Scientific Method

Scientific Method

Coming up with a plausible explanation for an observed phenomenon and through a process decide whether it is destructible or not.

The steps of this process are:

1. Observe and ask questions. My dog´s teeth are falling down.

2. Research. There are two main reasons why dogs´ teeth fall, they change teeth and some may have a bad oral hygiene.

3. Formulate a hypothesis. My dog is an adult so she does not change teeth anymore, so I think my dog´s teeth are falling because she has a bad oral hygiene.

4. Test your hypothesis. We stop feeding her with food for humans which cause the production of tartar and started giving her some snacks that may help her cleaning. We took her with a veterinarian who confirmed us she had a bad hygiene.

6. Share your results. I share my findings with family members and friends who own a dog.

Brief history:

Aristotle was the first one to encourage people to experiment and observe through empiricism.

Then the Golden Age of Arabic Science arose from the 8th to the 14th century and with it the scientist Ibn Al-Haytham best known as the father of the scientific method. He promoted the collection of data through observation and measurement.

From the 16th to the 18th century the Scientific Revolution left us the work of great scientists like Galileo, Robert Boyle, Francis Bacon, Francisco Sanches and Isaac Newton.

In 1581 Francisco Sanches came up with the term "scientific method", he described it as gathering and judging data in an attemp to understand the world.

Isaac Newton added some of the rules that make up the scientific method in his book "Principia".

Troubles of the method:

Not all of the scientific information we count with nowadays was formulated through the scientific method.

Any scientific theory is falsifiable, it will never be proven 100% right.

Have in mind that correlation is not causation.

Avoid selective windowing, if you publish add all relevant facts.

In 1962 Thomas Kuhn proposed the paradigm shift which made scientists change the assumptions made until then.

5. Analyze the data you collected and conclude. After 6 months of following these habits and taking her monthly to the veterinarian for a cleaning her teeth stop falling. In fact she did have a bad oral hygiene.