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Research
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It is used to establish or confirm facts, reaffirm the results of previous work, solve new or existing problems, support theorems, or develop new theories. A research project may also be an expansion on past work in the field, to test the validity of instruments, procedures, or experiments, research may replicate elements of prior projects or the project as a whole. The primary purposes of research are documentation, discovery, interpretation, or the research and development of methods. Approaches to research depend on epistemologies, which vary considerably both within and between humanities and sciences, there are several forms of research, scientific, humanities, artistic, economic, social, business, marketing, practitioner research, life, technological, etc. The earliest recorded use of the term was in 1577, Research has been defined in a number of different ways. Another definition of research is given by John W. Creswell and it consists of three steps, pose a question, collect data to answer the question, and present an answer to the question. Original research is research that is not exclusively based on a summary and this material is of a primary source character. The purpose of the research is to produce new knowledge. Original research can take a number of forms, depending on the discipline it pertains to, in analytical work, there are typically some new mathematical results produced, or a new way of approaching an existing problem. The degree of originality of the research is among major criteria for articles to be published in academic journals, graduate students are commonly required to perform original research as part of a dissertation. Scientific research is a way of gathering data and harnessing curiosity. This research provides scientific information and theories for the explanation of the nature, scientific research is funded by public authorities, by charitable organizations and by private groups, including many companies. Scientific research can be subdivided into different classifications according to their academic, Research in the humanities involves different methods such as for example hermeneutics and semiotics. Humanities scholars usually do not search for the correct answer to a question. Context is always important, and context can be social, historical, political, cultural, an example of research in the humanities is historical research, which is embodied in historical method. Historians use primary sources and other evidence to systematically investigate a topic, other studies aim to merely examine the occurrence of behaviours in societies and communities, without particularly looking for reasons or motivations to explain these. These studies may be qualitative or quantitative, and can use a variety of approaches, Artistic research, also seen as practice-based research, can take form when creative works are considered both the research and the object of research itself. It is the body of thought which offers an alternative to purely scientific methods in research in its search for knowledge
2.
Sense
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A sense is a physiological capacity of organisms that provides data for perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology, the nervous system has a specific sensory system or organ, dedicated to each sense. Humans have a multitude of senses, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are the five traditionally recognized senses. However, what constitutes a sense is a matter of debate, leading to difficulties in defining what exactly a distinct sense is. Other animals also have receptors to sense the world around them, humans have a comparatively weak sense of smell and a stronger sense of sight relative to many other mammals while some animals may lack one or more of the traditional five senses. Some animals may also intake and interpret sensory stimuli in different ways. Some species of animals are able to sense the world in a way humans cannot, with some species able to sense electrical and magnetic fields. There is no agreement as to the number of senses because of differing definitions of what constitutes a sense. The senses are frequently divided into exteroceptive and interoceptive, Exteroceptive senses are senses that perceive the bodys own position, motion, external senses include the traditional five, sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste, as well as thermoception and possibly an additional weak magnetoception. Proprioceptive senses include nociception, equilibrioception, proprioception, interoceptive senses are senses that perceive sensations in internal organs. Non-human animals may possess senses that are absent in humans, such as electroreception and detection of polarized light, in Buddhist philosophy, Ayatana or sense-base includes the mind as a sense organ, in addition to the traditional five. This addition to the commonly acknowledged senses may arise from the psychological orientation involved in Buddhist thought, the mind considered by itself is seen as the principal gateway to a different spectrum of phenomena that differ from the physical sense data. This way of viewing the human sense system indicates the importance of internal sources of sensation and perception that complements our experience of the external world, there are two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. Rods are very sensitive to light, but do not distinguish colors, cones distinguish colors, but are less sensitive to dim light. There is some disagreement as to whether this one, two or three senses. Neuroanatomists generally regard it as two senses, given that different receptors are responsible for the perception of color and brightness, the inability to see is called blindness. Blindness may result from damage to the eyeball, especially to the retina, damage to the nerve that connects each eye to the brain. Temporary or permanent blindness can be caused by poisons or medications, people with blindsight are usually not aware that they are reacting to visual sources, and instead just unconsciously adapt their behaviour to the stimulus
3.
Calibration
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Calibration in measurement technology and metrology is the comparison of measurement values delivered by a device under test with those of a calibration standard of known accuracy. Such a standard could be another measurement device of known accuracy, strictly, the term calibration means just the act of comparison, and does not include any subsequent adjustment. The calibration standard is normally traceable to a national standard held by a National Metrological Institute and this definition states that the calibration process is purely a comparison, but introduces the concept of Measurement uncertainty in relating the accuracies of the device under test and the standard. The increasing need for accuracy and uncertainty and the need to have consistent. In many countries a National Metrology Institute will exist which will maintain primary standards of measurement which will be used to provide traceability to customers instruments by calibration. The NMI supports the metrological infrastructure in that country by establishing an unbroken chain, examples of National Metrology Institutes are NPL in the UK, NIST in the United States, PTB in Germany and many others. This may be done by national standards laboratories operated by the government or by private firms offering metrology services, quality management systems call for an effective metrology system which includes formal, periodic, and documented calibration of all measuring instruments. ISO9000 and ISO17025 standards require that these actions are to a high level. To communicate the quality of a calibration the calibration value is often accompanied by a traceable uncertainty statement to a confidence level. This is evaluated through careful uncertainty analysis, some times a DFS is required to operate machinery in a degraded state. Whenever this does happen, it must be in writing and authorized by a manager with the assistance of a calibration technician. Measuring devices and instruments are categorized according to the quantities they are designed to measure. These vary internationally, e. g. NIST 150-2G in the U. S. the standard instrument for each test device varies accordingly, e. g. a dead weight tester for pressure gauge calibration and a dry block temperature tester for temperature gauge calibration. g. This is the perception of the instruments end-user, however, very few instruments can be adjusted to exactly match the standards they are compared to. For the vast majority of calibrations, the process is actually the comparison of an unknown to a known. The calibration process begins with the design of the instrument that needs to be calibrated. The design has to be able to hold a calibration through its calibration interval, in other words, the design has to be capable of measurements that are within engineering tolerance when used within the stated environmental conditions over some reasonable period of time. Having a design with these characteristics increases the likelihood of the measuring instruments performing as expected
4.
History of science in classical antiquity
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The ancient peoples who are considered the first scientists may have thought of themselves as natural philosophers, as practitioners of a skilled profession, or as followers of a religious tradition. The encyclopedic works of Aristotle, Archimedes, Hippocrates, Galen, Ptolemy, Euclid and these works and the important commentaries on them were the wellspring of science. The practical concerns of the ancient Greeks to establish a calendar is first exemplified by the Works and Days of the Greek poet Hesiod, medicine provides another example of practically oriented investigation of nature among the Ancient Greeks. It has been pointed out that Greek medicine was not the province of a single trained profession and this rivalry among these competing traditions contributed to an active public debate about the causes and proper treatment of disease, and about the general methodological approaches of their rivals. In the Hippocratic text, On the Sacred Disease, which deals with the nature of epilepsy, there were several acute observers of natural phenomena, especially Aristotle and Theophrastus, who wrote extensively on animals and plants. Theophratus also produced the first systematic attempt to classify minerals and rocks, but although the question is much the same, their answers and their attitude towards the answers is markedly different. As reported by such writers as Aristotle, their explanations tended to center on the material source of things. Thales of Miletus considered that all came to be from. Anaximander then suggested that things could not come from a substance like water. Anaximenes returned to a material substance, air, which could be altered by rarefaction and condensation. He adduced common observations to demonstrate that air was a substance, heraclitus of Ephesus, then maintained that change, rather than any substance was fundamental, although the element fire seemed to play a central role in this process. All these theories imply that matter is a continuous substance, xenophanes of Colophon prefigured paleontology and geology as he thought that periodically the earth and sea mix and turn all to mud, citing several fossils of sea creatures that he had seen. The materialist explanations of the origins of the cosmos seems to miss an important point and it doesnt make much sense to think that an ordered universe comes out of a random collection of matter. How can a random assemblage of fire or water produce an ordered universe without the existence of some ordering principle. The first step in this emphasis upon a model was that of the followers of Pythagoras, for Pythagoras and his followers matter was made up of ordered arrangements of point/atoms, arranged according to geometrical principles into triangles, squares, rectangles, and so on. Even on a scale, the parts of the universe were arranged on the principles of a musical scale. For example, the Pythagoreans held that there were ten heavenly bodies because ten is a perfect number, thus with the Pythagoreans we find number emerging as the rational basis for an orderly universe — as the first proposal for a scientific ordering principle of the cosmos. Like the Pythagoreans, Plato found the ordering principle of the universe in mathematics, a later account has it that Plato had inscribed at the entrance to his school, the Academy, Let no man ignorant of geometry enter
5.
Scientific method
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The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning, experiments need to be designed to test hypotheses. The most important part of the method is the experiment. The scientific method is a process, which usually begins with observations about the natural world. Human beings are naturally inquisitive, so often come up with questions about things they see or hear. The best hypotheses lead to predictions that can be tested in various ways, in general, the strongest tests of hypotheses come from carefully controlled and replicated experiments that gather empirical data. Depending on how well the tests match the predictions, the hypothesis may require refinement. If a particular hypothesis becomes very well supported a theory may be developed. Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, identifiable features are shared in common between them. The overall process of the method involves making conjectures, deriving predictions from them as logical consequences. A hypothesis is a conjecture, based on knowledge obtained while formulating the question, the hypothesis might be very specific or it might be broad. Scientists then test hypotheses by conducting experiments, the purpose of an experiment is to determine whether observations agree with or conflict with the predictions derived from a hypothesis. Experiments can take anywhere from a college lab to CERNs Large Hadron Collider. There are difficulties in a statement of method, however. Though the scientific method is presented as a fixed sequence of steps. Not all steps take place in scientific inquiry, and are not always in the same order. Some philosophers and scientists have argued there is no scientific method, such as Lee Smolin. Nola and Sankey remark that For some, the idea of a theory of scientific method is yester-years debate
6.
Thermometer
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A thermometer is a device that measures temperature or a temperature gradient. A thermometer has two important elements, a sensor in which some physical change occurs with temperature. Thermometers are widely used in industry to control and regulate processes, in the study of weather, in medicine, there are various principles by which different thermometers operate. They include the expansion of solids or liquids with temperature. Radiation-type thermometers measure the energy emitted by an object, allowing measurement of temperature without contact. Most metals are good conductors of heat and they are solids at room temperature, Mercury is the only one in liquid state at room temperature, and has high coefficient of expansion. Hence, the slightest change in temperature is notable when its used in a thermometer and this is the reason behind mercury and alcohol being used in thermometer. Some of the principles of the thermometer were known to Greek philosophers of two years ago. The modern thermometer gradually evolved from the thermoscope with the addition of a scale in the early 17th century, while an individual thermometer is able to measure degrees of hotness, the readings on two thermometers cannot be compared unless they conform to an agreed scale. Today there is a thermodynamic temperature scale. Internationally agreed temperature scales are designed to approximate this closely, based on fixed points, the most recent official temperature scale is the International Temperature Scale of 1990. It extends from 0.65 K to approximately 1,358 K, various authors have credited the invention of the thermometer to Hero of Alexandria. The thermometer was not an invention, however, but a development. The expansion and contraction of the air caused the position of the interface to move along the tube. Such a mechanism was used to show the hotness and coldness of the air with a tube in which the water level is controlled by the expansion and contraction of the gas. These devices were developed by several European scientists in the 16th and 17th centuries, as a result, devices were shown to produce this effect reliably, and the term thermoscope was adopted because it reflected the changes in sensible heat. The difference between a thermoscope and a thermometer is that the latter has a scale, though Galileo is often said to be the inventor of the thermometer, what he produced were thermoscopes. The first clear diagram of a thermoscope was published in 1617 by Giuseppe Biancani and this was a vertical tube, closed by a bulb of air at the top, with the lower end opening into a vessel of water
7.
Empiricism
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Empiricism is a theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, Empiricism in the philosophy of science emphasizes evidence, especially as discovered in experiments. Empiricism, often used by scientists, says that knowledge is based on experience. One of the epistemological tenets is that sensory experience creates knowledge, empirical research, including experiments and validated measurement tools, guides the scientific method. The term was used by the Empiric school of ancient Greek medical practitioners, a central concept in science and the scientific method is that it must be empirically based on the evidence of the senses. Both natural and social sciences use working hypotheses that are testable by observation, philosophical empiricists hold no knowledge to be properly inferred or deduced unless it is derived from ones sense-based experience. This view is contrasted with rationalism, which states that knowledge may be derived from reason independently of the senses. For example, John Locke held that knowledge could be arrived at through intuition. Similarly Robert Boyle, a prominent advocate of the experimental method, the main continental rationalists were also advocates of the empirical scientific method. Vaisheshika darshana, founded by the ancient Indian philosopher Kanada, accepted perception and this is enumerated in his work Vaiśeṣika Sūtra. The notion of tabula rasa connotes a view of mind as a blank or empty recorder on which experience leaves marks. This denies that humans have innate ideas, the image dates back to Aristotle, What the mind thinks must be in it in the same sense as letters are on a tablet which bears no actual writing, this is just what happens in the case of the mind. These notions contrasted with Platonic notions of the mind as an entity that pre-existed somewhere in the heavens. This idea was developed in ancient philosophy by the Stoic school. Stoic epistemology generally emphasized that the mind starts blank, but acquires knowledge as the world is impressed upon it. The doxographer Aetius summarizes this view as When a man is born, later stoics, such as Sextus of Chaeronea, would continue this idea of empiricism in later Stoic writings as well. As Sextus contends For every thought comes from sense-perception or not without sense-perception, so the immaterial active intellect, separate from any individual person, is still essential for understanding to occur. A similar Islamic theological novel, Theologus Autodidactus, was written by the Arab theologian and physician Ibn al-Nafis in the 13th century, during the 13th century Thomas Aquinas adopted the Aristotelian position that the senses are essential to mind into scholasticism
8.
Statistics
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Statistics is a branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation, and organization of data. In applying statistics to, e. g. a scientific, industrial, or social problem, populations can be diverse topics such as all people living in a country or every atom composing a crystal. Statistics deals with all aspects of data including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys, statistician Sir Arthur Lyon Bowley defines statistics as Numerical statements of facts in any department of inquiry placed in relation to each other. When census data cannot be collected, statisticians collect data by developing specific experiment designs, representative sampling assures that inferences and conclusions can safely extend from the sample to the population as a whole. In contrast, an observational study does not involve experimental manipulation, inferences on mathematical statistics are made under the framework of probability theory, which deals with the analysis of random phenomena. A standard statistical procedure involves the test of the relationship between two data sets, or a data set and a synthetic data drawn from idealized model. A hypothesis is proposed for the relationship between the two data sets, and this is compared as an alternative to an idealized null hypothesis of no relationship between two data sets. Rejecting or disproving the hypothesis is done using statistical tests that quantify the sense in which the null can be proven false. Working from a hypothesis, two basic forms of error are recognized, Type I errors and Type II errors. Multiple problems have come to be associated with this framework, ranging from obtaining a sufficient sample size to specifying an adequate null hypothesis, measurement processes that generate statistical data are also subject to error. Many of these errors are classified as random or systematic, the presence of missing data or censoring may result in biased estimates and specific techniques have been developed to address these problems. Statistics continues to be an area of research, for example on the problem of how to analyze Big data. Statistics is a body of science that pertains to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation. Some consider statistics to be a mathematical science rather than a branch of mathematics. While many scientific investigations make use of data, statistics is concerned with the use of data in the context of uncertainty, mathematical techniques used for this include mathematical analysis, linear algebra, stochastic analysis, differential equations, and measure-theoretic probability theory. In applying statistics to a problem, it is practice to start with a population or process to be studied. Populations can be diverse topics such as all living in a country or every atom composing a crystal. Ideally, statisticians compile data about the entire population and this may be organized by governmental statistical institutes
9.
Phenomenon
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A phenomenon is any thing which manifests itself. Phenomena are often, but not always, understood as things that appear or experiences for a sentient being, the term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon. In contrast to a phenomenon, a noumenon can not be directly observed, Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in this part of his philosophy, in which phenomenon and noumenon serve as interrelated technical terms. In modern philosophical use, the phenomena has come to mean what is experienced is the basis of reality. He wrote that humans could infer only as much as their senses allowed, thus, the term phenomenon refers to any incident deserving of inquiry and investigation, especially events that are particularly unusual or of distinctive importance. According to The Columbia Encyclopedia, Modern philosophers have used phenomenon to designate what is apprehended before judgment is applied and this may not be possible if observation is theory laden. In scientific usage, a phenomenon is any event that is observable, however common it might be, even if it requires the use of instrumentation to observe, record, another example of scientific phenomena can be found in the experience of phantom limb sensations. This occurrence, the sensation of feeling in amputated limbs, is reported by over 70% of amputees, although the limb is no longer present, they report still experiencing sensations. This is an event that defies typical logic and has been a source of much curiosity within the medical and physiological fields. A mechanical phenomenon is a phenomenon associated with the equilibrium or motion of objects. Some examples are Newtons cradle, engines, and double pendulums, in gemology, a phenomenon is an unusual optical effect that is displayed by a gem. Play-of-color, labradorescence, iridescence, adularescence, chatoyancy, asterism, aventurescence, lustre, group phenomena concern the behavior of a particular group of individual entities, usually organisms and most especially people. The behavior of individuals often changes in a setting in various ways. Social phenomena apply especially to organisms and people in that states are implicit in the term. Attitudes and events particular to a group may have effects beyond the group, in popular usage, a phenomenon often refers to an extraordinary event. The term is most commonly used to refer to occurrences that at first defy explanation or baffle the observer
10.
Knowledge
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Knowledge can refer to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It can be implicit or explicit, it can be more or less formal or systematic, however, several definitions of knowledge and theories to explain it exist. Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes, perception, communication, and reasoning, the eventual demarcation of philosophy from science was made possible by the notion that philosophys core was theory of knowledge, a theory distinct from the sciences because it was their foundation. Without this idea of a theory of knowledge, it is hard to imagine what philosophy could have been in the age of modern science, the definition of knowledge is a matter of ongoing debate among philosophers in the field of epistemology. Some claim that conditions are not sufficient, as Gettier case examples allegedly demonstrate. Richard Kirkham suggests that our definition of knowledge requires that the evidence for the belief necessitates its truth. In contrast to this approach, Ludwig Wittgenstein observed, following Moores paradox, that one can say He believes it, but it isnt so, but not He knows it, but it isnt so. He goes on to argue that these do not correspond to distinct mental states, what is different here is not the mental state of the speaker, but the activity in which they are engaged. For example, on account, to know that the kettle is boiling is not to be in a particular state of mind. Wittgenstein sought to bypass the difficulty of definition by looking to the way knowledge is used in natural languages and he saw knowledge as a case of a family resemblance. Following this idea, knowledge has been reconstructed as a concept that points out relevant features. Symbolic representations can be used to indicate meaning and can be thought of as a dynamic process, hence the transfer of the symbolic representation can be viewed as one ascription process whereby knowledge can be transferred. Other forms of communication include observation and imitation, verbal exchange, philosophers of language and semioticians construct and analyze theories of knowledge transfer or communication. In his collection of essays Technopoly, Neil Postman demonstrates the argument against the use of writing through an excerpt from Platos work Phaedrus, in this excerpt, the scholar Socrates recounts the story of Thamus, the Egyptian king and Theuth the inventor of the written word. In this story, Theuth presents his new invention writing to King Thamus, King Thamus is skeptical of this new invention and rejects it as a tool of recollection rather than retained knowledge. Media theorists like Andrew Robinson emphasise that the depiction of knowledge in the modern world was often seen as being truer than oral knowledge. It is harder to preserve records of what was said or who originally said it – usually neither the nor the content can be verified. Gossip and rumors are examples prevalent in both media, major libraries today can have millions of books of knowledge
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Ancient Greek
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Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
12.
Experiment
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An experiment is a procedure carried out to support, refute, or validate a hypothesis. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated, experiments vary greatly in goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results. There also exists natural experimental studies, a child may carry out basic experiments to understand gravity, while teams of scientists may take years of systematic investigation to advance their understanding of a phenomenon. Experiments and other types of activities are very important to student learning in the science classroom. Experiments can raise test scores and help a student become more engaged and interested in the material they are learning, experiments can vary from personal and informal natural comparisons, to highly controlled. Uses of experiments vary considerably between the natural and human sciences, experiments typically include controls, which are designed to minimize the effects of variables other than the single independent variable. This increases the reliability of the results, often through a comparison between control measurements and the other measurements, scientific controls are a part of the scientific method. Ideally, all variables in an experiment are controlled and none are uncontrolled, in such an experiment, if all controls work as expected, it is possible to conclude that the experiment works as intended, and that results are due to the effect of the tested variable. In the scientific method, an experiment is a procedure that arbitrates between competing models or hypotheses. Researchers also use experimentation to test existing theories or new hypotheses to support or disprove them, an experiment usually tests a hypothesis, which is an expectation about how a particular process or phenomenon works. However, an experiment may also aim to answer a question, without a specific expectation about what the experiment reveals. If an experiment is conducted, the results usually either support or disprove the hypothesis. According to some philosophies of science, an experiment can never prove a hypothesis, on the other hand, an experiment that provides a counterexample can disprove a theory or hypothesis. An experiment must also control the possible confounding factors—any factors that would mar the accuracy or repeatability of the experiment or the ability to interpret the results, confounding is commonly eliminated through scientific controls and/or, in randomized experiments, through random assignment. In engineering and the sciences, experiments are a primary component of the scientific method. They are used to test theories and hypotheses about how physical processes work under particular conditions, typically, experiments in these fields focus on replication of identical procedures in hopes of producing identical results in each replication. In medicine and the sciences, the prevalence of experimental research varies widely across disciplines. In contrast to norms in the sciences, the focus is typically on the average treatment effect or another test statistic produced by the experiment
The dictionary definition of empirical research at Wiktionary
