Cycle Of Scientific Enterprise

Question: Define science, theory, hypothesis, and scientific fact.

Answer: Science: mental model-building;

Theory: a conceptual representation of how the natural world works (our best explanation at present)

Hypothesis: an informed prediction, based on a theory

Scientific Fact: something correct as far as we know, supported by a lot of evidence

Question: Describe the Cycle of Scientific Enterprise by describing each major step in the cycle, and explaining their relationships to each other.

Answer:

Question: Distinguish between theories and hypotheses, and give actual examples of each.

Answer: Theory: mental model that accounts for known facts (general relativity)

Hypotheses: informed, testable prediction of what will happen in certain circumstances (using caloric theory for revising ‘speed of sound’ experiment)

Question: Distinguish between facts, theories, and truth.

Answer: Fact: statement, supported by a lot of scientific evidence, that is correct as far as we know. Theory: mental model that accounts for known facts (our best explanation at present) Truth: the way things really are

Question: Define truth, and give examples of true statements.

Answer: Truth: the way things really are (I am sitting in the living room—direct experience; Jesus rose from the dead-testimony of God’s word)

Question: Explain why science can be described as “model building.”

Answer: Science is the process of using experiment, observation, and reasoning to develop mental models of the natural world. The mental models scientists develop are called theories.

Question: Describe the two main ways we know truth.

Answer: 1. revealed to us by God through his word and nature (word/works), and 2. known to us by the direct and immediate testimony of our senses

Question: Explain why scientific facts and theories are regarded as provisional.

Answer: Facts can change as new evidence is obtained. They can change as the Cycle of Scientific Enterprise continues.

Question: Caloric theory

Answer: The now-discarded theory that heat is a weightless gas inside hot objects that flows to cooler objects when released, as in a fire.

Question: Cycle of Scientific Enterprise

Answer: The process of forming a theory to account for a body of facts, then formulating testable hypotheses form the theory, then testing the hypotheses experimentally and analyzing the results. If the hypothesis is confirmed, the theory is strengthened, otherwise the theory is weakened.