SC104 C HEMISTRY

01 S CIENTIFIC M ETHOD Dr. Gil C. Claudio

University of Asia and the Pacic

First Semester 2012-2013

TABLE OF C ONTENTS

S CIENCE AND L IBERAL E DUCATION C HEMISTRY, S CIENCE AND T ECHNOLOGY T HE S CIENTIFIC M ETHOD C AN BE P ROVEN TO W RONG

BE

S CIENCE AND L IBERAL E DUCATION

Liberal Education: to know a little of everything and a lot about something. Science studies physical reality. This study is done through measurement and experimentation. Mathematics allows us to work with the results of measurements. We arrive at some physical cause of material reality. Not why but how much? The main advantage is that science gives us a power to predict how material events will turn out.

C HEMISTRY, S CIENCE AND T ECHNOLOGY

Basic Science, Applied Science, and Technology

Basic Science is concerned with gathering knowledge and organizing it. Pursuit of knowledge without the goal of a practical application. Pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Applied Science is a science with a well-dened, short-term goal of solving a specic problem. Technology is the application of scientic knowledge in the context of industrial production, our economic system, and our societal goals.

Chemistry is the branch of science that studies the composition and structure of matter, the properties resulting from them, the changes that matter can undergo, and the energy involved in these changes.

T HE S CIENTIFIC M ETHOD
The scientic method is an orderly method of gaining, organizing, and applying new knowledge. 1. Careful observation of a phenomenon induces the investigator to question its cause, or recognize a problem. 2. Make and educated guessa hypothesisin order to explain the observation. 3. Predict the consequences that should be observable if the hypothesis is correct and that should be absent if the hypothesis is not correct. 4. The scientist devices an experiment to test the predictions. 5. The outcome of the experiment often raises more questions that lead to a modication of the hypothesis and further experimentation. 6. Eventually, an accepted hypothesis that has been veried by dierent experiments can be elevated into a theory or law.

F ROM H YPOTHESIS TO T HEORY

A hypothesis is an educated guess. A reasonable explanation of an observation or experimental result that is not fully accepted as factual until tested over and over again. The word model is reserved for situations when it is known that the hypothesis has at least limited validity. A scientic law or principle is a general hypothesis or statement about the relationship of natural quantities that has been tested over and over again and has not been contradicted. It summarizes a broad variety of observations and experiences. A theory is a synthesis of a large body of information that encompasses well-tested and veried hypothesis about certain aspects of the natural world.

V ERIFIABLE
The cardinal rule in scienceall hypotheses must be testable. They must be susceptible, at least in principle, to being shown wrong.

Experimentation reigns supreme. If there is no test for its possible worngness, then the hypothesis is not scientic. Theories which cannot be tested, because, for instance, they have no observable ramications, do not qualify as scientic theories. Ideas that cannot be tested are not necessarily wrong. They are simply useless insofar as advancement in scientic knowledge is concerned. Ideas must be veriable by other scientists. In this way science tends to be self-correcting.

If and when a hypothesis or scientic claim is conrmed, it is regarded as useful and a stepping-stone to additional knowledge.