Chapter 1 Introduction to statistical reasoning and the scientific method What is science Science is a system for figuring out the natural world It consists of rigorous procedures for explaining what we observe testing our explanations and using our understanding to predict future outcomes Science relies exclusively on verifiable evidence It is an objective assessment of everything we know and think we know Done correctly science can still yield mistakes but if we are patient and thorough we will detect those mistakes and correct them eventually The three common element to all scientific inquiries are Measurement is the act of assigning numbers or symbols to describe a specific property of something Evaluation is when we examine and carefully judge our data To evaluate data is to appraise them and identify patterns and important characteristics Prediction which is the act of reasoning about the future Ultimately this is the goal of science The whole point of acquiring knowledge is so that we can use it to figure out what s going to happen next It s very useful to know how things work so that we can make informed decisions develop technologies and move ourselves ahead in this world Scientific method Scientific knowledge classify into three levels 1 The highest level of knowledge is the scientific law A law is a concise statement of fact that has been proven time and time again and is generally accepted as true and universal 2 The next level of scientific knowledge is the theory A scientific theory is an explanation of a set of related observations that is based upon solid proof that has been verified many times by independent groups like Einstein s Theory of Special Relativity 3 The lowest level of scientific knowledge is the hypothesis A hypothesis is an attempt to explain some basic observations before precise data has been rigorously collected and analyzed A hypothesis is an educated guess