Experiment

From RationalWiki

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An experiment was carried out to...

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An experiment is one of the main cores of all empirical science. An experiment sets out to test a theory or hypothesis with the aim of either finding evidence for or against it.

[edit] Why bother?

An experiment is an integral part of the whole scientific method, whereby theories are tested by the experiment and then refined to explain new or surprising results. Sitting in an armchair and pondering can produce interesting ideas, but can't reflect reality until they are tried in reality. A good set of experiments should aim to demolish a theory by producing data that it cannot explain, while a good theory should be able to resist such things by being aptly able to explain the data.

[edit] Scientific experiments

The vast majority of experiments performed by scientists throughout the world are fairly straightforward and the theories behind them are well understood; a routine NMR experiment may throw up some new chemicals or new reactions, but is unlikely to shake the core theory of magnetic resonance. Similarly, experiments done to test evolutionary theories have so far failed to put a dent in the concept of evolution or the mechanism of natural selection, but they do sometimes change the niggling details about what genes do which specific task.

However, there are occasional surprises that cause scientists to rethink their theories almost from scratch. Experiments can also show that people's intuition can be wrong (or at least less right).