Scientific method

1
Scientific method

• The process by which scientists, collectively and
  over time, endeavor to construct an accurate
  (that is, reliable, consistent and
  non-arbitrary)representation of the world.
• http//teacher.pas.rochester.edu/phy_labs/Appendix
  E/AppendixE.html

2
The scientific method has four steps

• Observation and description of a phenomenon or
  group of phenomena.
• Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the
  phenomena
• Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of
  other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the
  results of the new observations.
• Performance of experimental tests of the
  predictions by several independent experimenters
  and properly performed experiments.

3
Central Limit Theorem

• If a sufficiently large random sample is drawn
  from a population with mean u and variance s2,
  the distribution of samples means will have the
  following characteristics
• 1. an approximately normal distribution
  regardless of the distribution of the underlying
  population
• 2. the mean of the sample means will be equal to
  the population mean
• 3. The variance of the sample means will be equal
  to the population variance divided by the sample
  size.