Global Warming: Can You Explain Theory and Hypothesis to me please?

Question

OK I am looking for an Idiot's Guide.

When talking about Global Warming what is a theory? What is a Hypothesis?

Please explain what they are and give an example.

Answer 1

When talking about global warming the words 'hypothesis' and 'theory' are used in their scientific context, the words take on different meanings to their everyday use.

"A scientific theory is an established and experimentally verified fact or collection of facts about the world. Unlike the everyday use of the word theory, it is not an unproved idea, or just some theoretical speculation. The latter meaning of a 'theory' in science is called a hypothesis."

So when we talk about the 'theory' of global warming it's in the context of something that can be scientifically proven. Other scientific theories include relativity, light, gravity; even numbers, in science, are theoretical.

Here's a website that describes in more detail the meaning of Scientific Laws, Hypotheses and Theories http://wilstar.com/theories.htm

Answer 2

For example

Ho (The Null Hypothesis): Global warming is not influenced by humans.

Ha (The Alternate Hypothesis): Global warming is influenced by humans.

This hypothesis can be anything but generally one says it will happen and the other says it wont.

Similarly you can have a Hypothesis and A Hypothesis of difference which is the same thing (IE one doesn't change and the other does)

What happens is that you test variables based on these hypothesis and accept or reject the hypothesis. If you accept the null you reject the alternate or visa verse. An accepted hypothesis is a theory. A theory becomes more robust when many peers agree with the hypothesis or come to the same conclusion based on similar research.

Basically a theory is either a proven sum, formula or it is a generally accepted hypothesis.

Answer 3

You start out with a hypothesis. In the case of global warming, the hypothesis might be that humans have caused 80% of the global warming over the past 30 years. You then perform experiments to test your hypothesis.

A theory is something you form after you've done some tests. You see how the results compare to your hypothesis, then decide how accurate the hypothesis was. Once you're fairly certain of your results, you form a theory. For example, 80-90% of the warming over the past 30 years has been due to humans whereas 5-10% has been due to increased solar activity, and here is my evidence to support this theory.

Basically a hypothesis is how you think the experiments will result and a theory describes how the experiments did result. The theory can continue to evolve as new experiments are performed.

Answer 4

Let's see if I can summarize it to fit in this little box. 8^)

Over the earth's history there have been cycles of gradual heating and cooling. Its been heating for about the last 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age. During that ice age, glaciers covered most of North America and evidence of the glaciers can be seen everywhere--for instance they carved out the Great Lakes.

We can go to Antarctica and drill cores out of the ice. This ice has been undisturbed, in some places, since the ice age. We can look at the ice at different levels and tell a lot about the climate of those years. There are even tiny air bubbles trapped in the ice that show the makeup of the atmosphere in those times.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, about 200 years ago, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has steadily grown. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a by-product of burning fossil fuels. Literally billions of tons of carbon, which had been 'sequestered' in coal seams, trees, and underground pools of oil and natural gas are now in the atmosphere.

This CO2 causes 'the greenhouse effect'. Sunlight comes to the earth, gets turned into heat, and then is trapped in the atmosphere. Less of it radiates back out into space as used to. This is making the earth heat up. The difference is not much, a change in average temperature of three or four degrees makes quite a big difference.

Now the earth was warming anyway, but it's warming at a rate faster now than any time in the previous tens of thousands of years. And our use of fossil fuels, of course, is also the greatest in history, and is growing faster than any time in history. The six hottest years on record were among the last ten years. Exacerbating the problem is the destruction of rainforests around the world. Trees breathe in CO2 and breathe out oxygen, in fact that's where all the oxygen in the atmosphere comes from! Fewer trees mean more C02 and less oxygen.

This rise in the average temperature of the earth is causing changes to climate all over the world. Tornadoes and hurricanes and monsoons are more severe now. In the last 20 years the damage done by weather, and the number of people killed by weather have increased 400%. Rain patterns are changing, which could lead to terrible water shortages in a few years. The feeling is that crops could fail, leading to food emergencies. Plus ice in the Antarctic is melting which will raise sea level, inundating many highly-populated coastal areas, like New York City.

If you have a chance, watch Al Gore's film 'An Inconvenient Truth'. If you keep an open mind, he makes a very good case!

The solutions that have been suggested all have to do with cutting back on the use of fossil fuels. Of course the energy companies don't like that idea. They are spending a lot of money to buy politicians to protect them from this. So it is a political struggle as well as an environmental one.

Answer 5

The definition of Theory or Hypothesis do not change when referring to Global warming.

Main Entry:
hy·poth·e·sis
Pronunciation:
\hī-ˈpä-thə-səs\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural hy·poth·e·ses Listen to the pronunciation of hypotheses \-ˌsēz\
Etymology:
Greek, from hypotithenai to put under, suppose, from hypo- + tithenai to put — more at do
Date:
circa 1656

1 a: an assumption or concession made for the sake of argument b: an interpretation of a practical situation or condition taken as the ground for action
2: a tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical consequences3: the antecedent clause of a conditional statement

the·o·ry Listen to the pronunciation of theory
Pronunciation:
\ˈthē-ə-rē, ˈthir-ē\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural the·o·ries
Etymology:
Late Latin theoria, from Greek theōria, from theōrein
Date:
1592

1: the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another
2: abstract thought : speculation
3: the general or abstract principles of a body of fact, a science, or an art
4 a: a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action b: an ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances —often used in the phrase in theory
5: a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena
6 a: a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation
b: an unproved assumption : conjecture
c: a body of theorems presenting a concise systematic view of a subject

Go rent An Inconvenient Truth. it breaks global warming down. for the average joe. seriously to long to get in to.

Answer 6

theory is a hypothesis and a hypothesis is a hypothesis when hypothesis become a theory it is no longer ahyothesis and theory is not hypothesis so we call a hypothesis a hypothesis, when sciensitst give a hypothesis he does not give a theory and what follows hypothesis is another hypothesis and then comes the theory with another hypothesis followed by some more hypothesis and some more theories.
so it is proved that the concept of global warming is another hoax given by americans like man landing om moon.

Answer 7

Look for examples of the greenhouse effect in nature.

Venus has an atmosphere with huge amounts of grenhouse gases. If it had our atmosphere it would be a hotter place but livable by humans. With a greenhouse atmosphere it remains hot enough to melt lead (avg 872 F)

The greenhouse effect is real and proven.

Answer 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

global warming is real...and happening now.

example:

the north pole is melting at an alarming rate...we are finding dead polar bears from drowning. they drowned because polar bears swim from glacier to land...or from glacier to glacier. but with all the ice melting they swim thinking/remembering there was land/ice but they keep swimming and theres NOTHING but ocean...so they just drown from exhaustion. and whats causing all the ice to melt? global warming.

its natural for the earths temperature to go up and down (rotating around the sun stuff) but global warming has created a boost into making the earth hotter FASTER & rising.

Answer 9

I have no idea. I have my rose colored glasses on, I don't ever wanna face that global warming is gradually erupting. theres a 50/50 chance that either it's a rumor, or the state could be true, but it could also be a opinion (theory)
Now let's say that the warmingis taking place, than many people south over the years will be moving northward like crazy

Answer 10

its not a one min chat mam go to library and refer