Editing Experiment (section)

==History==
{{main|History of experiments}}

One of the first methodical approaches to experiments in the modern sense is visible in the works of the Arab mathematician and scholar [[Ibn al-Haytham]]. He conducted his experiments in the field of optics—going back to optical and mathematical problems in the works of [[Ptolemy]]—by controlling his experiments due to factors such as self-criticality, reliance on visible results of the experiments as well as a criticality in terms of earlier results. He was one of the first scholars to use an inductive-experimental method for achieving results.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=El-Bizri|first=Nader|date=2005|title=A Philosophical Perspective on Alhazen's Optics|journal=Arabic Sciences and Philosophy |volume= 15| issue = 2|pages= 189–218|doi=10.1017/S0957423905000172|s2cid=123057532}}</ref> In his ''[[Book of Optics]]'' he describes the fundamentally new approach to knowledge and research in an experimental sense:

{{Blockquote
|text=We should, that is, recommence the inquiry into its principles and premisses, beginning our investigation with an inspection of the things that exist and a survey of the conditions of visible objects. We should distinguish the properties of particulars, and gather by induction what pertains to the eye when vision takes place and what is found in the manner of sensation to be uniform, unchanging, manifest and not subject to doubt. After which we should ascend in our inquiry and reasonings, gradually and orderly, criticizing premisses and exercising caution in regard to conclusions—our aim in all that we make subject to inspection and review being to employ justice, not to follow prejudice, and to take care in all that we judge and criticize that we seek the truth and not to be swayed by opinion. We may in this way eventually come to the truth that gratifies the heart and gradually and carefully reach the end at which certainty appears; while through criticism and caution we may seize the truth that dispels disagreement and resolves doubtful matters. For all that, we are not free from that human turbidity which is in the nature of man; but we must do our best with what we possess of human power. From God we derive support in all things.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Optics|last=Ibn al-Haytham|first=Abu Ali Al-Hasan|pages=5}}</ref>}}

According to his explanation, a strictly controlled test execution with a sensibility for the subjectivity and susceptibility of outcomes due to the nature of man is necessary. Furthermore, a critical view on the results and outcomes of earlier scholars is necessary:

{{quote|It is thus the duty of the man who studies the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dubitationes in Ptolemaeum|last=Ibn al-Haytham|first=Abu Ali Al-Hasan|pages=3}}</ref>}}

Thus, a comparison of earlier results with the experimental results is necessary for an objective experiment—the visible results being more important. In the end, this may mean that an experimental researcher must find enough courage to discard traditional opinions or results, especially if these results are not experimental but results from a logical/ mental derivation. In this process of critical consideration, the man himself should not forget that he tends to subjective opinions—through "prejudices" and "leniency"—and thus has to be critical about his own way of building hypotheses. {{cn|date=December 2018}}

[[Francis Bacon]] (1561–1626), an English [[philosophy|philosopher]] and [[scientist]] active in the 17th century, became an influential supporter of experimental science in the [[English Renaissance|English renaissance]]. He disagreed with the method of answering scientific questions by [[deductive reasoning|deduction]]—similar to [[Ibn al-Haytham]]—and described it as follows: "Having first determined the question according to his will, man then resorts to experience, and bending her to conformity with his placets, leads her about like a captive in a procession."<ref>"Having first determined the question according to his will, man ''then'' resorts to experience, and bending her to conformity with his placets, leads her about like a captive in a procession." Bacon, Francis. ''Novum Organum'', i, 63. Quoted in {{harvnb|Durant|2012|p=170}}.</ref> Bacon wanted a method that relied on repeatable observations, or experiments. Notably, he first ordered the scientific method as we understand it today. {{quotation | There remains simple experience; which, if taken as it comes, is called accident, if sought for, experiment. The true method of experience first lights the candle [hypothesis], and then by means of the candle shows the way [arranges and delimits the experiment]; commencing as it does with experience duly ordered and digested, not bungling or erratic, and from it deducing axioms [theories], and from established axioms again new experiments.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Durant|first1=Will|title=The story of philosophy : the lives and opinions of the great philosophers of the western world|date=2012|publisher=Simon and Schuster|location=New York|isbn=978-0-671-69500-2|edition=2nd|url=https://archive.org/details/storyofphilosophdura00dura}}</ref>{{rp|101}}}}

In the centuries that followed, people who applied the scientific method in different areas made important advances and discoveries.  For example, [[Galileo Galilei]] (1564–1642) accurately measured time and experimented to make accurate measurements and conclusions about the speed of a falling body. [[Antoine Lavoisier]] (1743–1794), a French chemist, used experiment to describe new areas, such as [[combustion]] and [[biochemistry]] and to develop the theory of [[conservation of mass]] (matter).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bell|first1=Madison Smartt|title=Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution|date=2005|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0393051551|url=https://archive.org/details/lavoisierinyearo00madi}}</ref> [[Louis Pasteur]] (1822–1895) used the scientific method to disprove the prevailing theory of [[spontaneous generation]] and to develop the [[germ theory of disease]].<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Brock|editor-first1=Thomas D|title=Pasteur and Modern Science|date=1988|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3540501015|edition= New illustrated}}</ref> Because of the importance of controlling potentially confounding variables, the use of well-designed [[laboratory]] experiments is preferred when possible.

A considerable amount of progress on the design and analysis of experiments occurred in the early 20th century, with contributions from statisticians such as [[Ronald Fisher]] (1890–1962), [[Jerzy Neyman]] (1894–1981), [[Oscar Kempthorne]] (1919–2000), [[Gertrude Mary Cox]] (1900–1978), and [[William Gemmell Cochran]] (1909–1980), among others.{{cn|date=April 2025}}