The scientific process entails developing hypotheses and testing them to discover if they hold up to natural world realities. Successfully verified hypotheses can lead to scientific theories or scientific laws, which are comparable but not synonymous with words.
What Is Scientific Theory?
A scientific theory is a description of the natural world that has been proved by rigorous testing by scientists. A theory, as defined by the scientific community, describes how nature operates under specified conditions. Theories are often as broad as the scientific evidence supporting them allows. They aim to provide a complete explanation of some aspect of the natural world.
A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a natural occurrence that is the starting point for a theory. To turn a hypothesis into a verified theory, researchers devise science experiments that test their theories under natural-world situations. By following the scientific method and paying close attention to detail, scientists can finally gather enough information to prove their hypothesis, transforming it into a theory with predictive value.
4 Examples of Scientific Theories
Many renowned scientific hypotheses have shaped our current view of the natural world.
- The Big Bang Theory: Accordingly to the Big Bang Theory, the universe began as a tiny difference 13.8 billion years ago and quickly fell apart.
- The Heliocentric Idea: According to Nicolaus Copernicus’ theory, the Earth goes around the Sun in our solar system.
- Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity: Albert Einstein’s theory asserts that heavy objects (such as the Earth) induce a distortion in space time, which is felt as gravity. One of the most famous scientific principles, Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, was actually superseded by this hypothesis.
- Natural Selection Theory: Charles Darwin’s theory, although best described as “survival of the fittest,” describes how phased changes in populations of species over time lead to the features being public and allow those living things to survive.
What Is Scientific Law?
Scientific laws, like theories, explain facts that the scientific community has proven to be true. Laws, in general, define what will happen in a given scenario as shown by a mathematical equation, whereas theories describe how much it occurs. Scientific laws emerge from scientific findings and extensively investigated hypotheses, and new ideas support and expand law. Although neither is known to be true.
4 Examples of Scientific Laws
Among the laws that underpin the world’s scientific knowledge are:
- Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation: Sir Isaac Newton’s gravity law. Published in 1687, outlines the attraction forces that exist between all kinds of matter. As the force of gravity affects practically all physical relationships in the universe. This gravity theory accordingly serves as a foundation for many future theories.
- Newton’s Laws of Motion: This collection of three laws, first published in 1687, outlines the impact that conflicting forces play on an object in motion or at rest.
- Boyle’s Law: This outlines the relationship between gas volume and gas pressure. It is also known as Boyle-Mariotte Law or Mariotte’s Law. In 1662 and 1676, physicists Robert Boyle and Edme Mariotte independently discovered the law.
- Thermodynamic Rules: This collection of four laws governs thermodynamic work, entropy, heat, temperature, and other forces related to energy transfer.
What Is the Difference Between Scientific Theory and Law?
Scientific rules, as opposed to theories, tend to describe a smaller range of conditions. A scientific law may explain the interaction of two distinct forces or two changing components in a chemical reaction. Theories are often more comprehensive, focusing on the how and why of natural events.
Scientific laws and theories are both accepted as scientific fact. Theories and laws, on the other hand, can be debunked as new evidence surfaces. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity partially disproved several accepted Newtonian physics principles. Louis Pasteur’s work challenges previous notions about sickness in animals. If extensive scientific study challenges a previously accepted idea, scientists must develop new hypotheses that better describe how nature works.