A lesson on understanding the words "hypothesis", "fact", "theory", and "law" to better understand science + assignment

In order for us to move forward, we must first clear up a few things. The theory of evolution by natural selection is just that: a theory. We can say the same about climate change as well. I understand your frustration very well since I have also experienced it. As human beings, we are all in search of the ultimate truth in life and there are sometimes complex and challenging concepts that don't fit neatly and comfortably in our minds.

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The question then arises, what is the ultimate truth? Could there be more than one level of truth? Are there some truths that carry more weight than others? It's hard to say, but I'm not sure. There is one thing I can guarantee you, however: science is the best tool we have for understanding what is going on in the universe, and theory is not a derogatory word.

It is therefore imperative that we all speak the same language if we expect to have any hope at all of relying on science together.

Let's clear up a few misconceptions about the meaning and use of words and concepts like "fact", "theory", "hypothesis", and of course "law", which to a scientist mean totally different things than how they're used in everyday speech.

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A fact, in actuality, is nothing more than an observation regarding how the world around us works. Every day we observe different things, such as how sunny it is when I look out the window, and we often come up with explanations for these observations, such as "the sun is probably shining outside". Congratulations! A hypothesis has just been developed!

Hypotheses, however, are not things that one proves, they are things that one tests. OK. Let's go outside and see what we find! Let's see. It's bright outside, the sun is shining, and we have our hypothesis confirmed and tested. Well done, my friend! We did some science!

There are many hypotheses to explain an observation, so when we come up with multiple hypotheses, we just eliminate the ones that do not fit the observations. In the end, what's left is not a theory, law, or the 'ultimate truth', it is simply a possible explanation for something, a hypothesis that may lead us to our next step, which may coincide with or disagree with the original hypothesis.

I don't know what to say except that it's a never-ending story. The moment a sufficient number of hypotheses have gotten the familiar scientific approval, we can pile them all together and turn them into something even better: a theory.

In terms of science, a theory is something that seems to explain how something works, based on the evidence we have collected and all the hypotheses we've successfully tested. One of the best things about a theory is that it can be used to make predictions, not just about the way things are right now, but also about the way things will be in the future.

Perhaps there are some people who have said something along the lines of, "I just have a theory about why cows give more milk when they hear music, I believe it's because they enjoy the music, so they give more milk because they enjoy it". Nevertheless, that does not seem like a plausible theory at all. Essentially, that is only a hypothesis, it is something that can be tested and if it is confirmed, then that would mean that it is most likely the case.

I mean that the whole process of examining facts and observations, finding possible explanations, testing those explanations, and then making predictions based on these results probably sums up the whole science thing!

It's not a bad thing to be a theory, which means that the idea has received all the gold stars, blue ribbons, and that big shiny trophy that states "by hundreds of experiments I have demonstrated that my idea adequately explains all observations associated with it".

You could look at some examples in order to find out if you understand this concept well.

FACT: Almost all human beings are susceptible to certain illnesses at some point in their lives.

I think that most of us would agree with this statement.

HYPOTHESIS: In order for someone to become sick, something has to enter their bodies and begin to cause them harm.

If we are able to test each hypothesis and throw out the bad ones, then we will have a framework for understanding why certain diseases occur and we will be able to make predictions about them. We may then call this framework The Germ Theory of Disease.

Here's another one for you to take a look at!

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"Evolution" has no doubt been proven to be a fact in our lifetimes. As we can all agree, it is a natural process that has been time-tested for hundreds of years. There is, however, still some question as to the manner in which it all occurs.

In the theory of evolution, natural selection describes how we evolved in the way that we do and how our species evolved. There have been thousands and thousands of hypotheses developed in our study about it, which have been tested, and those that failed have been discarded. However, we have developed a framework that will greatly aid us in predicting how living things will change over the course of time. For this reason, I would say it is a theory.

Stop making this sound as if it's a negative statement.

Evolution has probably been tested to the greatest extent of any other theory we've ever heard, probably even more than any other theory we can think of. We call a theory a theory if it has passed the most stringent tests we can apply to it. Ideally, it would be more appropriate to call it the Theory of (the Fact of) Evolution.

Imagine something as fundamental as gravity for a moment, I was wondering if you could tell me how you perceive gravity. Do you know if there is something like a gravity theory? It would appear that this is not the case. Does this mean that it has become law?

Science defines law as a detailed description, usually in the form of a mathematical formula, of how something happens, such as the movement of gas molecules in relation to temperature, or the fact that weight and energy always remain constant. However, despite this, the law does not specify why all of these things happen.

However, it has become apparent that gravity is as much a law as a theory. We know there is a universal gravitational law known as Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation, which describes how two objects are going to attract each other based on their masses and distances between them, and it gives us a formula by which we can figure all this out.

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In spite of this, the Newtonian equations do not say anything about what is taking place, nor how it is happening. Therefore, in order to explain this phenomenon, we need to have a basic understanding of Gravity.

FACT: Dropping anything causes it to fall to the ground.

LAW: Mathematically, based on the mass and distance of the apple and Earth, I can predict how fast they will accelerate toward one another. I wonder then, what is the reason for this?

HYPOTHESIS: An overwhelming pull toward Earth is felt by the apple, and it cannot be resisted by the apple. Can it be that the apple is magnetically attracted to the Earth, or can it be that there are other factors like the way the universe is structured that could be making such things fall towards one another, or maybe the apple has fallen towards the Earth by accident?

We must weed out the bad ideas in order to arrive at our theory. Thanks to Einstein's contribution to science, we have been able to come up with a theory of gravity... generally referred to as General Relativity. In spite of this, when scientists discovered quantum mechanics, they realized that Einstein's Relativity does not fully explain what is taking place on the atomic level of the universe-the smallest gravitational scale. General Relativity remains a great theory in attempting to explain the universe at the scale at which a human being can comprehend, however even the Theory of Gravity has some limitations.

Considering that it is not able to explain all the facts, is that a good reason to discard it? I certainly don't think so! In the unfortunate event that you had a flat tire on your car, would it be a better option for you to buy a new model? If you replace your tires, will your automobile become an entirely different vehicle?

All these components are combined into one scientific machine which sums up how science works. In spite of the constant additions and removals of parts and alterations, the system continues to work as it should. Simply put, this implies that there is still a great deal of work to be done in order to check Einstein's theory in a more detailed way.

As far as science is concerned, there is no such thing as a finished product. A great deal of time is invested into it, so it changes all the time, and this is extremely irritating to some people. How can you trust such a thing when it could change tomorrow to become something entirely different? Having a strong and robust structure is questionable if it will change tomorrow.

The purpose of science, ultimately, is to develop frameworks for describing the workings of how things work in order to gain a more thorough understanding of the world that we live in. The awareness we gain from this will allow us to better predict how things will turn out for us in the future.

It is for this reason that I expect our future to be very promising if we are able to trust the scientific process even for its fuzziness and incompleteness. In my view, this is a very interesting theory.

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I hope you liked this lesson, and now here is the assignment for you.

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Assignment:

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1. Write in your own words and explain what is "hypothesis", "fact", "theory", and "law".

2. Give example of each and explain why it is put in that specific category.

3. Write about a few hypothesis you have developed in your lifetime. Have you ever tried to test them?

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Participation Rules:

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1. Write your assignment using more than 300 words.
2. The post must not be plagiarized.
3. Use copyright-free images and give proper source for it.
4. People from any country can participate, but you have to invite 3 other people to participate in this contest.
5. Set 10% beneficiary to the community curation account @sageacademy.
6. Subscribe to this community.

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Rewards:

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• Support from #learnwithsteem curation account (Not Guaranteed).
• Best Written Assignment: 5 Steem Reward.

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I invite @heriadi, @inspiracion, and @huzaifanaveed1 to participate in this contest.

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