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science is about 'why', while engineering is about 'how'.
by wangii 11y ago
science is about 'why', while engineering is about 'how'.
- ansgri 11y agoGenerally accepted philosophy of science is positivism, which states that 'why' in general is unanswerable and we should satisfy ourselves with descriptions. Therefore science is more about precise descriptions and their predictive power.
- wangii 11y agoit's exactly the reason scientists formulate hypotheses (and null hypotheses), and verify them with observable data. In short, hypotheses are the key instruments to investigate into unknown(and hopefully, consistent) world.
- mannykannot 11y agoScientists generally don't pay much attention to philosophy.
- efaref 11y agoDoes that mean mad science is about 'why not'? :)
- pluma 11y agoScience is descriptive, engineering is prescriptive. More verbosely: Science is about creating knowledge about out how things work, engineering is applying knowledge to make things work. Engineering is how you build a bridge. Science is how you find out how to tell whether that bridge will hold.