Observation and Experimentation

A scientist begins an investigation by observing an object or an activity. Observation typically involves one or more of the human senses—hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch. Scientists typically use tools to aid in their observations. For example, a microscope helps view objects too small to be seen with the unaided human eye, while a telescope views objects too far away to be seen by the unaided eye.

Scientists typically apply their observation skills to an experiment. An experiment is any kind of trial that enables scientists to control and change at will the conditions under which events occur. It can be something extremely simple, such as heating a solid to see when it melts, or something highly complex, such as bouncing a radio signal off the surface of a distant planet. Scientists typically repeat experiments, sometimes many times, in order to be sure that the results were not affected by unforeseen factors.

Most experiments involve real objects in the physical world, such as electric circuits, chemical compounds, or living organisms. However, with the rapid progress in electronics, computer simulations can now carry out some experiments instead. If they are carefully constructed, these simulations or models can accurately predict how real objects will behave.

One advantage of a simulation is that it allows experiments to be conducted without any risks. Another is that it can alter the apparent passage of time, speeding up or slowing down natural processes. This enables scientists to investigate things that happen very gradually, such as evolution in simple organisms, or ones that happen almost instantaneously, such as collisions or explosions.

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