categorical Imperative Essay The possibility of the existence of right and wrong has been a subject of discussion among philosophers for centuries and many theories have been presented to answer the question of whether morals exist. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the great German philosopher is one who has contributed profoundly to the world of philosophy and especially in regards to his thought on the subject of morality. Kant disagreed with Hume that morality is objective and not subjective. Kant wanted to propose a pure moral philosophy, one of absolute necessity and independent of all human feelings, because if it not so, it will not be absolute and binding upon every person. The purpose of morality is to affect our behaviour and that it is reason that makes humans moral and not feelings or preferences. We shall explore some of the a priori foundations of morality paying special attention to Kants categorical imperative and what exactly this was designed to solve in moral theory. To have moral worth, an act must be done in the name of ones duty, the moral worth of this act is taken from the principle from which its determined, not from what it aims to accomplish and that duty is necessary when one is acting out of respect for the law. A shopkeeper giving the buyer the right amount of change because the law states one must not steal, this is an example of a legal action because rules are being followed but for the wrong reasons. A shopkeeper returning the correct amount of change because it belongs to the customer is an example of a moral action because the action is being done for the right reasons. Kant adopts the view of morality as an unconditional ought, as opposed to a conditional ought By this he means that one should perform an act without considerations of the merits that that act may produce, in comparison with acting in order for something else to happen. This implies that acts that are moral are those that are done without being done for the sake of the merit or reward that they may bring to the person. Kant claimed that moral behaviour does not guarantee the attainment of happiness; rather that good will is crucial for actually deserving happiness. Nothing in the worldindeed nothing even beyond the worldcan possibly be conceived which could be called good without qualification except a good will (Kant 1964 p. 27). By the good will Kant means that a good will is not good because what it performs or what it effects but that it is simply good in itself. The good will is the will which acts out of respect for the moral law and from freedom, but actions such as these, if motivated by selfish or emotional factors, will then have no moral worth. There is a great deal of stress placed on the intention behind the act, consider giving money to charity for the sake of helping out, without any need for any ego gratification or such self-serving purposes, this is an instance of good will. Kants most well known contribution to ethical discussion is the categorical imperative. There are three key propositions that form the basis of Kants ethics. They are: act only on that maxim (principle) through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law, act in a way that you never treat humanity as a means to an end and that you act as if you were a lawmaker member of a kingdom of ends. These three principles form the categorical imperative. For Kant the source of moral justification is the categorical imperative. It presents a method to determine whether or not an act may be considered to be morally correct. An imperative is either categorical or hypothetical. Kant writes, If now the action is good only as a means to something else, then the imperative is hypothetical; if it is conceived as good in itself and consequently as being necessarily the principle of a will which of itself conforms to reason, then it is categorical . . . . (Kant 1989 p. 31) As humans we all have subjective impulses desires and inclinations that may contradict the dictates of reason. These desires, whether they are material objects or gratify us in a sexual or psychological way, may in fact contradict the dictates of reason. Therefore we experience the claim of reason as an imperative, a command to act in a particular way. Kant views a person to be most free when they can overcome their temptations and it is this freedom that helps us make sense of morality. The categorical imperative emphasises the means for completing an action and places little meaning on the end result of an action, whereas the hypothetical imperative places much emphasis on the end result of an action. It is an imperative because it dictates what we should do, disregarding our desires. As rational beings we are guided through life by laws and principles, in the form of an imperative which simply orders us you must do this regardless of any desires which we may have. Hypothetical imperatives apply to us if we have a particular desire, go to university if you want to become a philosopher. An act becomes imperative when it ought to be applied to everyone, hence the basic statement of the categorical imperative being to act only on maxims that you could will to become universal laws of human nature (Kant). A categorical imperative would command you to do X inasmuch as X is intrinsically right, that is, right in and of itself, aside from any other considerationsno ifs, no conditions, no strings attached . . . a categorical imperative is unconditional (no ifs) and independent of any things, circumstances, goals, or desires. It is for this reason that only a categorical imperative can be a universal and binding law, that is, a moral law, valid for all rational beings at all times. (Miller 1984 p. 462) Immorality then would be to make exceptions for ourselves by acting only on maxims that we cannot universalize out of our own will. It is those who act in such a way and then expect others to act different to our way, who are immoral. The categorical imperative acts as a formula for universal law; by stating the prerequisites that an act must have to be considered moral, it presents a comparison for people to be able to see if they are acting morally, this being to act only on principles that you could will to become universal laws by which all who wish to act morally must comply with. It determines whether any act is right or wrong, so to do the opposite would be contradictory and this would then be an act that is not morally correct. An example that Kant puts forward in Good Will, Duty, and the Categorical Imperative, (1989) to depict this is of a man who is in extreme despair and contemplating suicide. By taking his own life he would be universalizing the principle that in order to love himself he should end his life (by doing this he is trying to improve his life by ending the despair he is feeling). Killing himself would in fact do nothing to improve his life because he would have no life at all! So you see how these contradictory acts undermine those that may be classified as morally right. Although Kants categorical imperative has been widely read and accepted by some it has had criticism. Some philosophers have thought of it as absolutist, being too black and white. But when thinking of humanity and society in which we reside, looking at morality according to the categorical imperative allows a standard rule for everyone to follow. If it was alright for some people to steal and not others this we could not call a moral and fair society. There needs to be a rule or comparison so that what acts are right and what are wrong may be differentiated from each other and the wrong acts then dealt with accordingly. Some have asked how only an action which one had no desire to do could ever have any moral worth. This to me does not seem to be what is trying to be expressed in Kantian ethics. It is not the desire per se that makes an act immoral, I think it seems that it is more the fact of this desire being the reason the act is conducted in the first place. If the act is done to fulfil a personal desire or attain that which one desires, then the act is immoral, but if the act is done for the good of the act in itself, for example donating money to an orphanage because one desires to help, then this is still what Kant would regard as a morally right act. Although Kantianism has had a profound effect on some people, producing many elaborations, translations and thought, for some it is not feasible once placed together as a whole. Kant had some very profound ideas but looking at society tody I would think he was definitely on the right thought pattern. Society and we as humans, with our impulses whether good or bad, need a clarified ethics to follow to help us separate what may be considered right and wrong in a moral sense, and it must be fair and the same for everyone, this is what Kants categorical imperative has done by creating a universal law or rule of thumb for morality. References: Kant, I. 1989 Good Will, Duty, and the Categorical Imperative. ed. Serafini, A. Ethics and Social Concern, the categorical imperative. New York: Paragon House Publishers Kant, I. 1964 Groundwork and the Metaphysics of Morals, ed. Herbert J. Paton, New York: HarperCollins. Miller, Ed. L. 1984 Questions that Matter: An Invitation to Philosophy, 3rd ed. Colorado: McGraw-Hill, Inc. http://sguthrie. net/kant. htm (accessed on 12/10/04).