A planned course of action attempting to validate a hypothesis. An innovative procedure designed to provide insight. Researching the relationship between variables. Investigation into cause and effect. Usually experiments are performed to test an expectation or question about how a particular phenomenon works, but occasionally used to demonstrate known facts and sometimes done just to see what happens.
Experiments and their results not only build credibility in the scientific community, they capture the attention of the general public. Whether we’re watching, performing or hearing about the results from an experiment, we’re intrigued because they can create a visual and give us a sense of something tangible in the material world. Experimenting exists in many form and most of us perform them in one way or another, especially as children. Have you ever tapped on something to get an idea of what its made of, sniffed something out of curiosity or changed a recipe? How about playing with a garden hose as a kid, taking something apart to see how it works or stepped out of your own personal mold to try something new? If so, you’ve experimented.
On a serious level, experimental research varies widely across the disciplines. Common in psychology but not restricted to other fields are laboratory, field and natural experiments. Laboratory experiments are highly controlled environments where variables are taken into consideration in great detail. Field experiments are controlled but take place in real-life settings and have a higher level of uncontrolled variables. Natural experiments are observational studies of unplanned, naturally occurring events.
Thought experiments have also proven to be valuable in understanding reality. As the title suggests, this method consists of an imagined scenario. This helps build concepts and it comes in handy when scientists aren’t sure how to test their theories, otherwise. Many of Albert Einstein’s success came from his ability to conduct thought experiments and in his case, some of them did lead onto verifying mathematical equations and physical experiments.
There are all kinds experiments in many different forms that I will be covering in future sections. There’s also the realm of new experimentation. As a tool to be used in the pursuit of answers, experiments potentially have the capacity to yield the most transparency when providing evidence in support of understanding questions. This is another important factor in achieving our goals. Don’t be afraid to experiment, with the right imagination it will take you anywhere.