Question

Which statement best describes scientific laws?

Scientific laws are scientists' opinions of why events occur in nature.

Scientific laws describe specific relationships in nature without offering an explanation.

Scientific laws explain why natural events occur.

Scientific laws were theories that have been tested, proven, and adopted as laws

Answer 1

Scientific laws describe specific relationships in nature without offering an explanation.
Look at Newton's Laws. They cannot be proven, but they are accepted as true.

Answer 2

but they "have been tested, proven and adopted as laws".

Answer 3

How can you prove them? You can make experiments that affirm them, but not explicitly prove that it is true. Because, for example, Newton's Second Law has been found false when the velocity of the object approaches the speed of light.

Answer 4

The issue of "proof" is tricky, and somewhat outside the bounds of practising science -- more a matter for philosophers, who like to debate such things. Probably the most dominant scientific philosophy is that of Karl Popper, who argued that science only deals in disproof. That is, scientific theories can be disproven (by finding facts that contradict their categorical statements), but never proven.

However, as a practical matter, when a theory has been subject to strenuous effort to disprove it, and has passed every test, all but the most pedantic working scientists will call the theory "proven." Newton's Second Law, within its accepted range of applicability (or regarding it as a low-energy limit of the relativistic expression), would be called "proven" by any reasonable working scientist.

Answer 5

With respect to the question at issue, this is not really a scientific question, but rather a philosophical question. As such, there isn't any "correct scientific" answer. I can make arguments for and against all four.

Unfortunately, the only way I know to answer philosophical questions and get them "right" (e.g. be marked right on the exam on which they appear) is to ask the philosopher what answer he wants to hear.

Answer 6

I think that in this case "proven" does not mean mathematically "proved", but rather "tried-and-tested in numerous situations" as Carl_Pham said earlier.