So what's the difference between Fact and Theory?

Answer 1

A fact is something that has been proven to be true and cannot be disputed. A theory is basically an educated guess - there is evidence that tends to support it, but it hasn't been (and maybe can't be) proven. A theory is open to debate.

Answer 2

First responder is on the right track. A fact is a datum, such as a measurement of the speed that a bowling ball hits the ground if dropped off the leaning tower of Pisa. A theory is a rule which is intended to describe a set of facts, and will predict other facts not yet found; if such facts are found, the theory is said to be confirmed. (If the predictions are wrong, so is the theory, and it will quickly be abandoned.) The extent to which a theory is confirmed varies, depending on the number and variety of the facts which the rule correctly describes; a theory may be:
- Persuasive; a large but not broadly varied set of facts are correctly predicted, such as the big bang. The big bang explains the presence of lithium in the universe; there is no other known means by which this element could occur.
- Conclusive; the predicted facts are large and varied, such as the age of various parts of the earth. Only the discovery of unexpected new data would upset such a theory -- but this has happened; measurements of actions at or near the speed of light showed that Newtonian mechanics was wrong, and new rules were developed by H. Lorentz, and formalized by Einstein in the Special Theory of Relativity -- which is now conclusively established.
- Proven. For technical reasons, scientific theories are mostly not provable. However, the theory of evolution IS provable, and I have done so; the proof is available on request (please provide an e-mail address). Since the theory is correct, it means that no better theory than Darwin's of the origin of species can ever be discovered.

Answer 3

Facts cannot always be proven either.. every fact has a theory behind it.. of just how the facts came about.. two separate people can research the same thing both coming up with a fact about it.. but all in all they would both just be theories about how the facts came about.. The theory about facts is that everything is deceptive.. what looks, smells, tastes and so on might not be exactly what the facts insist on it being. The world was not created by man. so therefore a man cannot determine the correct facts regarding anything.. Everything is a theory taken from research and findings. The most sufficient idea is to determine the facts yourself and then leave quote of your own theories..you will find out in the end if you were right...

Answer 4

A Fact is not a Theory, and a Theory is not a Fact.

Answer 5

The next theory on the topic.
You have chummed the water for the fundies and their ignorance of the meaning of theory is like green slime cascading down a mountain range.

Answer 6

wow, you people have no clue. Not a single post b4 this has gotten it correct. Stephen Jay Gould said it best:

"Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them.... Moreover, "fact" doesn't mean "absolute certainty"; there ain't no such animal in an exciting and complex world.... In science "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional consent."

Or this:
"In popular usage, a theory is just a vague and fuzzy sort of fact and a hypothesis is often used as a fancy synonym to `guess'. But to a scientist a theory is a conceptual framework that explains existing observations and predicts new ones"

Newton's thery of gravity and Einstein's theory of gravity are not "guesses". They are each a framework to explain laws and facts of gravity as they knew them in their time.

A "guess" is a hypothesis such as gravity being caused by gravitons (which have yet to be discovered).

Answer 7

Fact is supported by hard evidence. Theory is an idea that is unsupported by hard evidence because evidence does not exist or is unattainable. However, Theory is not completely blind [example of blind theory would be religion]. A theory usually has some explaination of how it works by looking at other semi pertinent proven facts.

Answer 8

So, a fact is something generally accepted as being true independent of anyone's opinion. Theory is a tentative scheme of explanation or modelling for observed events which looks good and is probably right, but has not yet been exhaustively tested or stood the test of time.

Answer 9

Fact is something that has been proven to be true without a doubt. Theory is an opinion.

Answer 10

A fact is something already backed by information, but a theory still lacks the information backing it.