I’m acquainted with the scientific method myself, but when I try to explain it to science deniers I always fall short of capturing what makes it such a universal and thorough method. Any help?
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You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into. Science is all about repeatability, so if they want to prove their point, ask them to publish a paper detailing an experiment they performed that somehow contradicts what millions of scientists are saying.
You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into. Science is all about repeatability, so if they want to prove their point, ask them to publish a paper detailing an experiment they performed that somehow contradicts what millions of scientists are saying.
You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into. Science is all about repeatability, so if they want to prove their point, ask them to publish a paper detailing an experiment they performed that somehow contradicts what millions of scientists are saying.
Nobody explains this better that Feynman.
First we make a guess
Then we compute the consequences of the guess
Then we compare our computation to experiment.
If it disagrees with experiement **it’s wrong**. That simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t make a difference how beautiful your guess is, how smart you are, who made the guess or what his name is, if it disagrees with experiement, it’s wrong.
Nobody explains this better that Feynman.
First we make a guess
Then we compute the consequences of the guess
Then we compare our computation to experiment.
If it disagrees with experiement **it’s wrong**. That simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t make a difference how beautiful your guess is, how smart you are, who made the guess or what his name is, if it disagrees with experiement, it’s wrong.
Nobody explains this better that Feynman.
First we make a guess
Then we compute the consequences of the guess
Then we compare our computation to experiment.
If it disagrees with experiement **it’s wrong**. That simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t make a difference how beautiful your guess is, how smart you are, who made the guess or what his name is, if it disagrees with experiement, it’s wrong.
I just googled my horoscope, and got this:
> There’s an explosive quality about the day. You may walk along, minding your own business, when someone accidentally bumps into you. Your first reaction may be to push that person back. Carelessness on the part of others may cause you to get worked up into fits of rage. Do your best to keep these tendencies under control, especially when driving.
What’s “explosive” about the day? Does diarrhoea count? Fireworks? I “may” walk along minding my own business when somebody bumps into me. Do the random people in the Diablo 4 Beta count? Running into people while I’m minding my own business is definitely a new experience for me in a Diablo game. How annoyed do I have to be at Blizzard’s failure to scale their servers to deal with the spike in activity for it to count as “a fit of rage”?
Is this horoscope right or wrong? Is this psychic real or not? All these statements are so vague and open to interpretation that you can’t really tell which is which.
Now, take a simple statement: “all cats are black”. No they’re not, I can show you photos of my sister’s ginger cat as proof. That statement is false, but it’s very clearly, obviously, unambiguously false. That, right there, is the essence of science. “All cats are black” is, at some level, a good scientific statement where my horoscope isn’t, _because it’s easy to tell that it’s wrong_. Science is a combination of trying to make as precise predictions about the world as you can, then trying to measure those predictions against reality.
I just googled my horoscope, and got this:
> There’s an explosive quality about the day. You may walk along, minding your own business, when someone accidentally bumps into you. Your first reaction may be to push that person back. Carelessness on the part of others may cause you to get worked up into fits of rage. Do your best to keep these tendencies under control, especially when driving.
What’s “explosive” about the day? Does diarrhoea count? Fireworks? I “may” walk along minding my own business when somebody bumps into me. Do the random people in the Diablo 4 Beta count? Running into people while I’m minding my own business is definitely a new experience for me in a Diablo game. How annoyed do I have to be at Blizzard’s failure to scale their servers to deal with the spike in activity for it to count as “a fit of rage”?
Is this horoscope right or wrong? Is this psychic real or not? All these statements are so vague and open to interpretation that you can’t really tell which is which.
Now, take a simple statement: “all cats are black”. No they’re not, I can show you photos of my sister’s ginger cat as proof. That statement is false, but it’s very clearly, obviously, unambiguously false. That, right there, is the essence of science. “All cats are black” is, at some level, a good scientific statement where my horoscope isn’t, _because it’s easy to tell that it’s wrong_. Science is a combination of trying to make as precise predictions about the world as you can, then trying to measure those predictions against reality.
I just googled my horoscope, and got this:
> There’s an explosive quality about the day. You may walk along, minding your own business, when someone accidentally bumps into you. Your first reaction may be to push that person back. Carelessness on the part of others may cause you to get worked up into fits of rage. Do your best to keep these tendencies under control, especially when driving.
What’s “explosive” about the day? Does diarrhoea count? Fireworks? I “may” walk along minding my own business when somebody bumps into me. Do the random people in the Diablo 4 Beta count? Running into people while I’m minding my own business is definitely a new experience for me in a Diablo game. How annoyed do I have to be at Blizzard’s failure to scale their servers to deal with the spike in activity for it to count as “a fit of rage”?
Is this horoscope right or wrong? Is this psychic real or not? All these statements are so vague and open to interpretation that you can’t really tell which is which.
Now, take a simple statement: “all cats are black”. No they’re not, I can show you photos of my sister’s ginger cat as proof. That statement is false, but it’s very clearly, obviously, unambiguously false. That, right there, is the essence of science. “All cats are black” is, at some level, a good scientific statement where my horoscope isn’t, _because it’s easy to tell that it’s wrong_. Science is a combination of trying to make as precise predictions about the world as you can, then trying to measure those predictions against reality.
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