Hypothesis Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Scientific hypothesis== A trial solution to a problem is commonly referred to as a hypothesis{{mdash}}or, often, as an "[[educated guess]]"<ref> "When it is not clear under which law of nature an effect or class of effect belongs, we try to fill this gap by means of a guess. Such guesses have been given the name ''conjectures'' or ''hypotheses''.", [[Hans Christian Ørsted]](1811) "First Introduction to General Physics" ¶18. ''Selected Scientific Works of Hans Christian Ørsted'', {{ISBN|0-691-04334-5}} p.297</ref><ref name=Feynman >"In general we look for a new law by the following process. First we guess it. ...", —[[Richard Feynman]] (1965) ''[[The Character of Physical Law]]'' p.156</ref>{{mdash}}because it provides a suggested outcome based on the evidence. However, some scientists reject the term "educated guess" as incorrect. Experimenters may test and reject several hypotheses before solving the problem. According to Schick and Vaughn,<ref>{{cite book |author1=Schick, Theodore |author-link1=Theodore Schick |author2=Vaughn, Lewis |title=How to think about weird things: critical thinking for a New Age |publisher=McGraw-Hill Higher Education |location=Boston |year=2002 |isbn=0-7674-2048-9}}</ref> researchers weighing up alternative hypotheses may take into consideration: * [[Testability]] (compare [[falsifiability]] as discussed above) * Parsimony (as in the application of "[[Occam's razor]]", discouraging the postulation of excessive numbers of [[wikt:entity|entities]]) * Scope – the apparent applicability of the hypothesis to multiple known [[Phenomenon|phenomena]] * Fruitfulness – the prospect that the hypothesis may explain further phenomena in the future * Conservatism – the degree of "fit" with existing recognized knowledge-systems. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page