Difference between revisions 5801385 and 5801445 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> {{font color|pink|Piers Morgan}}⏎


Observation is more than the bare act of observing: To perform observation, a being mustObservation requires observeing and seek to add to itsing 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, [[tele(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]]