21. Define and explain the first characteristic of a good theory.
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A theory is a developed body of thought used by scientists to guide further interpretations of their observations and tests. The first characteristic of a good theory is it's predictive power. Predictive power is the ability of a given theory to allow us to make predictions about the natural world. If a theory can't make predictions, then it is not useful. A good theory supposedly generates hypotheses that accurately predict what will occur at any certain event. Quoted from the National Academy of Science on the Scientific Method, "Theories serve as intellectual frameworks that link and make sense of what would otherwise be a dissociated collection of facts." For example, in the absence of this framework of plate tectonics, it would be impossible to provide a single hypothesis for the existence of the mid-oceanic ridge or the ring of fire. Therefore, the foundation of any good hypothesis is a good theory. A classic example of the predictive power of a theory is the Discovery of Neptune as a result of predictions made by mathematicians John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier, based on Newton's theory of gravity. Without this theory's predictive power, scientists would have never been able to estimate the location of Neptune.
image citation: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/hypothesis-theory-or-law/
read more:
http://arstechnica.com/science/2006/09/5315/
http://www.analytictech.com/mb870/handouts/theorizing.htm
Origins Manual, pages 6-7
-Natasha Faruqui
