The Scientific Method

 

The scientific method is a set of guidelines for all scientific investigations. They provide a framework for how to proceed in your investigation of the world around you. First, make an observation. This is a statement of something you have experienced or seen. For example, if I throw a football in the air it always falls back to the ground, assuming nothing interferes with it. Next, make a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a possible explanation for why the observed behaviour occurs. For the above observation, my hypothesis is that footballs fall to the ground because they are large. The third step is to make a prediction based on my hypothesis. I predict that if I threw a smaller ball in the air it would not always fall to the ground. The fourth step is to test my prediction. I could gather a collection of different sized balls and test whether or not they all fall to the ground. If they all do, then my prediction is wrong and I must make a new prediction or a new hypothesis. If I prove my prediction to be true then my hypothesis may be correct. A lot of testing must be done to prove a hypothesis correct. If the same results are repeated over and over again then the hypothesis is generally held to be true until someone is able to disprove it. The experiments included on this website were created based on the scientific method.

 

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chart from http://phyun5.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7/Notes_www/node6.html#SECTION02121000000000000000

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