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You are here: Physics → Experimental Physics → The Scientific Method

The Scientific Method

Step 1:

Make an observation. This could be accidental - you might be on your way home, see something along the way, and say "wow, I never noticed that before!" Or it could be someone else's observations that you read about. Maybe you want to find out if aliens exist! Or maybe you've just done an experiment yourself and observed something new or unusual.

Step 2:

Form a hypothesis. Come up with a possible and/or plausible explanation (called a hypothesis) to account for your experiences/observations. It doesn't matter if your hypothesis seems crazy, because you're about to put it to the test anyway.

Step 3:

Test your hypothesis. If your explanation is correct, there must be some way of proving it. Use your hypothesis to make an unusual prediction, then do an experiment to test if your prediction was correct.
If you make a remarkable prediction which turns out to be correct, people will have no choice but to take your theory seriously!
If your prediction proves wrong, this means that your hypothesis is wrong, and needs to be re-worked to account for your new observations from doing the experiment. In this case, just go back to step 2.

Q	What about peer review, publication, scientific community consensus, etc...?
A	That's not science - that's politics! As important as it is, scientific politics is outside the scope of this website.

You mention aliens?! Every scientist knows that aliens don't exist. And yet you call yourself a scientist? How unprofessional! How unscientific! How am I supposed to take anything on this website seriously?

This is a somewhat extreme example. Actually, I put that in there on purpose. All too often, scientists and laypeople alike; fall into the trap of dismissing or passing judgement on theories without testing them, simply because they conflict with a current scientific paradigm. Science is always changing, and some of today's leading theories may be experimentally disproven at any time. It is not scientific to make assumptions based on dogma, evidence must always be provided ("of course aliens don't exist," you might say -- but where is the evidence?). A scientist's role is to ask questions, not to scoff at those who ask them!

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