What is the first and last step in the scientific method?

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First, you must be curious about something. For example, why does the moon stay in orbit around the Earth? Next, think and use your theory; using the laws of physics (a body at rest will remain at rest and a body in motion will remain in motion and in a straight line until acted upon by an outside force). From this law, you can come to the last step in theory. The moon came from outer space in a straight line towards Earth. Then the gravity of Earth deflicted its path. Since the speed of the moon and Earth's gravity balance, the moon stays constantly in Earth's orbit. THIS CAN BE APPLIED IN OTHER SUJECTS AS WELL USEING THE LAWS .

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The first step is to ponder or hypothize. The last step is to prove or disprove your theroy.

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The easiest answer is: First step: Ask a question. Last step: Make an observation to provide a "yes" or "no" answer.

The observation may be made by seeing, feeling, smelling, tasting, etc. All are methods of observing. For example, the question, "Is there an apple on the table?" is a valid, though simple, scientific question. Looking at the table provides the answer. The answer is "yes" or "no". You see an apple or you don't. However, if you're blind or its dark, you can feel for an apple on the table. If you feel one, then "yes" there's an apple on the table and if you don't feel one, then "no" there isn't. If you can smell good enough, you can do your observing by smelling. If you've observed the correct answer, you have successfully applied and used the Scientific Method. If you're uncertain after your observation(s), try again.

Like most things, people try to make them appear more complicated than they are. Textbooks usually say we must start by first pretending, guessing or hypothesizing an answer, which, of course we can. We can pretend, guess or hypothesize "There is an apple on the table" or "There is no apple on the table". If we make our observation to test a quess, pretense or hypothesis, our answer will be "true", or "false".

So, about the only difference between the two approaches is whether we're testing a question for a "yes" or "no" answer, or an assertion for a "true" or "false" answer. In both cases, the key is the personal observation.

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This is an important distinction because no theory can ever be proven right. This doesn't make sense at first, so let me give some examples. If your theory is "Aliens Exist", no one can ever prove you wrong, because the aliens could always be somewhere we haven't looked yet. The theory can't be definitively answered, so it's not a good scientific question. However, if you wanted to propose a theory about the existence of aliens, you could hypothesize "Aliens don't exist". Then if you ever do find an alien, you know your theory is wrong. That's why nothing is ever proven "right" in science, just proven "most likely" by having all the other good explanations proven wrong.

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We need to clearly note, I think, when our answers are highly personalized and subjective. As the responses here surely are.

The way the question was phrased suggests that the questioner may well have been seeking responses that were definitive and/or well-established in facts.

And has therefore gone away from answers.com with the mistaken belief that he or she now knows the actual first and last steps of 'the' scientific method.

Tsk tsk and tut tut.

Of course I would love to be proven wrong in my little criticism here, should anyone be able to do so.

First answer by ID0000000000. Last edit by Yond Cassius. Contributor trust: 106 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 182 [recommend question]