Could someone, please explain to me the diff between a scientific theory/a theory as used narratively everyday

Question

Preferrably someone with an education on the subject.

Answer 1

There's no difference a theory is an idea or thought, science just looks at the idea and says if it's possible or not.

So basically if you meet a person on the street that says they have a theory it means they have an idea, if you meet a scientist that says he has a theory it means he has an idea. Same things.

Answer 2

The popular use of the term is as a conjecture.

The scientific use of the term is more precise, though there is still some debate on what makes a valid theory.

At the minimum, a theory isn't valid unless the terms used in the theory are well defined. This includes any assumptions made by the theory. Secondly, the theory has to be something that is theoretically demonstrable. This is frequently called "falsifiability". That is, you can imagine some evidence, which if you had it, would show the theory to be false.

Note, that none of this says whether the theory is true or not. That's a different issue.

For example, "There is a teapot on Pluto" is a valid theory. The terms are defined. We know what a teapot is, we know what Pluto is, and we know what it means for a teapot to be on Pluto. It is also possible to create a test to see if there are any teapots on Pluto, at least in theory. This theory is probably false, since we haven't sent any teapots to Pluto, but it is a valid theory.

"God created the universe in six days about 6000 years ago" is not a valid theory. There really is no good definition for "God". Also, you can't really find evidence that would support or refute this theory. If you find a million year old rock, the person with this conjecture could say that God just made it look like that. There are even people who hold this conjecture as true who will tell you that God put the light from distant stars already near Earth or changed how fast light travels to make it appear to be older.

"There is a force of attraction between objects that is dependent on the mass of the objects" is a valid theory. The terms are defined and it is something we can test. Gravity has been shown to exist, so it is extremely likely a true theory, also. It is, however, still a theory.

Note that science really doesn't deal in absolute truths. It takes the stance that all of its theories can be shown false in the future. In practice, we rely on some more than others because of the abundance of evidence, but even some of the most renouned ones, like Newton's laws, needed adjustment.

Answer 3

See wikipedia for various meanings.

A scientific theory can never be proved to be true as all possible events/effects that it predicts would have to actually be tested, only disproved by an experiment or other means that shows at least one example of the theory not working (e.g. making a wrong prediction of the actual behaviour in an experiment).

Look up falsifiability, testability and the scientific method.

In everyday use, it often just means a 'plausible but untestable/unproveable explanation/model of something'.

Its also used in 'conspiricy theories', where people explain something using faulty logic, unproven premises and facts which are just beliefs or opinions.

Answer 4

A theory is just a beginning. Then one works to prove it or disprove it. I believe the second thing would be a theory that has been tested for years, and appears true through all of its previous tests, but it can not be completely pronen (like the theory of relativity).

Answer 5

A theory in science means a set of hypotheses explaining any given phenomenon. Many scientific theories are accepted by scientists as proven fact given that they are supported by overwhelming evidence but because they may occur over eons of time like evolution, and are difficult to observe the mechanisms are referred to as theoretical rather than proven fact.

Answer 6

What??? "a theory as used narratively everyday"

Your question is very unclear.