Are theories fact?i thought they were just water tight in our eyes?

Question

if not why do some people want to act like they are, if they cannot be really proved why do people feel so sure they are, if people are foolish enough to want to act like fact and speculative fact are the same,., something people have never seen before being the cause is way sooner on the totem pole scale,.! do people think it helps students understand it easier or what? thanks i really want to know, i have no good reason of my own to make believe something in that kinda way!

Answer 1

Theories and fact are two completely different things.  A scientific theory is a well-supported explanatory framework that explains related facts. Theories are supported by multiple independent lines of evidence sometimes coming from entirely different fields of science. In science, facts are not above theories or more certain than theories. Theories don't become facts, theories explain facts. Let me give you an example.

If you were to decide to become a nuclear physicist, you might find yourself taking a course called "Atomic Theory". At no time in the future will that class ever be called "Atomic Fact" and the use of the word "theory" says nothing about our certainty of atoms. You'll probably learn all sorts of facts in your atomic theory class, like, "copper conducts electricity", "water forms hydrogen bonds with polar molecules", and "Uranium gives off alpha-particle radiation". Facts are a dime-a-dozen. Theories unite facts under one explanatory framework. Atomic theory explains all of these facts. Atomic theory is the framework that unifies everything we know about atoms, chemistry, and the nature of matter.

I hope that helps clarify some things!