How does a scientist determine if an explanation makes sense?

Answer 1

The most important thing a scientist can do is put aside his or her prejudices and look strictly at the facts.

If I gave you a glass with a clear liquid in it and said "This is water", how would you know that what I said was true or false? If I were a teacher and a scientist, or some other authority figure, you might be inclined to simply believeme.

Scientists don't think this way. They use Critical Thinking to analyse the facts as they see them. They test facts and statements to see if they match up with reality. If they match, then they can trust them because they make sense.

Maybe you would smell the contents to see if it had a odour that was not characteristic of water -- maybe it is alcohol. You might try to agitate it to see if it flows like water. If it was silicone liquid, it would move very sluggishly and not behave like water. Perhaps you could put it in the freezer to see if it turned solid at 0º Celsius, or heat it up to see if it boiled at 100º Celsius -- both of these would serve to show that it did or did not have water-like characteristics.

The key is not to simply accept things at face-value. Scientists do what they do because they are curious about the Universe; they want to know why things are the way they are; they want to know what new things it might be possible to accomplish -- and all this is based on extrapolation -- building on the knowledge that has come before. So they make sure they have a firm foundation to build on; they don't guess or suppose. They make a point of knowingbefore they try to go further.