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difference between hypothesis and theory?

Hi
What is the difference between a hypothesis and a theory? Is there a simple way to tell the difference?
:smile:

A hypothesis is just a suggestion that someone puts forward to explain something - a theory is when the hypothesis has undergone rigorous scientific testing and is generally thought to be true.

Reply 2

john !!

Not true. It depends on the field but in my opinion they are interchangeable.

The distinction that "theory" is better than "hypothesis" doesn't make sense, you can have both good and bad theories/hypotheses. There is no critical level of plausibility which distinguishes between a theory and hypothesis.

Reply 3

dknt

tennantgirl

Hi
What is the difference between a hypothesis and a theory? Is there a simple way to tell the difference?
:smile:

I never really know :p:

Generally I think of it as: You often think of a hypothesis for the results of an experiment (e.g. My hypothesis is that the higher the concentration the faster the rate of reaction.) You then do the experiment and find out your hypothesis to be true. After which you then say, my hypothesis holds true. This can be explained because of Collision theory, which explains that a high concentrations leads to more collisions and therefore more reactions. I guess I'd say, usually, a hypothesis is generally an educated guess of various observations, while a theory is almost a summary or explanation to your hypothesis, but I may be completely wrong! :eek3:

Reply 4

Revd. Mike

Similar to dknt, I'd say (in laymans terms) that an hypothesis is an expectation for what you expect to happen in an experimental situation, theories are more explanative.