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TABLE OF CONTENTS

6 Scientific Methods 65
6.1 Chapter Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.2 Early Forms of Scientific Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.3 Concept of Scientific Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.4 Early Human Attempts to Understand Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

6.5 Ancient Civilizations and Scientific Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.5.1 Ancient Egyptian Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.5.2 Mesopotamian Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6.5.3 Ancient Greek Scientific Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

6.6 Observation as a Scientific Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6.7 Trial and Error in Early Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.8 Logical Reasoning in Early Scientific Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.9 Recording and Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

6.10 Early Scientific Methods and Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.11 Limitations of Early Scientific Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.12 Transition Toward Modern Scientific Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.13 Importance for Computing Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

6.14 Applications in Modern Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.15 Modern Scientific Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.16 Definition of Modern Scientific Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.17 Key Characteristics of Modern Scientific Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.17.1 Objectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

6.17.2 Systematic Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.17.3 Empirical Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.17.4 Reproducibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

6.18 Steps of the Modern Scientific Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.18.1 Problem Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.18.2 Observation and Background Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.18.3 Formulation of Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.18.4 Experimentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

6.18.5 Data Collection and Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.18.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.18.7 Documentation and Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.19 Quantitative vs Qualitative Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

6.20 Role of Experimentation in Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.21 Validation and Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.22 Ethical Considerations in Modern Scientific Research . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.23 Scientific Methodology in Data Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

6.24 Importance for Computer Science Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

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