In the seventeenth century, astronomer Johannes Kepler observed the planets revolving around our sun and analyzed data about them. He found that as the distance from the Sun increases, the amount of time it takes for the planet to go all the way around the Sun increases. Even though Kepler did not know why his observation was true, it has been found that planets in all solar systems always revolve around suns the same way.
For centuries after Isaac Newton studied gravity, scientists accepted that gravity only exists between two objects that each have mass. However, new observations in the early twentieth century showed that even though light has no mass, it bends toward a planet as though it is forced by gravity. Albert Einstein used this observation, along with mathematical reasoning and many other observations, to redefine gravity and explain why both light and matter experience gravity’s effects. Einstein’s idea predicted many complex behaviors of nature that were later discovered, and because his idea consistently explains so many different observations it is now the basis for much of modern physics.
In 1917, after developing the concept of relativity, Einstein described how his findings supported the static universe idea, which was a widespread theory that stated that the size of the universe never changes. However, over the following decades, the theory of a static universe was disproved and replaced by the theory that the universe began with a "big bang” and has been expanding ever since.
In the nineteenth century, Gregor Mendel first determined some basic rules of genetics that have been observed throughout all types of life. No observations have disproved these basic rules of genetics. Charles Darwin developed the idea of biological evolution around the same time, but he was unaware of Mendel’s discoveries in genetics. Over a century later, Darwin’s idea of evolution was modified in order to incorporate Mendel’s rules of genetics along with the other evidence that Darwin had used.
Testable hypotheses that lead to experiments usually describe a relationship between
What is a difference between a law and a hypothesis?
Which type of scientific statement describes a proven fact about how things function in nature?
Which statements describe scientific laws but not theories or hypotheses? Check all that apply.They are likely to change as new evidence is discovered.They do not provide explanations for why they are true.They are considered to be proven facts.They have not yet been tested.They are the bases for experiments instead of the results.
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