The Facts About Repeatability in Science

Repeatability is the ability of a scientist’s experiments and results to be replicated by other scientists. The concept is that because physical laws are the same every place an experiment conducted by one scientist should work for any other scientist it is a way of double checking results. Repeatability is not to be confused with replicating passed events which is done to show the possibility or feasibility of that event which is a totally different from the repeatability being discussed.

Repeatability is at its best with experiments were variables can be controlled and hence replication can be as complete as possible. It does not work well for all situations. Those situations where there are difficulties in controlling variables are not easily replicated. The degree of repeatability varies from field to field.

In conclusion repeatability is important to science but it is not an absolute principle and some fields are more repeatable than others.