The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scientific \Sci`en*tif"ic\, a. [F. scientifique; L. scientia science + facere to make.]
Of or pertaining to science; used in science; as, scientific principles; scientific apparatus; scientific observations.
Agreeing with, or depending on, the rules or principles of science; as, a scientific classification; a scientific arrangement of fossils.
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Having a knowledge of science, or of a science; evincing science or systematic knowledge; as, a scientific chemist; a scientific reasoner; a scientific argument. Bossuet is as scientific in the structure of his sentences. --Landor. Scientific method, the method employed in exact science and consisting of:
Careful and abundant observation and experiment.
generalization of the results into formulated ``Laws'' and statements.
Wiktionary
n. (context sciences English) A method of discovering knowledge about the natural world based in making falsifiable predictions (hypotheses), testing them empirically, and developing theories that match known data from repeatable physical experimentation.
WordNet
n. a method of investigation involving observation and theory to test scientific hypotheses
Wikipedia
The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. The Oxford Dictionaries Online define the scientific method as "a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses".
The scientific method is an ongoing process, which usually begins with observations about the natural world. Human beings are naturally inquisitive, so they often come up with questions about things they see or hear and often develop ideas (hypotheses) about why things are the way they are. The best hypotheses lead to predictions that can be tested in various ways, including making further observations about nature. In general, the strongest tests of hypotheses come from carefully controlled and replicated experiments that gather empirical data. Depending on how well the tests match the predictions, the original hypothesis may require refinement, alteration, expansion or even rejection. If a particular hypothesis becomes very well supported a general theory may be developed.
Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, identifiable features are frequently shared in common between them. The overall process of the scientific method involves making conjectures ( hypotheses), deriving predictions from them as logical consequences, and then carrying out experiments based on those predictions. A hypothesis is a conjecture, based on knowledge obtained while formulating the question. The hypothesis might be very specific or it might be broad. Scientists then test hypotheses by conducting experiments. Under modern interpretations, a scientific hypothesis must be falsifiable, implying that it is possible to identify a possible outcome of an experiment that conflicts with predictions deduced from the hypothesis; otherwise, the hypothesis cannot be meaningfully tested.
The purpose of an experiment is to determine whether observations agree with or conflict with the predictions derived from a hypothesis. Experiments can take place in a college lab, on a kitchen table, at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, at the bottom of an ocean, on Mars, and so on. There are difficulties in a formulaic statement of method, however. Though the scientific method is often presented as a fixed sequence of steps, it represents rather a set of general principles. Not all steps take place in every scientific inquiry (or to the same degree), and are not always in the same order. Some philosophers and scientists have argued that there is no scientific method. For example, Lee Smolin and Paul Feyerabend (in his Against Method). Nola and Sankey remark that "For some, the whole idea of a theory of scientific method is yester-year's debate".
"Scientific Method" is the 75th episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the seventh episode of the fourth season.
The premise of the episode is that of a group of cloaked aliens performing scientific experiments on the Voyager crew, and the effect the experiments have on the various crew members. The episode explores this from a third party perspective, and views the events in a manner similar to the medical experiments humans perform on lab rats or other animals.
Scientific method refers to the techniques used in scientific inquiry.
Scientific method may also refer to:
- "Scientific Method" (Star Trek: Voyager), an episode of Star Trek: Voyager
Usage examples of "scientific method".
According to the criteria that textbooks and advocates for the scientific method tell us are the things to go by, these should be the distinguishing features of a preferred theory.
How can you apply scientific method - to a problem when you're forbidden to see the data?
And the scientific method of fearless thought, exhaustively lucid statement, and exhaustively criticized planning, which has given him these as yet uncontrollable powers, gives him also the hope of controlling these powers.
Following the Scientific Method, as laid out by countless generations of high-school chemistry teachers, I prepared two batches of the peerless cookie, one with the mysterious half teaspoon of water, and one without.
How do we apply the scientific method to behaviour in such a way that our findings constitute as accurate and as useful a body of 'knowns' as Penfield's findings?
He can't hate all capitalists, he can't hate all unions, he can't hate all women-you can't be a woman-hater, not if you use the scientific method.
In this complex world, science, the scientific method, and the consequences of the scientific method are central to everything the human race is doing and to wherever we are going.