Tham khảo tài liệu 'economic english 7', ngoại ngữ, anh ngữ phổ thông phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | SCIENCE AS INQUIRY The Scientific Method There are many ways to obtain knowledge. Modern scientists tend to obtain knowledge about the world by making systematic observations. This principle is called empiricism and is the basis of the scientific method. The scientific method is a set of rules for asking and answering questions about science. Most scientists use the scientific method loosely and often unconsciously. However the key concepts of the scientific method are the groundwork for scientific study and we will review those concepts in this section. The scientific method involves asking a specific question about a process or phenomenon that can be answered by performing experiments formulating a testable hypothesis based on observations and previous results designing an experiment with a control to test the hypothesis collecting and analyzing the results of the experiment developing a model or theory that explains the phenomenon and is consistent with experimental results making predictions based on the model or theory in order to test it and designing experiments that could disprove the proposed theory The Question In order to understand something a scientist must first focus on a specific question or aspect of a problem. In order to do that the scientist has to clearly formulate the question. The answer to such a question has to exist and the possibility of obtaining it through experiment must exist. For example the question Does the presence of the moon shorten the life span of ducks on Earth is not valid because it can not be answered through experiment. There is no way to measure the life span of ducks on Earth in the absence of the moon since we have no way of removing the moon from its orbit. Similarly asking a general question such as How do animals obtain food is not very useful for gaining knowledge. This question is too general and broad for one person to answer. Better questions are more specific for example Does each member of a wolf pack have a .
