I have a question about theory.?

Question

How is a scientific theory different from a "theory" as used in common speech?

I'm confused in one of my college classes so I'd just like to be clear. I'm know there is a difference, but what is it?

Answer 1

In common parlance "theory" means "guess", or (at best) "educated guess".

In scientific terms "theory" is best translated as "explanation".

Science makes two kinds of statement - Laws and Theories.

A Law is an observation. For example, the Law of Gravity states that all matter attracts all other matter in a manner proportionate to their masses, and inversely proportionate to their distance. It just notes that this happens, but provides no reasons why or how.

The Theory is that explanation. So for Gravity, there are a number od different theories: perhaps all matter emits gravitons - massless particles with negative momentum (graviton theory), or perhaps all matter somehow "curves" space/time (the theory of relativity), or perhaps all matter is actually composed of subatomic "superstrings" - vibrating and interacting in higher spatial dimensions (superstring theory). These obviously cannot all be true (and perhaps none of them is) - but they each explain some of the observations of the Law of Gravity.

A theory can never be proved 100%, as it is always possible that someone will make an observation that disproves it. And it can never "graduate" to become a law, as they are different types of statement altogether.

Answer 2

"theory" in common speech is 99% of the time referring to a "hypothesis"

That's the gist of it.

Answer 3

In science a theory is a testable model of the manner of interaction of a set of natural phenomena, capable of predicting future occurrences or observations of the same kind, and capable of being tested through experiment or otherwise verified through empirical observation. For the scientist, "theory" is not in any way an antonym of "fact". For example, it is a fact that an apple dropped on earth has been observed to fall towards the center of the planet, and the theories commonly used to describe and explain this behavior are Newton's theory of universal gravitation (see also gravitation), and the general theory of relativity.

In common usage, the word theory is often used to signify a conjecture, an opinion, a speculation, or a hypothesis. In this usage, a theory is not necessarily based on facts; in other words, it is not required to be consistent with true descriptions of reality. True descriptions of reality are more reflectively understood as statements which would be true independently of what people think about them.

Answer 4

a scientific theory is an established explanation of a phenomenon in terms of large amounts of converging evidence . It is certainly no wild guess and the hall mark of a real theory is that many attempts to refute it (  establish falsifiabilty ) fail and that it is derived from critically analyzed ,peer-reviewed, multiplyrelicated  and independently verified.

Theories that are so strongly entrenched with no real challenge to their validity are called laws. Evolution is such a scientiic  theory with evidence derived from multiple convergent sources, and with over a 100 year history of resisting all attempts at SCIENTIFIC refutation..although it has been modified and modernized to accommodate newer information. Atomic theory, quantum mechanics, and the Big Bang are other scientific theories. A scientific theory is the result of a very careful , regulated process, and is totally undeserving of the creationist slur..its only a theory....they attempt to obfuscate the issue by purposely drawing an analogy to the more pedestrian definition of theory......shame !