Theme 2 - Reflections

This blog post will reflect on the topic of Theory in science and also what I have learned about Theory after discussing it further.

This week I couldn't come to the seminar due to another course, but after discussing the topic further with my friends I got some new insights. Often we use the word theory in common communication, one example could be when we tell our friends that we have a theory about something. Most of the times these "theories" is not actual theories, but instead they are hypothesis. The big difference is that a hypothesis does not have to be based on facts or other theories and does not have to be confirmed as valid by others.

When talking to my friends they told me about Copernicus and his hypothesis. This discussion was about when does theory become "Theory"? In the Copernicus case they came to an understanding that even though Copernicus had data backing up his hypothesis that the earth revolved around the sun instead of the common thought of the sun revolving around our earth, his hypothesis did not become a theory because the society (read church) did not accept his idea. However there seems to be no good answer to how many people that has to confirm ones findings for it to become a theory.

Since I missed this seminar I feel that I have a lot of unanswered questions, but I think I have gotten a better grip around the idea about what theory is and what it's not.