Question

In your own words, explain how multiple approaches to a scientific investigation can be used to obtain the same result. Provide at least one example in your answer.

Answer 1

Induction involves using many individual observations to make a generalization.

This approach can be considered to be moving "from the bottom up".

As in:

Item X has characteristic W.

Item Y has characteristic W.

Item Z has characteristic W.

Therefore, all items in the same class as X, Y, and Z should also have characteristic W.

The Risk of the Inductive Leap

One could make many individual observations:

This bee stung me. It is a hymenopteran.

This wasp stung me. It is a hymenopteran.

This fire ant stung me. It is a hymenopteran.

And come to a general conclusion:

Therefore, all hymenopterans have stingers.

But you might already see a potential pitfall here.

Answer 2

multiple approaches let you come at things from different angles to see if you still wind up getting the same answer.