What is the Scientific Method? (hell, Isaac, science)

[Sunstone]

What is the Scientific Method?

[Francine]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

What is the Scientific Method?

Deliver whatever results the people who fund your grants expect from you. "You want support for global warming? We got your global warming right here."

[Seyorni]

Gather data, form a hypothisis about something based on a syntheis this evidence, then design an experiment to disprove it.

[Somkid]

I hate to use the wiki but I checked it and it is correct.
Scientific method - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Jaiket]

Originally Posted by Francine

Deliver whatever results the people who fund your grants expect from you.

Unfortunately, that is too often true.

Originally Posted by Francine

"You want support for global warming? We got your global warming right here."

Or the denial industry version, "Hello there, oil company. This is the denial industry. How much? We'll deny anything you like for that!"

Science, dodgy as f***, but we love you anyway.

[Mestemia]

Ask a Question:
The scientific method starts when you ask a question about something that you observe: How, What, When, Who, Which, Why, or Where?
And, in order for the scientific method to answer the question it must be about something that you can measure, preferably with a number.

Do Background Research:
Rather than starting from scratch in putting together a plan for answering your question, you want to be a savvy scientist using library and Internet research to help you find the best way to do things and insure that you don't repeat mistakes from the past.

Construct a Hypothesis:
A hypothesis is an educated guess about how things work:
"If _____[I do this] _____, then _____[this]_____ will happen." You must state your hypothesis in a way that you can easily measure, and of course, your hypothesis should be constructed in a way to help you answer your original question.

Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment:
Your experiment tests whether your hypothesis is true or false. It is important for your experiment to be a fair test. You conduct a fair test by making sure that you change only one factor at a time while keeping all other conditions the same. You should also repeat your experiments several times to make sure that the first results weren't just an accident.

Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion:
Once your experiment is complete, you collect your measurements and analyze them to see if your hypothesis is true or false. Scientists often find that their hypothesis was false, and in such cases they will construct a new hypothesis starting the entire process of the scientific method over again. Even if they find that their hypothesis was true, they may want to test it again in a new way.

Communicate Your Results:
To complete your science fair project you will communicate your results to others in a final report and/or a display board. Professional scientists do almost exactly the same thing by publishing their final report in a scientific journal or by presenting their results on a poster at a scientific meeting.


Source

[Rolling_Stone]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

What is the Scientific Method?

I quote:

The scientific method has four major components:

1. The assumption of an external, objective reality that can be observed.
2. Quantitative experiments on the external, objective reality in order to determine its observable properties, and the use of induction to discover its general principles. This was first systematically articulated by English statesman Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) in his Novum Organum, published in 1620.
3. Validation of the results of these measurements by widespread communication and publication so that other scientists are able to verify them independently. Although scientists throughout history have communicated and published their results, the first scientist to articulate the need for publishing the details of his experimental methods so that other scientists could repeat his measurements was English chemist Robert Boyle (1627 - 1691), who was strongly influenced by the views of Bacon.
4. Intuiting and formulating the mathematical laws that describe the external, objective reality. The most universal laws are those of physics, the most fundamental science. English natural philosopher Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727) was the first scientist to formulate laws that were considered to apply universally to all physical systems.

The last three of these components were all developed in the remarkably brief period from 1620 to 1687, and all by Englishmen!

It is the measurement of anything that carries force, energy, and momentum. By this definition, even an electromagnetic field is a physical object. But all physical objects are defined in terms of other physical objects, so the definition is circular. So is science really science?

[Willamena]

Originally Posted by Rolling_Stone

I quote:

Source?

Originally Posted by Rolling_Stone

It is the measurement of anything that carries force, energy, and momentum. By this definition, even an electromagnetic field is a physical object. But all physical objects are defined in terms of other physical objects, so the definition is circular. So is science really science?

By the "four components" you gave above (particularly the first) is it not?

[mr.guy]

Originally Posted by Rolling_Stone

It is the measurement of anything that carries force, energy, and momentum.

How do these three things differ?