Is Science a formal study based on observation and experiment

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Is Science a formal study based on observation and experiment

Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. The triumphs of science represent a cumulative process of increasing knowledge and a sequence of victories over ignorance and superstition; and from science flowed a stream of inventions for the improvement of human life. Man’s inquisitiveness and thirst for knowledge has lead him to discover and explain the state of many things as they exist/existed. However, most discoveries of mankind have been the result of formal scientific method and not purely accident. Every  formal scientific method involves certain steps which are as follows:

1. Observe something regarding the cosmos

2. Devise a hypothesis which agrees with what has been viewed.

3. Using the hypothesis make predictions.

4. By experiments or further observations test those predictions and adjust the hypothesis corresponding to the results.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until there is no difference between the hypothesis and the experiment

 If no barrier disagrees your hypothesis it then develops into a theory which explains a certain phenomena with a set of rules. A theory is then a framework within which observations are explained and predictions are made. For example, Galileo used the scientific method to debate on the Phases of Venus. Edmund Halley’s prediction that the comet (Halley’s Comet) would turn up every 76 years was based on a scientific method and so also was the discovery of the planet Neptune by Newton’s Laws. However, every hypothesis based on scientific methods need not always be correct. The core element of a scientific hypothesis is that it must be capable of being proven false. For example, the Ptolemaic Earth- Centered System observed that people living on the Earth feel no sensation of motion and that the stars show now sign of , which would be expected if the Earth moved. However, the model was later proved incorrect by Galileo and Bessel.

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        People who followed the Scientific Method carefully, sometimes contradicted general views or Paradigms accepted by the others. For example, when Copernicus predicted that the earth was not the center of the universe as  was considered  during the 1600’s, his idea was heard but was not accepted. His idea caused other scientists to further research in this observation. Many years later, his idea was proved mathematically correct by Newton’s Laws.  

The challenge now before us is not only to revalidate most accurately the theories that have been established over a period of time and which still exist today (even ...

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