2015-10-14
501
The Scientific Method
As man’s knowledge of natural phenomena increased, there came
a time when he recognized that his growing knowledge of nature was the result of his application of a particular method of investigation. This
rather well defined procedure has come to be known as the Scientific Method. Consequently the emphasis passed from the knowledge itself
to the method by which that knowledge was obtained. Let us explore the possibilities and implications of the scientific method. The steps in the procedure may be listed as follows:
First – The recognition of the problem.
Second – Collection of experimental facts or data.
Third – Analysis of data and setting up of a tentative hypothesis.
Fourth – Performance of test experiments.
Fifth – Substantiation, modification, or abandonment of the hypothesis in the light of the results of the test experiments.
If the hypothesis is discarded as the result of the test experiments, a new one will be set up and steps three, four and five will be repeated until an explanation is found which accounts satisfactorily for all the known experimental facts. As the amount of substantiating data becomes larger and larger, the hypothesis advances to the rank of a theory and eventually may be accepted as true.
It should be noted that in general one adopts first the most obvious hypothesis; that is, one that at the moment seems to offer the simplest explanation of the observed facts. This hypothesis may or may not prove to be satisfactory in the light of later evidence.
In coming to a conclusion about any hypothesis, the true scientist is swayed only by experimental evidence. He is not, for instance, governed principally by what he or anyone else wants the results to be, by the reputation of the man who advanced the hypothesis, by what the majority of people think about it, or by any similar emotional reaction to the problem. He will constantly check his conclusions and hypotheses by experiment and be guided solely by the results thus obtained.
