BIO SCI 93 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Inductive Reasoning
28 Nov 2017
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BIO SCI 93 Full Course Notes
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In studying nature, scientists make observations and form and test hypotheses. Science: an approach to understanding the natural world. Derived from latin verb meaning to know . At the heart of science is inquiry: search for info and explanations of natural phenomena. Direct use of the senses or with help of tools (microscopes) These lead to valuable info about the natural world. Items of info on which scientific inquiry is based. Scientists analyze their data using statistics to test whether their results are significant or merely due to random fluctuations. Inductive reasoning: collecting and analyzing observations can lead to important conclusions based on this type of logic. With this, we derive generalizations from a large number of specific observations. Ex: all organisms are made of cells. Hypothesis: a tentative answer to a well-framed question- an explanation on trial. A rational account for a set of observations, based on the available data and guided by inductive reasoning.
