What is the difference between an Imperical study and a theoretical study??????? IMPORT SERIOUS ANSWERS ONLY!!

Question

I know that an imperical study has to do with research data right? I have no clue what a theoretical study is exactly and need to know in order to find one for a paper in my one class. PLEASE HELP ASAP!!!!!!! Also my topic is inclusion of disabled children in the classroom and I am not sure if I should be looking on the databases on my school's site in the education related ones or in the psychology related ones so pleasae tell me which one would be smartest to look in! The sooner you answer the better off it will help me out.

Answer 1

Empirical: from data, experience, experiment, observation of real life, provable from reality
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=empirical

Theoretical: Means not applied to reality, hypothetical or speculative without real data or experiments or evidence to support its application to reality.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/theoretical

These two terms are opposites.

What you could look for is empirical data on whether disabled children succeed incorporated in the classroom. I would recommend looking in both databases.

Answer 2

Imperical

Answer 3

empirical study essentially means like you said doing stuff in the lab, observing and tabulating the results of the experiments and arriving at a formula..like in heat transfer,where heat transfer coefficient is given a 0.028(Nre^0.8)(Npr0.33)....Nre is reynolds number, and Npr is prandtl's number...the data observed fits this equation, but there is as yet no comprehensive theory explaining why.... theoretical study is to formulate an hypothesis, assume certain data, and check its validity . example, in interphase mass transfer, there are many theories proposed such as film theory, Higbie's penetration theory,Danckwerts surface renewal theory, Dobbins theory etc . these scientists assumed certain mechanisms for mass transfer and derived equations based on their assumptions.