The Voice of Allan Zade
Scientific Method is mathematical and experimental technique employed in the sciences. More specifically, it is the technique used in the construction and testing of a scientific hypothesis.
The scientific method is critical to the development of scientific theories, which explain empirical (experiential) laws in a scientifically rational manner. In a typical application of the scientific method, a researcher develops a hypothesis, tests it through various means, and then modifies the hypothesis on the basis of the outcome of the tests and experiments. The modified hypothesis is then retested, further modified, and tested again, until it becomes consistent with observed phenomena and testing outcomes. In this way, hypotheses serve as tools by which scientists gather data. From that data and the many different scientific investigations undertaken to explore hypotheses, scientists are able to develop broad general explanations, or scientific theories.
- Encyclopedia Britannica
The core aspect of the citation given above is this. "In a typical application of the scientific method, a researcher develops a hypothesis, tests it through various means, and then modifies the hypothesis based on the outcome of the tests and experiments."
Therefore, tests and experiments are the critical elements of the scientific method. A hypothesis can only be formed with experimental data.
Everything looks fine here. However, there is a big problem with experiments and tests: experimental data limitation. Such limitation comes from the set of tests and measurement devices involved by a given researcher, as well as the method of observation used in the experiments.
A good example comes from the detection of electromagnetic induction (1831). Some active researchers were doing experiments in the same area at that time. However, the history of science names only one person: Michael Faraday, who contributed to the detection and explanation of electromagnetic induction.
Electromagnetic induction appears as an electric current in a coil if there is an interaction between that coil and a changing magnetic field. A permanent magnet (usually a bar magnet) or another coil with a constant electric current can produce a constant magnetic field. Moreover, the electric current appearing on the first coil should be measured by some instrument suitable for such measurement. Galvanometers were widely used at that time for such purposes.
galvanometer is an instrument for measuring a small electrical current or a function of the current by deflection of a moving coil. The deflection is a mechanical rotation derived from forces resulting from the current.
The most common type is the D’Arsonval galvanometer, in which the indicating system consists of a light coil of wire suspended from a metallic ribbon between the poles of a permanent magnet. The magnetic field produced by a current passing through the coil reacts with the magnetic field of the permanent magnet, producing a torque, or twisting force. The coil, to which an indicating needle or mirror is attached, rotates under the action of the torque; the angle through which it rotates to balance the torsion of the suspension provides a measure of the current flowing in the coil. The angle is measured by the movement of the needle or by the deflection of a beam of light reflected from the mirror.
- Encyclopedia Britannica
Many researchers failed to detect that phenomenon because they did not observe it. For example, one of them used a bar magnet and a coil attached to a galvanometer. He noticed that the galvanometer changed its indication despite the current coming from the coil. He detached the coil from the galvanometer, moved the magnet around the device, and saw some “indication of the measuring device.”
The problem came from the measurement device itself. As mentioned above, a galvanometer comprises a permanent magnet. Therefore, the motion of another magnet close to the device adds some disturbing force to the measuring coil of the device and changes its indication.
The researcher made “a good” decision to separate the measuring device from other elements involved in the measurements. He left the galvanometer in one room of the lab and moved the big coil and the permanent magnet to another. After that, he began the experiment. He put the permanent magnet in the big coil, left it there, and came to the galvanometer to watch “the changing indications.” He saw no indication at all. The measuring instrument shows zero indication.
The researcher returned to the magnet and the big coil, removing the magnet from the big coil and coming back to the galvanometer. Again, he saw no changes in indications. After making such measurements repeatedly, he decided that “changing the mutual location of the magnet and the big coil makes no electrical current in it.”
Such a decision was wrong because only changing magnetic field makes (induces) an electrical current in the coil. That is a good example that shows a wrong output of a correct decision to separate the analyzing set of devices (the magnet and the big coil) from the measuring device.
The problem came from the observation. The researcher should use another person (or an additional observer) who watches the indications of the measuring device constantly. In that case, the phenomenon should be detected immediately on the day of the first experiment. In other words,
Pure experiments have no meaning for the scientific method. The method's application comes from utilizing the measuring devices, profoundly understanding their interaction with measuring physical entities, and interpreting the result value.
- Allan Zade