The Scientific method reference article from the Simple Wikipedia on 01-May-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Scientific method

The scientific method is the way scientists work.

Scientists look for scientific facts from experiments. They compare and classify many scientific facts. Then they try to find patterns in a group of related facts.

Scientists may think of a way to explain what they discover. This explanation that might be true is called a hypothesis. Scientists then test the hypothesis by many experiments. If the hypothesis can explain what happens every time a test is done, then other scientists may agree with it and call it a theory. A theory might need changing as new facts are found out. Sometimes scientists decide a theory is wrong because it doesn't explain what happens, and stop believing it. Eventually, if people believe a theory for a long time and it explains something important, then they might call it a natural law.

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