THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD IS BROKEN

A part of the requirement for the award of a Bachelors degree in Physics in a certain University is the completion of a course on general physics, and a very important question in the exam was to briefly explain the scientificmethod. I could imagine the grim on the face of the examiner; disgusted at how this student of his tried to trivialize this important discussion. His results in the course wasn’t that impressive either.

I won’t just be “breifly explaining” the scientific method, I will be narrating its story to you; with some illustrations. Science needs better marketing, that’s why kids these days don’t get it.

Humans have always been thrilled by the workings of her environment, and explore it with her senses (OBSERVATION). First to ensure the survival of our species, then on the quest to grasp it and control it. Thus we come up with patterns and deductions to explain our observations (THEORY). Just like when a wife interpretes her husbands late arrival from work on Friday as prove that he’s up to a clandestine duty somewhere; it’s TGIF, you know! Without considering the fact that maybe several others have taken to having a condo on the island to ease the stress of commute, and will only have to come home to the suburbs on weekends, hence the increased congestion.

Then on a particular Friday she makes her ways to her husband’s office at about closing hour to test her deduction — EXPERIMENTATION. Only in the case of physical phenomana we are asking Nature a question, and Nature always provides us with answers, only most times it’s not what we’ve hoped for (which includes silence, deafening silence). Once our theories have prooved its veracity and satisfied all the necessary conditions it becomes a PRINCIPLE.

It is important to see that the process is driven by empirical deductions directly advanced from observed data. We don’t go postulating a theory and hope that nature certifies it, that will be prophesying, and Nature does not play by our rules.

PS. On the premise of Nature not playing by our rules, do you know that numbers like 1,2,3,… are not Nature’s numbers? We call them natural numbers because they easily appeal to us. Nature counts in units like our Euler number (e), trigonometric identities (sine, cosine and tangent), and so on.