Can any theory be tested?

Of course a theory can be tested!

But "tested" does not mean "proved." But that's OK.

The mistake you are making is thinking that the world is absolutely black-or-white ... true or false. In other words, if something is not 100% "proven" that this is equivalent to something being 0% "proven". That's silly.

For example, just how sure are you that your father really is your natural father? Sure your mother says he is, and you trust her ... that's *evidence*, but that's not 100% "proof." You may have his eyes and look just like him ... that's *evidence*, but that's still not 100% "proof." You may go get a paternity test and your DNA may produce *evidence* that the odds are 99.9999999% that he is indeed your father ... but that's still not quite 100% "proof."

So do you therefore start treating him like a stranger because you're not 100% sure he's your father? Of course not. You have a reasonably high confidence that he is your father, and so you accept him as such.

Theories are exactly the same. Nothing can ever be 100% proven ... but that does not mean that something cannot be accepted with an extremely *high* level of confidence.

It is my understanding that a theory is just an idea until it has been tested and verified, then it moves to jurisdiction of fact. Just as the Theory of evolution, it has a lot of evidence supporting this idea, but there is no real way to test the supposition. We can not find any single cell organisms today and force them to evolve into human beings.

We can test parts of the theory and as we build support for the various parts, the Idea is accepted as fact until someone comes along and finds a way to prove otherwise.

That is why we separate theories and facts, we know that light travels at the speed of 186,000 miles a second, that is a fact. But we are unsure if it travels as waves or particles since it has the properties of both. So it what light is, is a theory.

But what makes a theory different form just plain speculation and supposition, is that theory have been supported by other observations or test of at least parts of the underlying claim.

Again, for Evolution we have fossil records that support the belief that we evolved from lower life forms. And their is a lot of evidence to support this allegation.

So what it comes down to you start with a hypothesis, you then come up with tests or evidence to support this hypothesis, when the evidence mounts it becomes a theory. When it is indisputable it becomes a fact.

This is my take on it from what I remember in my science classes.

But even facts have been know to change when the evidence refutes current understanding. remember these facts The Earth is Flat and the sun revolves around it. Until we had the evidence and the understanding to refute this, this was common belief and held as gospel.

Now we know better, who is to say what 'Facts' we know now will be refuted as we learn more about our universe.

I leave you with last year Pluto was a Planet. Today the definition of Planet has changed, so now it is not.

A theory is useless if it can't be tested. People often misunderstand what scientists mean by theory - it's not some idea we just thought up; it's a well-supported (by facts and laws and observations) idea that not only can predict what will happen but also explains WHY it happens. Newton's laws of gravity work, and the theory of gravitation explains why. Evolution happens, and the theory of evolution explains how and why it works.

Every theory in science is testable and falsifiable. If it isn't, it's not science. That doesn't mean we have to recreate something happeneing in order to find out if it did - we just need to predict what the results would be if it happened and see if they occurred. That's how we test things like the big bang theory. We have many observations that are best explained by the universe beginning in a singularity and expanding from there.

Well, that is how we teach people to understand the laws of nature. A good science teacher don't just say this is the way it is, like it or not. When learning new science theory a good teacher will go through the processes like hypothesis, data analysis, scientific method etc etc all that goes in to a theory.

Then on a test a teacher might ask a question, in essay form, something like challenge the known theory of gravity. How would you go about challenging the Theory of Gravity? Well you test the theory. You proposed other hypothesis. Come up withe data to support your hypothesis. Prove it with statistical analysis.

Rachel D, you should not offer answers on subjects you dont know anything about. The Big Bang Theory makes many predictions which can, and have been tested. ex) cosmic background radiation, red shift in galaxies. The standard for the difference between what is theory and what is wild guess is wether it can be tested.

Any Theory can be tested. For something to be a Theory it must first be proven by testing. If The testing does not duplicate or substantiate the theory it is not a theory.

No, not all theories can be tested. For example, there is no way to test the big bang theory.

All theories can be tested. Thats how we come up with new ones.

yes