experimentation

science

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Assorted References

  • function in hypothetico-deductive method
    • In hypothetico-deductive method

      …obtained through direct observation and experimentation and that will, through inference, predict further effects that can then be verified or disproved by empirical evidence derived from other experiments.

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application in

    • biology
      • biology; microscope
        In biology: The history of biology

        …test the hypotheses by appropriate experiments. The most original and inquiring mind is severely limited without the proper tools to conduct an investigation; conversely, the most-sophisticated technological equipment cannot of itself yield insights into any scientific process.

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    • clusters study
      • Figure 1: The four stable geometric structures of the seven-atom cluster of argon, in order of increasing energy: (A) A pentagonal bipyramid. (B) A regular octahedron with one face capped by the seventh atom. (C) A regular tetrahedron with three of its faces capped by other atoms. (D) A trigonal bipyramid with two of its faces capped by other atoms; although this has the highest energy of the four structures, it is very close in energy to the tricapped tetrahedron.
        In cluster: Methods of study

        Clusters can be studied by experiment, by theoretical analysis, and by simulation with computer-generated models. For several reasons they cannot be studied in the same manner as bulk matter. First, if individual clusters are allowed to coalesce into a mass, they will actually turn into bulk matter, so they must…

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    • criminology research
      • collection of evidence at a crime scene
        In criminology: Experimental methods

        A controlled experiment involves taking two closely related situations or groups, subjecting one of them to a specific stimulus, and comparing the subsequent characteristics of both. In the past, so-called experiments by judicial, penal, and reformatory institutions were not really controlled or even…

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    • measurement of propaganda’s effect
      • Vladimir Lenin
        In propaganda: Measurement of the effects of propaganda

        …of measurement is the controlled experiment. Carefully selected samples of members of the intended audiences can be subjected to the propaganda while equivalent samples are not. Or the same message, clothed in different symbols—different mixes of sober argument and “casual” humour, different proportions of patriotic, ethnic, and religious rationalizations, different…

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    • medical research
    • physical sciences
    • physiological discoveries
      • adenosine triphosphate; physiology
        In physiology: Historical background

        …the first men to perform experiments on living animals. Both Müller and Bernard, however, recognized that the results of observations and experiments must be incorporated into a body of scientific knowledge, and that the theories of natural philosophers must be tested by experimentation. Many important ideas in physiology were investigated…

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    • probability theory
      • sample space for a pair of dice
        In probability theory

        …begin by thinking about simple experiments, such as tossing a coin or rolling dice, and later to see how these apparently frivolous investigations relate to important scientific questions.

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    • sociology
      • Charles Booth
        In sociology: Experiments

        Experimental methods, once limited to the domain of psychologists and considered inapplicable to social research, were eventually applied to the study of groups. By the 1930s, social psychologists Kurt Lewin, Muzafer Sherif, and their colleagues had begun conducting experiments on social interaction. Sociologists soon…

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    • zoology
      • blue wildebeests
        In zoology: Physiology

        The experimental dimension had wide applications following Harvey’s demonstration of the circulation of blood. From then on, medical physiology developed rapidly; notable texts appeared, such as Albrecht von Haller’s eight-volume work Elementa Physiologiae Corporis Humani (Elements of Human Physiology), which had a medical emphasis. Toward the…

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    work of

      • Aristotle
        • Earth's Place in the Universe. Introduction: The History of the Solar System. Aristotle's Philosophical Universe. Ptolemy's Geocentric Cosmos. Copernicus' Heliocentric System. Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion.
          In history of science: Aristotle and Archimedes

          Experiment, that is, altering natural conditions in order to throw light on the hidden properties and activities of objects, was unnatural and could not, therefore, be expected to reveal the essence of things. Experiment was thus not essential to Greek science.

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      • Bacon
      • Galileo
        • Galileo
          In Galileo

          …a mathematical one in which experimentation became a recognized method for discovering the facts of nature. Finally, his discoveries with the telescope revolutionized astronomy and paved the way for the acceptance of the Copernican heliocentric system, but his advocacy of that system eventually resulted in an Inquisition process against him.

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      • Grosseteste
        • Plutarch
          In Western philosophy: Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon

          Experimentation either verifies or falsifies a theory by testing its empirical consequences. For Grosseteste, the study of nature is impossible without mathematics. He cultivated the science of optics (perspectiva), which measures the behaviour of light by mathematical means. His studies of the rainbow and comets…

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