General Science Reviewer

• Science


  the systematic study through observation and experimentation. It is the building and organizing of knowledge by following the scientific method.
• Three Branches of Science

  • Formal Science
  • Social Science
  • Natural Science
• Formal science deals with abstract structures in formal systems, including mathematics and logic
• Social science deals with human behavior around its social and cultural aspects
• Natural science studies natural phenomena using empirical evidence
• 2 branches of Natural Science

  • Life Science
  • Physical Science
• Physics, or the study of matter on how it behaves through space and time,
• Chemistry, or the study of matter and its characteristics, behavior, and the changes it undergoes
• Astronomy, or the study of outer space
• Earth science, or the study of Earth as a planet.
• pure science; fact, applied science; practical use
• Research is the act of systematically studying to find answers to a scientific problem, undertaken to build science by increasing its stock of knowledge.
• 2 Types of Reasoning Processes

  • Induction
  • Deduction
• Induction refers to when a specific observation is used to make a general claim
• deduction refers to when general premises are used to make specific conclusions
• The Scientific Method


  This is the empirical method for acquiring knowledge; it is used for developing science in recent centuries because of how it is effective in answering scientific questions through observations and tests.
• 6 Steps of Scientific Method

  1. Identify the problem.
  2. Make observations.
  3. State the hypothesis.
  4. Test the hypothesis (experiment)
  5. Analyze and interpret resulting data.
  6. Draw conclusions.
• Experimentation is part of the scientific method. It is a controlled investigation of natural phenomena. In conducting an experiment, all factors should be the same among all the setups, except for the one being tested.
• Experimental/manipulated/independent variable - the variable being tested and changed; in conducting an experiment, the setups should have different levels or values of this variable.
• Constant/controlled variables - the factors that should be kept the same from setup to setup.
• Responding/dependent variable - the resulting variable that changes because of the independent variable; it is the variable being measured per setup.
• Hypothesis testing is a process where a researcher formulates an educated guess (the ‘hypothesis’) to explain a phenomenon, and conduct necessary tests to determine whether to accept or reject the hypothesis.
• The alternative hypothesis is the hypothesis of interest; it is the guess that there is a significant relationship among the dependent and independent variables.
• The null hypothesis states otherwise; or that there is no significant relationship among the two variables.
• A theory is a well-supported, testable explanation of natural phenomena
• A scientific law is a statement that describes or predicts an observed natural phenomenon.
• An axiom is a statement which everyone agrees is true. It is sometimes called, in mathematical context, as a postulate.
• A method is a systematic process of performing a scientific task, such as conducting research.
• Pseudoscience is an approach to gathering knowledge that claims to be scientific, but violates tenets of science.
• A paradigm is a framework of thoughts from which reality is interpreted.
• Measurement is the quantification of attributes of an object which can be compared with other objects with the same attribute.
• Errors are the difference between the measured and the actual values.
• Systematic errors occur when an error is caused by a predictable cause; therefore, the error is consistent.
• Instrumental errors, or errors that occur because of a faulty measuring instrument or variation between multiple instruments, are a prime example of this.
• Negligent errors, or sometimes called gross errors, happen when the operator of the measuring device is at fault. Human errors are identified with this error type
• Random errors are often fleeting, and may not be attributed to a singular cause. A specific example would be parallax error, or the error that happens in measuring devices with pointers when the pointer seems to indicate a different reading due to the line of sight of the operator.
• Absolute error is the difference between the measured value and the actual value
• Relative error is the ratio of the absolute error to the expected value
• the percent error is the percentage form of relative error
• Measurements are accurate if they are close to the true value