Difference between revisions 5478040 and 5478041 on simplewiki

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'''Observation''' is an activity of an intelligent living being (e.g. [[human]]), which senses and assimilates the [[knowledge]] of a [[phenomenon]] in its framework of previous knowledge and ideas.<ref>[http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=54755&dict=CALD Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary]</ref> 

Observation is more than the bare act of observing: To perform observation, a being must observe and seek to add to its knowledge.

Observations that come from self-defining instruments are often unreliable  .<ref>[[Observer effect]]</ref>.  Such observations are hard to reproduce because they may vary even with respect to the same [[Stimulus|stimuli]]. Thus they are not of much use in exact sciences like [[physics]] which require instruments which do not define themselves. It is thus often necessary to use various [[engineering|engineered]] instruments like: [[spectrometer]]s, [[oscilloscope]]s, [[camera]]s, [[telescope]]s, [[interferometer]]s, tape recorders, [[thermometer]]s etc. and tools like clocks, scale that help in improving the {{bro(contracted; show full)ght adopt the characterization and formulate their own hypothesis, or they might adopt the hypothesis and deduce their own predictions. Often the experiment is not done by the person who made the prediction and the characterization is based on experiments done by someone else. Published results of experiments can also serve as a hypothesis predicting their own reproducibility.

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Philosophy of science]]
[[Category:Basic English 850 words]]