Question

what is Scientific theories ?

Answer 1

A fancy way of saying hypothesis. It is basically just a prediction based on observation, but that doesn't mean it is true.

Answer 2

A scientific theory is not a hypothesis. I'm sorry, I know this question is old. But I would like to chip in.

A scientific theory is an explanation of some part of the natural world. An explanation of WHY something happens. It is supported by a substantial amount of evidence gathered from experimentation, observation, and analysis.

A hypothesis is an educated guess. A guess that can be either proven or disproved, through experimentation. So HelloMoe was right about this.

A hypothesis MUST be tested, over and over again, before a theory can be formed.

Answer 3

A scientific theory summarizes a hypothesis or group of hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing. A theory is valid as long as there is no evidence to dispute it. Therefore, theories can be disproven.

'Scientific law' is actually what explains the process and analysis.

Answer 4

Right! That IS what a theory is. It summarizes a hypothesis that has been supported with repeated testing.

If a hypothesis has been supported with repeated testing, then it can be formed into a theory.

But if a hypothesis has NOT been supported with repeated testing, then it's just a hypothesis.

Yes, your definition of a theory is right. A theory can summarize a group of hypotheses that HAVE been tested. But there's still a difference between a hypothesis and a theory.

I did a little more searching into hypothesis vs. theory. Here's a small section on research methods, one of the articles that I found.
http://psychology.about.com/od/researchmethods/ss/expdesintro_2.htm