Rough tools of science

I think science proceeds on the two essential tools of inspiration and "math". By "math" I mean the concept of using or building mental models with rules that anyone else can build in their mind.

This post will ignore those two essential tools. Instead, it will focus on tools that are less tantalizing than inspiration and "math", and that the scientist needs to be able to handle deftly.  I claim there are three: logic, the design of experiments, and statistics. These two plus three tools are the definition of science. This discussion will also ignore the careful philosophy that helps the whole thing roll: I will make many errors of imprecision in these descriptions. These are the rough tools of science.

The first toolset is the stuff generally called logic -- based on syllogistic manipulation (A ⇒ B, B ⇒ C ∴ A ⇒ B) -- in the real world. You know when you are for sure not using logic if you can spot the fallacy that you are in fact using. So you need to know the fallacies in order to understand what logic is.

The second toolset is the design of experiments. You have to be able to design an experiment that isolates the phenomenon and shows how it behaves under a condition and the lack of the condition. You should be able to see why you need to manipulate syllogisms in order to design experiments.

The third toolset is statistics. You need to know how many experiments need to be run in order to see if the outcomes are significant. If you happened to have used Venn diagrams when you learned logic, think about how to put numbers of observed cases in the four regions (A∩B, A∩¬B, ¬A∩B, ¬A∩¬B) of the conventional Venn diagram.

The logic and the fallacies were beginning to get laid down pretty well 2000 years ago. The rules of experimentation started being agreed on about 500 years ago. Statistical methods started 350 or so years ago, and the statistics ball was still barely rolling 100 years ago. People are born not knowing any of the three (maybe they are born knowing the other two: inspiration and rough "math"). They have to train themselves to use them. Each one of us finds our time here on Earth seems short. Spend the time practicing using the three rough tools and you may find that things make more sense. Well, sort of: things that make sense to other people will make less sense to you.