The Scientific Method

The scientific method is a systematic approach followed by all scientific disciplines. It follows six main steps - making an observation, asking a question, building a hypothesis, conducting experiments, the interpretation of data, and finally, the derivation of a conclusion.

The scientific method starts with an observation and a question to help understand that observation. For example, the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier observed the phenomena of combustion. He formulated a question to understand what happens when something is burned. Where does the matter go?

The third step in the scientific method is building a hypothesis - a tentative explanation for the observation in question, that can be tested. In response to his question of “Where does the matter go?”, Lavoiser hypothesized that in a chemical reaction, the matter was neither created nor destroyed. A good hypothesis is also testable and falsifiable. A testable hypothesis is one that makes predictions that can be confirmed by experimentations or observations. It is falsifiable when it can be refuted by experimentation. 

The fourth step in the scientific method is experimentation and data collection. Experiments are observa