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ARE THERE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD IS NOT APPLICABLE?
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ARE THERE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD IS NOT APPLICABLE?

     While the scientific method is necessary in developing scientific knowledge, it is also useful in everyday problem-solving. What do you do when your telephone doesn’t work? Is the problem in the hand set, the cabling inside your house, the hookup outside, or in the workings of the phone company? The process you might go through to solve this problem could involve scientific thinking, and the results might contradict your initial expectations.

     Like any good scientist, you may question the range of situations (outside of science) in which the scientific method may be applied. From what has been stated above, we determine that the scientific method works best in situations where one can isolate the phenomenon of interest, by eliminating or accounting for extraneous factors, and where one can repeatedly test the system under study after making limited, controlled changes in it.

     There are, of course, circumstances when one cannot isolate the phenomena or when one cannot repeat the measurement over and over again. In such cases the results may depend in part on the history of a situation. This often occurs in social interactions between people. For example, when a lawyer makes arguments in front of a jury in court, she or he cannot try other approaches by repeating the trial over and over again in front of the same jury. In a new trial, the jury composition will be different. Even the same jury hearing a new set of arguments cannot be expected to forget what they heard before.

     The scientific method is intricately associated with science, the process of human inquiry that pervades the modern era on many levels. While the method appears simple and logical in description, there is perhaps no more complex question than that of knowing how we come to know things. The scientific method distinguishes science from other forms of explanation because of its requirement of systematic experimentation. (1666 знаків)

1 Say which statements are true or false. If they are false correct them.

  1 The scientific method is necessary only in developing scientific knowledge.

  2 We can involve scientific thinking when solving the problem with broken telephone.

  3 The scientific method works best in situations where one can isolate the phenomenon of interest and where one can repeatedly test the system under study after making limited, controlled changes in it.

  4 There are no circumstances in which results may depend on the history of situation.

  5 Science is the process of human inquiry that pervades the modern era on many levels.

 2 Answer the following questions:

  1 In what situations may the scientific method be applied?

  2 What often occurs in social interactions between people?

  3 What is the scientific method  intricately associated with?

  4 Why does the scientific method distinguish science from other form of explanation?

  5 Choose an everyday problem. Try to solve it using the scientific method.



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