Chapter 1 Key Terms - The Sciences: An Integrated Approach

A continuous process used to collect observations, form and test hypotheses, make predictions, and identify patterns in the physical world.

The act of observing nature without manipulating it.

The manipulation of some aspect of nature to observe the outcome.

A method of determining quantity, capacity, or dimension.

A concise language that allows scientists to communicate their results in compact form and allows for very precise predictions about expected outcomes of experiemnts or observations.

A confirmed observation about the natural world.

A tentative guess about how the world works, based on a summary of experimental or observational results and phrased so that it can be tested by experimentation.

A refined type of scientific statement that arises when many observations or measurements point to a regular, predictable pattern of behavior in nature.

A well-substaniated explanatory description of the world based on a large number of independently verified observational and experimental tests.

A guess about how a particular system will behave, followed by observations to see if the system did behave as expected within a specified range of situations.

A criterion for the results of an experiment. In scientific method, observations and experiments must be reported in such a way that anyone with proper equipment can verify the results.

A kind of inquiry falling in the realm of belief or disproved with a reproducible test. The subjects include creationism, extrasensory perception (ESP), unidentified flying objects, astrology, crystal power, and reincarnation.

The search for laws that describe the most fundamental aspects of nature.

The study of atoms in combination.

The study of stars, planets, and other objects in space.