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Behind scientific experiments: Why can every small detail change the results?
A scientific experiment is a procedure to support or refute a hypothesis, or an investigation conducted to determine the validity or possibility of something untried. By manipulating specific factors, experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect relationships, showing how outcomes change when a specific factor is changed. Experiments vary in their goals and scales, but no matter what, repetitive procedures and logical analysis of results are always at their core.
Labs can improve test scores and help students focus more on the material.
In science classrooms, experiments and other types of hands-on activities are critical to student learning. Whether they are basic self-experiments or systematic studies carried out by scientists over many years, experiments have their own characteristics, ranging from informal personal comparisons (such as tasting multiple chocolates to find a favorite) to highly controlled experiments requiring complex instruments. (Such as the process of detecting subatoms).
The purpose and method of the experiment
In the scientific method, an experiment is an empirical procedure that arbitrates competing models or hypotheses. Researchers also use experiments to test existing theories or new hypotheses, supporting or refuting them. Experiments typically test a hypothesis, an expectation about how a process or phenomenon works. But it may also be designed to answer a "what if" question without specific expectations about the outcome of the experiment, or to confirm previous results.
In an experiment, if all controls work as expected, it can be inferred that the experiment worked as expected and that the results were caused by the effects of the variables being measured.
The design of the experiment needs to take into account confounding variables, which can affect the accuracy and reproducibility of the experiment. Confounding variables can usually be eliminated through scientific control or random assignment. In the fields of physical science and engineering, experimentation is a major component of the scientific method. In medicine and the social sciences, the prevalence of experimental research varies by discipline.
Historical background
The systematic approach to modern experimentation emerged in the work of the Arab mathematician and scholar Ibn al-Haytham. He conducted experiments in the field of optics, controlling experiments based on factors such as visible experimental results. He was one of the first scholars to use inductive experimental methods to achieve results. Consider the British philosopher Francis Bacon, who promoted experimental methods that relied on repeatable observations and for the first time integrated the scientific method as we understand it today.
Experimentation is a procedure that helps people evaluate two or more competing explanations or hypotheses.
With the development of scientific methods, many scholars have brought significant progress and discoveries to applications in different fields. Galileo measured time accurately and performed experiments to draw conclusions about the motion of free fall, while Antoine Lavoisier used experiments to elucidate new areas of combustion and biochemistry.
Types of experiments
Experiments can be divided into multiple types according to the professional norms of different disciplines. In some disciplines (such as psychology or political science), a "real experiment" is a method of social research that contains two types of variables: independent variables that are manipulated by the experimenter and dependent variables that are measured. Controlled experiments are usually performed by comparing the results of an experimental sample with a control sample, which is almost identical to the experimental sample but differs in one aspect, the independent variable to be tested.
Good experimental design often requires consideration of confounding variables, and when conducting human experiments, special protection of external variables is required.
In many disciplines, different forms of experiments such as natural experiments and field experiments are also common. Natural experiments usually cannot perform controlled experiments, so researchers can only rely on observing the relationship of variables in the system, while field experiments are conducted in actual settings to test the validity of the theory.
Therefore, every small detail of a scientific experiment can significantly change the final results, leaving researchers faced with countless variables and conditions. With all these variables, how can we ensure that the results we obtain are reliable?
