Explanations and Theories
Explanations and Theories Scientific Explanation A scientific explanation uses observations and measurements to explain something we see in the natural world. Scientific explanations should match the evidence and be logical, or they should at least match as much of the evidence as possible. Two key concepts in scientific explanations are theory and hypothesis. A theory is used to make predictions about future observations. A hypothesis is a testable prediction that is arrived at logically from a theory. Probabilistic Explanation The probabilistic explanation is a form of reasoning that considers either the likeliness of an event happening or the strength of one's belief about an event or statement; that is, the probability may be about things or it may be about our degree of belief about things. Probability theory has from its conception been utilized to represent this uncertainty in scientific knowledge. Explanations are often probabilistic or statistical in nature. Theories in S