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Asked by peowwclayton to Hywel, Joseph, Patience, Poonam, Rachael on 25 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
Question: how does science in general work?
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Poonam Kaushik answered on 15 Jun 2010:
Science (from Latin: scientia, meaning “knowledge”) is a systematic enterprise of gathering knowledge about the world and organizing and condensing that knowledge into testable laws and theories. As knowledge has increased, some methods have proved more reliable than others, and today the scientific method is the standard for science. It includes the use of careful observation, experiment, measurement, mathematics, and replication — to be considered a science, a body of knowledge must stand up to repeated testing by independent observers. The use of the scientific method to make new discoveries is called scientific research, and the people who carry out this research are called scientists. This article focuses on science in the more restricted sense, what is sometimes called experimental science. Applied science, or engineering, is the practical application of scientific knowledge.
A scientific hypothesis is an educated guess about the nature of the universe, a scientific theory is a hypothesis which has been confirmed by repeated observation and measurement. Scientific theories are usually given mathematical form, and are always subject to refutation if future experiments contradict them.
In the modern world, scientific research is a major activity in all developed nations, and scientists are expected to publish their discoveries in refereed journals, scientific periodicals where referees check the facts in an article before it is published. Even after publication, new scientific ideas are not generally accepted until the work has been replicated.
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Dr Hywel Jones answered on 25 Jun 2010:
Too hard to answer in a short space of time but the long answer can be found here:
Comments
peowwclayton commented on :
well science, i mean everything space, cells, particels all that jazz
Joseph commented on :
Well then that’s a bit of a broad question!
At the very core of science is the ‘standard model of particle physics’ which considers 4 forces – gravity, electromagnetism, the ‘weak’ force and the ‘strong’ force – and two types of particles – quarks and leptons. Everything is made up of quarks and leptons and the way they behave depends on the way they interact with each other, which is determined by the 4 forces.
But collections of quarks and leptons make larger structures which are easier to deal with, do experiments on and make theories for. So atoms are made up of protons and neutrons (both made of quarks) and electrons (which are leptons). Molecules are made up of collections of atoms, and then larger structures like cells are made of collections of molecules.
So depending on what you’re interested in, you’ll use a different experiment or theory. If you’re interested in physics you might use a huge particle accelerator to smash tiny particles together. If you’re interested in chemistry you might look at how molecules react, and if you’re interested in biology you might look at how cells or organisms behave.
It’s all determined by those fundamental particles and forces, but it’s usually unnecessarily complicated to consider them.
I hope this helps!
peowwclayton commented on :
well i got told that the meaning of life is 42 because if you think of a number x by 70 x by 6 / by 5 / by 2 then divide by the number you first thought of = 42 every single time
now tell me how does tht work????
🙂
Hywel commented on :
This is because 70×6= 420, 420/(5×2) = 42 so in effect you are taking a number, say z multiplying it by 42 (so z x 42 = 42z) and then dividing by z (42z/z = 42) so you will always get 42. This could be done for any number, just change the product of the multiplication and division to make the number you want to work. e.g 60x, 5x, /6 /2 will always get you 25