The science experiment hypothesis and the scientific method

The science experiment hypothesis is the foundation of the scientific method. If you begin with a well defined science experiment hypothesis, it is going to be easier to set up and carry out a good scientific investigation. Keep that in mind as you read through the rest of this page.

The problem

Each scientific discovery started off with an unanswered problem or question. Newton wanted to know why the apple had fallen on his head; Edison wanted a better way of producing light; Benjamin Franklin wanted to know what lightening was and Albert Einstein wanted to know how the universe was held together (that's a big one!). Without a question or problem to solve there is no reason to do any science experiments – right?

The hypothesis

A science experiment hypothesis is not just a couple of words chucked together so that an experiment can be done. It needs to be well thought out and written down so that there are no “ifs” and “buts” surrounding it.

It needs to be a realistic solution to the question or problem. If this is not the case you will end up with your conclusion being “I think I may have answered the question / problem”. This is not the kind of conclusion you really want...

Research and experiment

This is where you test and try and find evidence to see if your hypothesis works. This is why I keep referring to it as the - science experiment hypothesis - as this is the crunch stage. Here everything, or nothing (if it is not planned well) happens.

This part also includes going to the library to look up the topic, or going online to search for answers as well as actually doing the experiments.

This is the “fun part” of the process – regarding the famous scientists it's the part that everyone knows about. Galileo threw cannon balls off the Leaning Tower of Pizza – you knew about that right? Did you know how many pages it took for Watson and Crick to write up their Nobel Prize winning discovery of the double helix structure of DNA? Probably not as it wasn't the experiment but the conclusion.

Your experiments need to be well planned, always keeping your science experiment hypothesis in mind (remember it is the foundation). It is no use having a hypothesis about rainbows and you doing an experiment about electricity ... a silly example but you will be shocked at how people sometimes use irrelevant experiments to try and prove a hypothesis (obviously with no success).

The results

When writing up your results you will state what happened with your experiment/s. Here is some advice - you need to write down exactly what you see – even if the experiment “does not work”. Can you imagine Edison writing down that he had discovered how to make the light bulb on his first attempt, when it actually took him many tries. Instead of being called the Wizard of Menlo Park, he may have been called the Loony of Menlo Park!

Conclusion

With your conclusion there are two possibilities:

If the hypothesis has been proved to be correct:
You then have a scientific fact. The fact is your hypothesis. For example, if my hypothesis is: “If I jumped into a pool of ice water, my body would get cold.” If I did the necessary experiments, my conclusion would be that this hypothesis is correct. It is therefore a scientific fact.

If the hypothesis is not quite correct:
You have a scientific theory. This means that some more experiments and a changing of the hypothesis need to be carried out to eventually end up with a scientific fact. In some cases the hypothesis may need to be scrapped and a totally new one developed!

An example

It is all good and well talking about the scientific method and the science experiment hypothesis, but let me give you an example to show how scientists have applied the it in a real life situation...

The problem / question:
Where did we come from?

The hypothesis
When the world was young, the first cell was formed in a “soup” of chemicals. From here the first simple life forms evolved and carried on evolving until Homo sapiens (us) arrived. (This is a very simplified form of the hypothesis which, if written out in full would fill a book.)

The research / experiments
Scientists have been doing research for many years attempting to find evidence for this hypothesis. This research is continuing as you read. Findings such as the skull of Mrs. Ples, fossils and geographical evidence all are taken into account.

The conclusion
Although many bits and pieces of evidence have been found to support this hypothesis, there are important pieces missing – such as the “missing link” which would link us to earlier ancestors. This puts the hypothesis of evolution into the “theory” category.

As new evidence is found, scientists are continuing to adjust the hypothesis. One day I hope that the scientific world will find the evidence to be able to come up with a scientific fact of where we came from!

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