Observation: Viewing and Recording

Observation is the act of viewing and recording an event.
Viewing and recording are simply watching a phenomenon and recording the observations including written records, photographs or other recording devices. Observations are not always accurate because real world observations some times miss stuff. A critical event may occur when observations are not being made. 

A critical event may occur outside the range of the observer’s sight. As a result such observations can rather subjective since it is too easy for an observer to see what he wants to see because the observer is looking for what he wants to see So patterns resembling what the observer wants to see are more likely noticed. It is too easy for an observer to not see what he does not want to see because the observer is not looking for what he does not want to see and patterns not resembling what the observer wants to see can be over looked. Knowing of such problems helps avoid them.

In conclusion observations are an important scientific tool but it does have its limitations and pitfalls. Being aware of those limitations helps one to avoid them.

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.