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ERIC Number: EJ747538
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Apr
Pages: 14
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0826-4805
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
What History Can Teach Us about Science: Theory and Experiment, Data and Evidence
Levere, Trevor H.
Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education, v37 n1-2 p115-128 Apr 2006
Scientists often use more than the results of experiment to arrive at a result; they use anticipation and analogy to arrive at the results that fit their theories, and sometimes they correct results in the light of analogy. They also need to be clear about the difference between accuracy and precision. They do all this using not only theories, but also apparatus, and the interplay between apparatus and the development of concepts and theories is often crucial. Historians of chemistry (notably including the recent work of Usselman, Rocke, and Holmes) furnish us with plenty of examples of such interplay, and of the selection of data in the light of theory. Lavoisier, Dalton, and Liebig can each teach us a good deal about the way that good scientists arrive at reproducible results.
Springer. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: service-ny@springer.com; Web site: http://www.springerlink.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A