Editing Scientific method (section)

=== Theory's interactions with observation ===

{{Anchor|th-v-obs}}Science has limits. Those limits are usually deemed to be answers to questions that aren't in science's domain, such as faith. Science has other limits as well, as it seeks to make true statements about reality.{{sfnp|Gauch Jr|2002|loc=ch. 1}} The nature of [[truth]] and the discussion on how scientific statements relate to reality is best left to the article on the [[philosophy of science]] here. More immediately topical limitations show themselves in the observation of reality.

[[File:PositronDiscovery.png|thumb|220px|This [[cloud chamber]] photograph is the first observational evidence of [[positron]]s, 2 August 1932; interpretable only through prior theory.<ref name="Anderson 1933 pp. 491–494">{{cite journal | last=Anderson | first=Carl D. | title=The Positive Electron | journal=Physical Review | volume=43 | issue=6 | date=15 March 1933 | issn=0031-899X | doi=10.1103/PhysRev.43.491 | pages=491–494| bibcode=1933PhRv...43..491A }}<!--credit:[[c:File:PositronDiscovery.png]]--></ref>]]

It is the natural limitations of scientific inquiry that there is no pure observation as theory is required to interpret empirical data, and observation is therefore influenced by the observer's conceptual framework.<ref name="Hanson1958"/> As science is an unfinished project, this does lead to difficulties. Namely, that false conclusions are drawn, because of limited information.

An example here are the experiments of Kepler and Brahe, used by Hanson to illustrate the concept. Despite observing the same sunrise the two scientists came to different conclusions—their [[intersubjectivity]] leading to differing conclusions. [[Johannes Kepler]] used [[Tycho Brahe]]'s method of observation, which was to project the image of the Sun on a piece of paper through a pinhole aperture, instead of looking directly at the Sun. He disagreed with Brahe's conclusion that total eclipses of the Sun were impossible because, contrary to Brahe, he knew that there were historical accounts of total eclipses. Instead, he deduced that the images taken would become more accurate, the larger the aperture—this fact is now fundamental for optical system design.{{efn|name= Kepler1604 }} Another historic example here is the [[discovery of Neptune]], credited as being found via mathematics because previous observers didn't know what they were looking at.<ref name="Lequeux 2021 pp. 159–183">{{cite book | last=Lequeux | first=James | title=Neptune: From Grand Discovery to a World Revealed | chapter=Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier: Predictions Leading to Discovery | series=Historical & Cultural Astronomy | publisher=Springer International Publishing | publication-place=Cham | year=2021 | isbn=978-3-030-54217-7 | issn=2509-310X | doi=10.1007/978-3-030-54218-4_5 | pages=159–183}}</ref>