What is the difenrence between pure and applied science?

Answer 1

Pure and applied sciences are two broad categories of science that view, approach, and solve problems with different sets of mentalities and methodologies.

Pure science seeks to describe objects and phenomena of the natural world by understanding the principles at work, often using mathematical equations to express or model some fundamental law they see. Pure scientists generally aim to unveil the truth behind their subject of study, and ask questions such as "why does this thing work this way" or "how does this thing work"?

Applied science, on the other hand, is concerned with using or applying scientific knowledge to improve our environment or to solve practical problems in our society. Generally speaking, applied scientists emphasize on making things work without necessarily going into strenuous detail. They ask questions such as "what can I do to make this thing function" or "how can I make this thing better?"

For example, if a pure scientist and an applied scientist are each given a piece of malfunctioning technology. The pure scientist might take the technology apart and find the source that was causing the problem and how was it causing the problem. The applied scientist may not trouble him or herself with finding out what's causing the problem once he or she has, for instance, discovered the technology works fine if it is tilted sideways.

Extending on this example, pure science provides physical insight into the behavior exhibited by the malfunctioning technology, and this understanding may have equipped the pure scientist with knowledge that he or she can draw on to fix different or future malfunctioning technology. The process of understanding the unknown, however, is often painstaking, and can sometimes see much time and effort result in little progress.

In the same case, an applied scientist may not have to spend much time before determining some particular way, such as tilting it sideways, to make the malfunctioning technology work. One disadvantage with this more practical approach is that because the solution was formulated to address a specific issue (this model, this exact item was fixed by tilting it sideways), these empirical methods often have applicability in a different situation (unlike the pure scientists, who may be able to fix other problems because they learned about how the parts inside the machine work).

Each of these sciences has advantages and disadvantages in their approach, but both of them are imperative to the scientific and technological development of mankind as a whole. Because of each type of science's specialty in their respective area, students of these fields can sometimes consider the other branch inferior or less important than their own. That is, however, not true over the entire field of science.

Pure and applied sciences rely on each other, operate together, and benefit one another in more ways than not. A pure scientist, for example, can derive a theoretical equation that models an effect, and applied scientists can father data to test the validity of that equation while searching for some sort of application for it in society. Pure scientists, because they based their work around the primary objective of discovering the truth, can provide findings to give applied sciences new directions and utilities while supplying more knowledge to the scientific community as a whole.

If you are trying to decide on which branch to choose, first determine what type of problems interest you, and how you want to go about solving these problems. Do you like to effect changes with immediate affect (applied), or would you like to gain lasting knowledge on the inner workings and bigger picture of a mystery (pure)? When you spot a problem or an anomaly, do you feel an impulse to fix or ameliorate the issue (applied), or do you feel a burning desire to understand how it works (pure)?

Keep in mind that I've presented some broad and general characteristics of each branch of science, but each case usually varies. Some people even pick the middle ground, incorporating a moderate extent of theoretical knowledge into a portion of empirical work. So keep your options open, talk to as many people as you feel is necessary, and make your decision based on your interest and personality.