Hypotheses & Educated Guesses

Hypothesis is an idea or a set of ideas, more succinctly a number of educated speculations on what “a something” is, and what its effect is on “something else.” A hypothesis is the beginning stage of a theory, after observation, based on educated guesses. An educated guess is a set of known information about a particular thing or scenario, gathered into a general prediction. Ex.: a car driving ten miles per hour hitting a stationary car would cause a 10 mph dent on the unmoving vehicle. It is yet untested in our scenario. 2^nd Ex: the stationary car, let’s say to protect itself from the hit, immediately takes off and accelerates from its position, in a straight line, to 9 miles per hour. The car behind will still hit it, but it will only cause a 1 mph dent. This one scenario has been confirmed through several car accidents (especially with malicious intent): but while in real life this perhaps would be a fact, in applied science, this would remain a mere hypothesis until proving more than once that speed alone is determinant in all cases. The reason is very simple, not all cars are the same and not all crashes are the same. The particular scenario has taken into account only two types of cars, the hitting car, and the impacted car, it doesn’t state the masses of each car; also, the impacted car was hit directly behind, not at an angle or from the front. If hit at an angle: would the 1 mph hit look like a 1 mph hit? An educated guess would tell us that, taking the mass of each car into consideration, different cars with different masses must look a bit different after one crashed on the other. The educated test would be then to keep both cars at their unique masses without changing them, and looking at what would happen if the two cars came in contact at other than a straight line, and/or the hitting car comes from a different place other than from behind. If the hitting car is moving at 10 mph, and will impact a car moving at 9 mph that is coming directly to it, will the hit look like a 1 mph hit? For the 1 mph hit (according to the speed of each car) to be true every time, there would have to be no difference between a car crashing the other from behind, or the front. We determine that this Speed-alone-hypothesis does not prove true, because the 1 mph hit is different in all cases. In fact we determine in the latter case: Let D = 0 (D being a car-crash dent at 0 mph) then (10mph + 9mph) = 19d, with both cars coming towards each other. While in the previous scenario: (10mph + [ -9mph]) = 1d, which would accord with the 1 mph hit. Thus, a 1 mph hypothesis would not be valid for a theory.

On the other hand we may, for the sake of argument, hypothesize that by adding a number to another, the sum of that number grows by one digit; and that by adding three numbers it grows by three digits. Thus: 4+1 = 5. This should be true in every case, so that if another 1 is added to 5, the sum should be 6. To prove this, we add: //// + / = ///// (+/) = //////. Going on eternally like this, this should be true in every case. This has been proven; though hardly a theory at all, this would reflect the example of a theory, wherein the prediction actually “predicts.”

How did Relativity become a Theory? Of course we’re referring to a scientific theory, dissimilar to mere every-day conjectures and speculations which rarely even qualify as hypotheses. The theory began by Einstein’s knowledge of Maxwell’s theory that light propagated through the universe in the form of a wave (this was during the time that tests were being done to test the presence of ether throughout the universe). This seems to be the verdict of scholars studying the beginnings of Special Relativity, since Einstein never let know how he came about his theory, and much is based on what he wrote. But this seems logical enough. From this knowledge, it was evident, in his manner, that he predicted that the light must be bent by something. Einstein envisioned much through inspiration, rather than experimentation. When confronted with the hypothesis by his colleague Sir Arthur Eddington that any bend of light must alter the stars position in the sky, he had to convince the scientific community. He did it by observing a solar eclipse with Eddington in the Western coast of Africa. The observational-experiment proved true—the light bends! After the fact, and subsequent other tests, Relativity was certified as a true theory, since it did what it predicted. It is up to someone else to dispute the findings. As true as the theory appears at first sight, even through the experiment by Einstein and Eddington, there is always room for perfection. One day it might be learned that space is not curved but that what bends the light is some “dark matter” prevalent throughout the universe.