I think science has a problem.There are some really annoying words and terminology that we use when describing science in English. Because people who aren’t sciency end up regularly interpreting them differently to how scientists do.
A really good example of this is the word “theory”. In science speak, the word “theory” refers to some explanation of natural phenomena that has been repeatedly tested using a rigorous process known as the scientific method. In other words, a theory only becomes a theory once it’s got a lot of supporting evidence to back it up. But in everyday colloquial use, the meaning of the word “theory” more closely matches what scientists call a “hypothesis”. Most people think of a “theory” as a hunch or a guess made to explain something.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that the non-scientists are “wrong” by the way. They’re just using the word in a different way, which is perfectly valid. The risk comes in when the two definitions mix up though.
Another example of scientific words meaning different things to different people is the word “instantaneous”. Over time as language has changed, most people think of the word “instantaneously” to mean the same thing as “instantly” or “right away”.
But physicists use the word “instantaneous” to mean something very slightly different. In physics, “instantaneous” means “in an instant of time”, or happening over a very short period of time - an instant.
#physics #parthg #understandingphysics #terminology #theory #scientifictheory #hypothesis #linguistics #instantaneous #instant #understandingphysics
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