#35) What Is the Scientific Method?

Hello, and welcome back to "Always Be Better" with Mel Windham.

Today we will enter the mind and learn an effective way of thinking -- a tool I've used through most of life with much success.

I'm talking about the scientific method, which is not much more than being inquisitive, seeking out answers, learning more, trying new things, adapting, and coming out better in the end.

Let's take a closer look at the scientific method.

The beginning of our journey is to first: NOTICE something. Do we see something strange? Do we wonder if perhaps there is something new we might not understand? Or in short -- do we have a question?

We then APPROACH the the question. See what we can learn. What have others already figured out? How can we look further into it? Often this will answer our question, but sometimes we may find that we've stumbled on something completely new. 

We can then form a HYPOTHESIS. We state our conjecture -- what we think explains our strange observations. And then we must accept two possibilities. #1) Our conjecture might be wrong, which is often called the NULL HYPOTHESIS -- the word "null" meaning we didn't find anything new. #2) On the other hand, our conjecture might be correct. So it is an ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS that is different from the status quo, or what is already commonly believed.

Next up, we can TEST this alternative hypothesis -- run experiments, and see if we can find this strange behavior happening consistently.

After the experiments, we ANALYZE the results. Do the numbers support the alternative hypothesis?

If so, we can take the last step of TELLING others. Then they can perform their own experiments -- either replicating ours, or performing their own independent tests. If they concur, then everyone can accept the alternative hypothesis. Hurray!

If not -- that is, no one else can replicate the results, then oh well -- they are likely to declare a NULL HYPOTHESIS and stick with the status quo.

But this isn't necessarily the end of the process. A scientist will often go back to the drawing board and try again, turning the scientific method into a loop. We can keep going round and around until we finally get it right.

If we look at astrophysics, we first saw models of the sun and planets moving around the Earth. And then we found that a heliocentric model -- where the Earth and planets go around the sun -- did a much better job of explaining the positions of planets in the heavens.

And then Kepler, Newton, and others helped us to adopt the Newtonian model of physics.

But even that wasn't enough, as there were still some unexplained anomalies, such as Mercury's orbit shifting in a strange way. Through this and other observations, several scientists: Lorentz, Poincaré, and finally Einstein, brought us to Relativity. And suddenly most of the anomalies were explained.

And we know that even that isn't quite final, but it's pretty close. Even with all its holes, Newtonian physics is still good enough for most rocket scientists. But at least Relativity gives us a better understanding of extreme situations. And eventually we could learn even more to explain where Relativity can't explain quite yet.

Overall, I love this whole approach to thinking, because #1, it's okay to be inquisitive. It's healthy to want to figure out how things work. And #2, it's okay to be wrong. With the scientific method, it's not the person who's wrong. It's the idea. We can always learn from the mistakes and attack an issue from another angle. Either way -- just by trying, we become better people.

Now, the goal today was to mainly present the scientific method in its simplest form. In later videos we'll explore different aspects and applications. In a few weeks, I'll explain how we can use it to refine our own personal belief systems. We can use it to solve our own problems and issues. We can also explore where the scientific method fails -- where it's appropriate to use, and where it's not. Eventually, we'll get to the ever popular subject of "Is the Science Settled?," and learn how easy it is to politicize science. There are so many options that we can explore here.

But for now -- over this next week, I'd like for you to keep an eye out for anything exhibiting the scientific method. How do your friends approach problems? How are you already using the scientific method? What approaches work, and what don't?

If you liked this discussion, make sure to Like and Subscribe. Give this channel a try and see if you learn new things. Next week we're going to dive into the subconscious mind. oooOOOooo. I'll teach some cool tricks.

Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time on "Always Be Better."