Essentials of Scientific Method

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G. Allen & Unwin Limited, 1925 - Science - 160 pages
 

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Page 39 - The standard deviation, mathematically, is the square root of the average of the squares of the deviations of the individual cases from the mean.
Page 12 - ... desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with Truth.
Page 10 - To promote the increase of natural knowledge and to forward the application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems of life to the best of my ability, in the conviction which has grown with my growth and strengthened with my strength, that there is no alleviation for the sufferings of mankind except veracity of thought and...
Page 12 - I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point), and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences...
Page 93 - As further implying that the two are related as cause and consequence, there may be noted the fact that the regions whence changes towards greater political liberty have come, are the leading industrial regions ; and that rural districts, less characterized by constant trading transactions, have retained longer the earlier type with its appropriate sentiments and ideas. In the form of ecclesiastical government we see parallel changes. Where the industrial activities and structures evolve, this branch...
Page 135 - Guido, with a burnt stick in his hand, demonstrating on the smooth paving-stones of the path, that the square on the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides.
Page 67 - Brewster accidentally took an impression from a piece of mother-of-pearl in a cement of resin and bees'-wax, and finding the colours repeated upon the surface of the wax, he proceeded to take other impressions in balsam, fusible metal, lead, gum arabic, isinglass, &c., and always found the iridescent colours the same.
Page 103 - In its scientific sense the word "law" means nothing more than a regularity or uniformity in the character or relation of certain classes of facts or events.
Page 15 - ... modes of investigation are followed, which are known as Scientific Methods. In a wide sense, any mode of investigation by which the sciences have been built up and are being developed is entitled to be called a scientific method.
Page 149 - It is admitted, indeed, that the frequencytheory of Probability is not free from difficulties. Frequencies are apt to vary considerably with the number of cases observed. In tossing a coin, for example, the proportion of heads and tails varies remarkably according as one stops at the 50th, the 100th, the 1,000th, or 10,000th throw. One can get almost any proportion by stopping at the right moment. Hence the introduction of the notion of "the long run" — in the long run a normal coin will throw...

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