CHAPTER 1 THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD Scientists ask questions We sometimes call that scientific inquiry Scientists often inquire about problems they want to solve For any problem they try to understand a cause so they can come up with a solution By learning what causes a disease for example scientists can work to control its spread Then they might try to cure it These geologists are taking water readings while doing fieldwork Geologists study Earth’s physical features and history
or school How is a scientific problem different from a problem you might have at home The process that scientists use to solve problems is called the scientific method They find out as much as possible about some thing Then they make a hypothesis an attempt to explain the problem They test the hypothesis with an experiment Then they collect and analyze the results or the data If the experiment does not support the hypothesis the scientists think about the problem again and develop a new hypothesis They then test that A hypothesis is an attempt to solve or explain a scientific problem 55 55 THINK ABOUT IT VOCABULARY
hypothesis with a new experiment If the experiment experiment supports the hypothesis other scientists repeat the experiment to make sure that they get the same results If they do get the same results the hypothesis will be accepted as true until it can be proven false Scientific method ask question collect information make observations form a hypothesis record and analyze data draw conclusions conduct experiment develop new hypothesis try again experiment supports hypothesis experiment does not support hypothesis communicate results 6 The scientific method the process scientists use to solve problems is shown in this chart
One part of science that many people do not think about is writing A good scientist must know how to express his or her ideas well In addition addition many of the different sciences have their own specialized vocabulary and rules for explaining things This is true for physics chemistry chemistry geology and many others Part of scientific inquiry is learning these vocabularies and using them in writing Nicolaus Copernicus wrote a book explaining his theory that Earth and the other known planets planets circle the sun The book was published in 1543 7
