Repeatable Procedures and Measurements

 

An experiment is a series of repeatable procedures done with standardized steps. It is a technique for producing an outcome. Whether or not a step has been done correctly we determine with a measurement. For the measurement to have been done correctly others must be able to repeat it, both within this experiment and in copies, and get the same number. Objectivity is repeatability of measurements. Measurements are steps that produce numbers or other criteria that can be redone within the same experiment. Other procedures, for example the production of chemical reactions, can often not be redone within an experiment, but only in a copy. Standard steps can be replaced with non-standard steps if they produce the same measurement done with the standard measurement procedure.

Measurements need not require instruments, and need not be numbers. In medicine the observed condition of the patient can serve as the measurement. Observations can be experimental steps including measurements, especially when we realize that observation is noticing some things and ignoring others. There is a Chinese story of a horse trader who marvels it the level one of his rivals has achieved when told that he selected a horse without noticing its sex. But when a procedure requires a unique skill it is not part of science, but of art. Science is democratic.

An experiment consists of standard procedures because it must be teachable. Others must be able to do it. Experiments are routines, restricted by measurements, that can be repeated and taught to others. Only the correct measurement at the end allows the scientist to begin the next procedure. The end of an experiment is a final measurement upon which success or failure is determined.

Although repeatable and teachable, experiments need not be done with procedures everybody can do, but there must be a community whose members can do them. Only trained radiologists can read an x-ray, and those who can not leave the field. On the other hand, scientists can substitute unique procedures for the standard ones as long as the measurements at the end are the same.

Actions that are not repeatable-- being born, dying, taking one road over another, having your first child -- cannot be part of an experiment. 

Science is experiments. An experiment is a procedure that has a purpose, a measurement of a certain value. The Scientific World Picture is a description of a purposeless, albeit rules following, world. How did the one find its justification in the other?


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