Question

What is the difference between an observation and an inference? List three examples of each.

Answer 1

Inferring and Forming a Hypothesis After posing questions, sci-entists use further observations to make inferences. An inference is a logical interpretation based on what scientists already know. Inference, combined with a creative imagination, can lead to a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a scientific explanation for a set of observations that can be tested in ways that support or reject it.

Observing and Asking Questions Scientific investigations begin with observation, the act of noticing and describing events or processes in a careful, orderly way. Of course, scientific observation involves more than just looking at things. A good scientist can, as the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer put it, “ Think something that nobody has thought yet, while looking at something that everybody sees.” That kind of observation leads to questions that no one has asked before.