Scientific Theory - Theories and Laws

Theories and Laws

See also: Scientific law

Both scientific laws and scientific theories are produced from the scientific method through the formation and testing of hypotheses, and can predict the behavior of the natural world. Both are typically well-supported by observations and/or experimental evidence. However, scientific laws are descriptive accounts of how nature will behave under certain conditions. Scientific theories are broader in scope, and give overarching explanations of how nature works and why it exhibits certain characteristics. Theories are supported by evidence from many different sources, and may contain one or several laws.

A common misconception is that scientific theories are rudimentary ideas that will eventually graduate into scientific laws when enough data and evidence has been accumulated. A theory does not change into a scientific law with the accumulation of new or better evidence. A theory will always remain a theory; a law will always remain a law.

Theories and laws are also distinct from hypotheses. Unlike hypotheses, theories and laws may be simply referred to as scientific fact.

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Famous quotes containing the words theories and, theories and/or laws:

    “Philosophers of science constantly discuss theories and representation of reality, but say almost nothing about experiment, technology, or the use of knowledge to alter the world. This is odd, because ‘experimental method’ used to be just another name for scientific method.... I hope [to] initiate a Back-to-Bacon movement, in which we attend more seriously to experimental science. Experimentation has a life of its own.”
    —Ian Hacking (b. 1936)

    “The theories and speculations of men concern us more than their puny accomplishment. It is with a certain coldness and languor that we loiter about the actual and so-called practical.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “His talk was like a spring, which runs
    With rapid change from rocks to roses:
    It slipped from politics to puns,
    It passed from Mahomet to Moses;
    Beginning with the laws which keep
    The planets in their radiant courses,
    And ending with some precept deep
    For dressing eels, or shoeing horses.”
    —Winthrop Mackworth Praed (1802–1839)