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Dictionary:

hypothesis

  (hī-pŏth'ĭ-sĭs) pronunciation
n., pl. -ses (-sēz').
  1. A tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.
  2. Something taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation; an assumption.
  3. The antecedent of a conditional statement.

[Latin, subject for a speech, from Greek hupothesis, proposal, supposition, from hupotithenai, hupothe-, to suppose : hupo-, hypo- + tithenai, to place.]


 
 

A tentative supposition with regard to an unknown state of affairs, the truth of which is thereupon subject to investigation by any available method, either by logical deduction of consequences which may be checked against what is known, or by direct experimental investigation or discovery of facts not hitherto known and suggested by the hypothesis.


 

In empirical research, assertion made about some property of elements being studied. Such an assumption is made early in the investigation, guiding the investigator in searching for supporting data. The hypothesis is found to be true or false at the conclusion of the research study, depending on whether or not the proposed property actually characterizes the elements.

 
Thesaurus: hypothesis

noun

    A belief used as the basis for action: theory. See belief/unbelief, thoughts.

 
Antonyms: hypothesis

n

Definition: theory
Antonyms: calculation, measurement, proof, reality, truth


 

A general supposition made as a basis for reasoning but not held to be true until proven by reference to empirical evidence.

 

A proposition put forward as a supposition, rather than asserted. A hypothesis may be put forward for testing or for discussion, possibly as a prelude to acceptance or rejection.

 

[Ge]

A statement of plausible connections between specific defined elements or variables, put forward as a basis for empirical testing. In archaeology this usually means putting forward a set of ideas or predictions about how the archaeological record should look if a particular model or explanation holds true.

 

A conjectured statement that implies or states a relationship between two or more variables. A hypothesis is usually formed from facts already known or research already carried out, and is expressed in such a way that it can be tested or appraised as a generalization about a phenomenon. See also experimental hypothesis, Null hypothesis.

 
Law Encyclopedia: Hypothesis
This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

An assumption or theory.

During a criminal trial, a hypothesis is a theory set forth by either the prosecution or the defense for the purpose of explaining the facts in evidence. It also serves to set up a ground for an inference of guilt or innocence, or a showing of the most probable motive for a criminal offense.

 
Science Dictionary: hypothesis
(heye-poth-uh-sis)

plur. hypotheses (heye-poth-uh-seez)

In science, a statement of a possible explanation for some natural phenomenon. A hypothesis is tested by drawing conclusions from it; if observation and experimentation show a conclusion to be false, the hypothesis must be false. (See scientific method and theory.)

 

A supposition that appears to explain a group of phenomena and is assumed as a basis of reasoning and experimentation.

  • h. testing — a standard practice using statistical methods, usually analytical observational studies, to differentiate between two hypotheses. For example, the user assumes that vaccination against a particular disease reduces the prevalence of the disease, then tests that hypothesis.
  • h. testing sampling — sampling of material or data for the purpose of testing a hypothesis.
 
Word Tutor: hypothesis
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: Something not proven but considered to be true for purposes of further investigation.

pronunciation Truth in science can be defined as the working hypothesis best suited to open the way to the next better one. — Konrad Lorenz

 
Wikipedia: hypothesis


A hypothesis (from Greek ὑπόθεσις) consists either of a suggested explanation for a phenomenon or of a reasoned proposal suggesting a possible correlation between multiple phenomena. The term derives from the Greek, hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose." The scientific method requires that one can test a scientific hypothesis. Scientists generally base such hypotheses on previous observations or on extensions of scientific theories.

Usage

In early usage, scholars often referred to a clever idea or to a convenient mathematical approach that simplified cumbersome calculations as a hypothesis; when used this way, the word did not necessarily have any specific meaning. Cardinal Bellarmine gave a famous example of the older sense of the word in the warning issued to Galileo in the early 17th century: that he must not treat the motion of the Earth as a reality, but merely as a hypothesis.

In common usage in the 21st century, a hypothesis refers to a provisional idea whose merit needs evaluation. For proper evaluation, the framer of a hypothesis needs to define specifics in operational terms. A hypothesis requires more work by the researcher in order to either confirm or disprove it. In due course, a confirmed hypothesis may become part of a theory or occasionally may grow to become a theory itself. Normally, scientific hypotheses have the form of a mathematical model. Sometimes, but not always, one can also formulate them as existential statements, stating that some particular instance of the phenomenon under examination has some characteristic and causal explanations, which have the general form of universal statements, stating that every instance of the phenomenon has a particular characteristic.

Any useful hypothesis will enable predictions by reasoning (including deductive reasoning). It might predict the outcome of an experiment in a laboratory setting or the observation of a phenomenon in nature. The prediction may also invoke statistics and only talk about probabilities. Karl Popper, following others, has argued that a hypothesis must be falsifiable, and that one cannot regard a proposition or theory as scientific if it does not admit the possibility of being shown false. To meet this additional criterion, it must at least in principle be possible to make an observation that would disprove the proposition as false, even if one has not actually (yet) made that observation. A falsifiable hypothesis can greatly simplify the process of testing to determine whether the hypothesis has instances in which it is false. The scientific method involves experimentation on the basis of falsifiable hypotheses in order to answer questions and explore observations.

In framing a hypothesis, the investigator must not currently know the outcome of a potentially falsifying test or that it remains reasonably under continuing investigation. Only in such cases does the experiment, test or study potentially increase the probability of showing the truth of a hypothesis. If the researcher already knows the outcome, it counts as a "consequence" — and the researcher should have already considered this while formulating the hypothesis. If one cannot assess the predictions by observation or by experience, the hypothesis classes as not yet useful, and must wait for others who might come afterward to make possible the needed observations. For example, a new technology or theory might make the necessary experiments feasible.

In the United States of America, teachers of science in primary schools have often simplified the meaning of the term "hypothesis" by describing a hypothesis as "an educated guess". Overemphasizing this aspect fails to convey the explanatory or predictive quality of scientific hypotheses. To define a hypothesis as "an educated guess" resembles describing a tricycle is a "vehicle with three". The definition omits the concept's most important and characteristic feature: the purpose of hypotheses. People generate hypotheses as early attempts to explain patterns observed in nature or to predict the outcomes of experiments. For example, in science, one could correctly call the following statement a hypothesis: identical twins can have different personalities because the environment influences personality. In contrast, although one might have informed one's self about the qualifications of various political candidates, making an educated guess about the outcome of an election would not qualify as a scientific hypothesis: the guess lacks an underpinning generic explanation.

Types of hypothesis

A proposition may take the form of asserting a causal relationship (such as "A causes B"). A proposition often (but not necessarily) involves an assertion of causation. For example, if a particular independent variable changes, then a certain dependent variable also changes. This formulation, also known as an "If and Then" statement, applies whether or not a proposition asserts a direct cause-and-effect relationship.[1]

A hypothesis about possible correlation does not stipulate the cause and effect per se, only stating that "A is related to B". Investigators may have more difficulty in verifying causal relationships than other correlations, because quite commonly intervening variables also become involved, possibly giving rise to the appearance of a possibly direct cause-and-effect relationship, but which (upon further investigation) turn out to have some other, more direct causal factor not mentioned in the proposition. Also, a mere observation of a change in one variable, when correlated with a change in another variable, can actually mistake the effect for the cause, and vice-versa (i.e., potentially get the hypothesized cause and effect backwards).

Empirical hypotheses that experimenters have repeatedly verified may become sufficiently dependable that, at some point in time, they become considered as "proven". Some people may succumb to the temptation to term such hypotheses "laws", but they would do so mistakenly, since by definition a hypothesis explains and a law describes (for example, a law can state: "Matter can neither be created or destroyed, only changed in form"). More accurately, one could refer to repeatedly verified hypotheses simply as "adequately verified", or as "dependable".

Statistics features a rather more general concept of a hypothesis: this involves making assertions about the probability distributions or likelihoods of events.

Statisticians use two kinds of hypothesis: first, the null hypothesis or H0; secondly, the alternative hypothesis or H1. To give the simplest non-trivial example, one might formulate two hypotheses about tossing a coin:

  • H0: coin-tossing operates "fairly" (equally likely to fall "Heads" or "Tails")
  • H1: coin-tossing operates in a biased manner to give a 90% probability of falling "Heads"

No finite sequence of results could utterly falsify either hypothesis. However, various statistical approaches (such as Bayesian statistics and classical statistics (i.e. t-tests)) can quantify the strong intuition that H1 appears much less likely than H0 if, in 1,000 tosses, 495 came out "Heads" — and much more likely if 895 came out "Heads". In more complex sciences, researchers generally evaluate experiments statistically rather than as simple verifications or falsifications.

Evaluating hypotheses

The hypothetico-deductive method demands falsifiable hypotheses, framed in such a manner that the scientific community can prove them false (usually by observation). (Note that confirming (or failing to falsify) a hypothesis does not necessarily prove that hypothesis: the hypothesis remains provisional.)

For example: someone who enters a new country and observes only white sheep might form the hypothesis that all sheep in that country are white. It can be considered a hypothesis, as it is falsifiable. Anyone could falsify the hypothesis by observing a single black sheep. Provided that the experimental uncertainties remain small (for example, provided that one can fairly reliably distinguish the observed black sheep from (say) a goat), and provided that the experimenter has correctly interpreted the statement of the hypothesis (for example, does the meaning of "sheep" include rams?), finding a black sheep falsifies the "white sheep only" hypothesis. However, one cannot consider failure to find non-white sheep as proof that no non-white sheep exist.

Scientific hypothesis

People refer to a trial solution to a problem as a hypothesis — often called an "educated guess" — because it provides a suggested solution based on the evidence. Experimenters may test and reject several hypotheses before solving the problem.

According to Schick and Vaughn,[2] researchers weighing up alternative hypotheses may take into consideration:

  • Testability (compare falsifiability as discussed above)
  • Simplicity (as in the application of "Occam's Razor", discouraging the postulation of excessive numbers of entities)
  • Scope - the apparent application of the hypothesis to multiple cases of phenomena
  • Fruitfulness - the prospect that a hypothesis may explain further phenomena in the future
  • Conservatism - the degree of "fit" with existing recognised knowledge-systems

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=8F37399C-E7F2-99DF-30361B86A598909B&chanID=sa007 An example of hypothetical reasoning - the formation of diamonds in zircon crystals
  2. ^ Schick, Theodore and Vaughn, Lewis: How to think about weird things: Critical thinking for a New Age Boston, 2002

External links


 
Translations: Translations for: Hypothesis

Dansk (Danish)
n. - hypotese

Nederlands (Dutch)
hypothese, stelling

Français (French)
n. - hypothèse

Deutsch (German)
n. - Hypothese, Annahme

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (φιλοσ., λογοτ.) υπόθεση

Italiano (Italian)
ipotesi

Português (Portuguese)
n. - hipótese (f)

Русский (Russian)
гипотеза

Español (Spanish)
n. - hipótesis

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - hypotes, tankeexperiment, förutsättning

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
假设

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 假設

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 가설, 전제

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 仮説, 仮定

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الفرضيه أو الظنيه, رأي علمي لما يثبت بعد افتراض على سبيل الجدل‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮הנחה ללא בסיס, הנחה, היפותיזה, הנחה שהונחה כבסיס לשיקול, ללא הערכת נכונותה, הנחה על בסיס עובדות קיימות שהונחה כנקודת-פתיחה לחקירה נוספת‬


 
Best of the Web: hypothesis

Some good "hypothesis" pages on the web:


American Sign Language
commtechlab.msu.edu
 

Math
mathworld.wolfram.com
 
 
 

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