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scientific method

[ sahy-uhn-tif-ik meth-uhd ]

noun

  1. Often the scientific method. the method of discovery used by scientists from the Enlightenment onward, in which a question is identified, data are gathered through observation and research, a hypothesis is formulated and then tested through experimentation, and the results are analyzed to draw a conclusion: usually followed, in the scientific community, by sharing the results so that others can attempt to replicate and confirm them independently.
  2. any process followed systematically to arrive at knowledge of the universe, especially in premodern times:

    In developing his systematic reflection, Thomas Aquinas followed Aristotle's scientific method as far as possible.



scientific method

noun

  1. a method of investigation in which a problem is first identified and observations, experiments, or other relevant data are then used to construct or test hypotheses that purport to solve it
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


scientific method

  1. An orderly technique of investigation that is supposed to account for scientific progress. The method consists of the following steps: (1) Careful observations of nature. (2) Deduction of natural laws . (3) Formation of hypotheses — generalizations of those laws to previously unobserved phenomena. (4) Experimental or observational testing of the validity of the predictions thus made. Actually, scientific discoveries rarely occur in this idealized, wholly rational, and orderly fashion.


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Word History and Origins

Origin of scientific method1

First recorded in 1850–55
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Example Sentences

So gain-of-function has been used in virology and microbiology for decades as a part of the scientific method.

We’re using modern segmentation and scientific methods, in a rapid test-and-learn framework, to develop and refine a proprietary point of view based on actual efficacy and impact.

From Digiday

The reason he made so little progress and abandoned neuroscience was because there weren’t scientific methods by which you could study things.

Sherlock Holmes and tons of great detective fiction allow us to play virtual scientists by going into a space where our ego doesn’t exist and we can practice our scientific method of making predictions and testing them.

A group of liberal strategists he brought together in the early 2000s led to the creation of the Analyst Institute, a secretive firm that applies scientific methods to political campaigns.

From Time

As Ackerman pointed out, all scientists are skeptics; skeptical doubt is a part of the scientific method.

While none have passed (yet), these types of legislation seriously hinder the integrity of the scientific method.

The scientific method cannot establish truths; it can only falsify hypotheses.

Adhering to the scientific method, we ran through all the standard positions one at a time: missionary, doggy style, girl on top.

In brief, Dowds scientific method is nothing more than unscientific humbug.

At no time since the days of S. Thomas was the saint's scientific method more lacking.

Scientific method in the work of Hipparchus meant a very different thing from the scientific method of the Chaldeans.

We very well know how, as a matter of fact, those very conditions do interfere with the application of scientific method to-day.

The very first canon of scientific method is that it be appropriate to the matter in hand.

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scientific empiricismscientific name