An experiment is just collecting data and analyzing it. Sure, you try to control for variables, but in some cases that's best done through statistical methods.

An experiment is just collecting data and analyzing it. Sure, you try to control for variables, but in some cases that's best done through statistical methods. The concept of an experiment as something you have to do, ie "pour two substances together into a beaker and see what happens," is just a way to collect data. Space probes have experiments for example, even though they're doing nothing but collecting data. The important part is whether your hypothesis explains the data from your experiment.