Editing Normal science (section)

==Normal science at work==
Kuhn considered that the bulk of scientific work was that done by the 'normal' scientist, as they engaged with the threefold task of articulating the paradigm, precisely evaluating key paradigmatic facts, and testing those new points at which the theoretical paradigm is open to empirical appraisal.<ref>Kuhn, p. 25-8</ref>

Paradigms are central to Kuhn's conception of normal science.<ref>Kuhn, p. 23</ref> Scientists derive rules from paradigms, which also guide research by providing a framework for action that encompasses all the values, techniques, and theories shared by the members of a [[scientific community]].<ref>Kuhn, p. 42</ref> Paradigms gain recognition from more successfully solving acute problems than their competitors. Normal science aims to improve the match between a paradigm's predictions and the facts of interest to a paradigm.<ref>Kuhn, p.  24</ref> It does not aim to discover new [[phenomena]].

According to Kuhn, normal science encompasses three classes of scientific problems.<ref>Kuhn, p. 34</ref> The first class of scientific problems is the determination of significant [[fact]], such as the position and magnitude of stars in different galaxies.  When astronomers use special telescopes to verify [[Heliocentrism|Copernican]] predictions, they engage the second class: the matching of facts with theory, an attempt to demonstrate agreement between the two. Improving the value of the [[gravitational constant]] is an example of articulating a paradigm theory, which is the third class of scientific problems.