Principles of scientific methods

de Mark Chang

"This book focuses on the fundamental principles behind scientific methods. The author uses concrete examples and illustrations to introduce and explain principles. He also uses analogies to connect different methods or problems to arrive at a general principle or common notion. The book explains how the principles of scientific methods are not only applicable to scientific research but also in our daily lives. It shows how the scientific method is used to understand how and why things happen, to make predictions, to present mistakes, and to solve problems. "-- "Our knowledge structures are undergoing dramatic changes as the world further progresses into the Information Age. To not drown in a rising sea of information, the knowledge across multiple disciplines becomes increasingly important. Principles of Scienti c Methods is a book about the fundamental principles or common notions behind scienti c methods in di erent elds. I wrote this book in order to inspire students to do scienti c research, to share experiences and thoughts with experienced researchers, and to stimulate more research into scienti c principles. It is challenging for me to systematically write a book on general principles of scienti c methods and there will unavoidably be personal opinions. You should read with your critical eyes and suspicious mind. This book is for scientists, researchers, teachers, undergraduates, graduates, and even ambitious high school seniors. Science as referred to in this book is taken in a broad sense, including natural science, physics, mathematics, statistics, social science, political science, and engineering science. This book focuses on the fundamental principles behind scienti c methods. It is not a book about the technical details of scienti c methodologies. A principle is often abstract and has broad applicability, while a method is often concrete and speci c. We use concrete examples and illustrations to introduce and explain principles and use analogies to connect di erent methods or problems to arrive at a general principle or a common notion. When I introduce a particular method it is mainly for the purpose of addressing the great idea behind the method, not the method itself. Principles of scienti c methods introduced here are applicable not only to scientific research, but also to our daily lives"--