looking for a good definition of 'theory'?
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A well-substantiated explanation of some phenomenon; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena; "theories can incorporate facts and laws and tested hypotheses".
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A hypothesis is an educated guess about a scientific problem.  A theory is what you get when your hypothesis has evidence to back it up.
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It's stated as a "theory" becuase that is a scientific way of saying things.  You believe in the THEORY of aerodynamics if you've ever been on a plane, but that too is worded as a theory.  Ditto the THEORY of gravity.\n\nThis article, "Evolution is a Fact and a Theory" is good\nhttp://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-fact.html
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THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE.\nDeming emphasized that knowledge is not possible without theory, and experience alone does not establish a theory. Experience only describes—it cannot be tested or validated—and alone is no help for management. Theory, on the other hand, shows a cause-and-effect relationship that can be used for prediction. There is a lesson here for the widespread benchmarking practices: copying only an example of success, without understanding it in theory, may not lead to success, but could lead to disaster.
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The field of study which attempts to describe and understand the nature of the universe in whole or part.\n\nHow did I know? I asked a scientist.
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any of various methods, theories that have no scientific basis. such as astrology, psychokinesis, or clairvoyance,
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You should look into the definition of scientifc theory and laws. Plate tectonics will never become a Law because that terminology does not apply to Plate Tectonics. The fact that it is known as a theory does not mean it is still hypothetical or based on conjecture. This is the common meaning of the word theory (that so confuses the creationists) but is not the scientific meaning of the word. Plate tectonics is well established and well tested. There are some causative parts that are still not completely understood because we have not been able to obsverve the interaction between the mantle and asthenosphere, but that fits well into the definition of a scientific theory. In many fields of science a THEORY is the highest level of certainty and the term LAW does not apply. \n\nI quote:\nIn science, a body of descriptions of knowledge is usually only called a theory once it has a firm empirical basis, i.e., it\n\n   1. is consistent with pre-existing theory to the extent that the pre-existing theory was experimentally verified, though it will often show pre-existing theory to be wrong in an exact sense,\n   2. is supported by many strands of evidence rather than a single foundation, ensuring that it probably is a good approximation if not totally correct,\n   3. makes predictions that might someday be used to disprove the theory,\n   4. is tentative, correctable and dynamic, in allowing for changes to be made as new data is discovered, rather than asserting certainty, and\n   5. is the most parsimonious explanation, sparing in proposed entities or explanations, commonly referred to as passing Ockham's razor.\n\nThis is true of such established theories as special and general relativity, quantum mechanics, plate tectonics, evolution, etc. Theories considered scientific meet at least most, but ideally all, of the above criteria. The fewer which are matched, the less scientific it is; those that meet only several or none at all, cannot be said to be scientific in any meaningful sense of the word.\n\nPhysical laws are distinguished from scientific theories by their simplicity. Scientific theories are generally more complex than laws; they have many component parts, and are more likely to be changed as the body of available experimental data and analysis develops. This is because a physical law is a summary observation of strictly empirical matters, whereas a theory is a model that accounts for the observation, explains it, relates it to other observations, and makes testable predictions based upon it. Simply stated, while a law notes that something happens, a theory attempts to deal with why or how it happens."
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Theory. Because application means that the theory is'applied to' something which we write and that is application. 'Applied to'.\nBest of luck for you projct. It is a good topic.\nBye
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All (good) science is based on theoretical notions thought up by someone carefully observing the universe around them, proposing an explanation, and then testing to see if it can be used to predict a likely outcome.  If it predicts the likely outcome all the time, it becomes a Law.  In physics, Gravity is already a Law, but String Theory is still a theory.  A theory is not pseudoscience unless most thoughtful people can see holes in it.  Theoretical thought, even "on the margins of science" is essential for progress.\n\nDoubtless there were many sensible folk who thought the Wright brothers were lunatics, but they had the math & mechanical skills to prove their theoretical notion that a machine could make a man able to fly.\n\nNow go to your workshop and think!
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A law is a proved theory\nA theory is an idea of how it worx and\nA principle is the rules that regulate that theory.
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Try this website, maybe it can answers some of your questions:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=interpretive+theory
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I'll just cite the theories I know (I'M SURE OF THIS ANSWERS BUT THE NEXT ONES>>> 50/50.. ^^\nWave theory of light\nParticle Theory of light\nElectromagnetic theory \nQuantum theory \nPhotoelectric Theory\n\n\nOr you can check this out at www.wikipedia.org\nbut i'm not really sure if it is.. but i think... ^^ \nOverview\nA physical theory is a model of physical events and cannot be proven from basic axioms. A physical theory is different from a mathematical theorem; physical theories model reality and are a statement of what has been observed, and provide predictions of new observations.\n\nHence, more is involved than the application, or even invention, of mathematics — to wit: concept formation. Archimedes realized that one could determine the volume of an irregularly-shaped object by immersing it in a liquid, and that a ship floats by displacing its weight of water. Pythagoras understood the relation between the length of a vibrating string and the musical tone it produces, and how to calculate the length of a rectangle's diagonal. Other examples include entropy as a measure of the uncertainty regarding the positions and motions of unseen particles and the quantum mechanical idea that (action and) energy are not continuously variable. Sometimes it is the vision of mathematicians which provides the clue; e.g., the notion, due to Riemann and others, that space itself might be curved.\n\nTheoretical advances often consist in setting aside old paradigms\n\nHeat is a fluid called caloric. \nBurning consists of evolving phlogiston. \nAstronomical bodies revolve around the Earth. \noften replacing them with new ones\n\nPhysical objects are made up of molecules and atoms. \nDiseases can be caused by unseen microbes. \nEnergy is exchanged in discrete packets called quanta. \nPhysical theories become accepted if they are able to make correct predictions and avoid incorrect ones. All else being equal, simple theories tend to be accepted over theories which are complex. (But conceptual simplicity may mean mathematical complexity.) They are also more likely to be accepted if they connect a wide range of phenomena. Testing the consequences of a theory is part of the scientific method.\n\nPhysical theories can be grouped into three categories: mainstream theories, proposed theories and fringe theories.\n\n[edit]\nHistory\nFor more details on this topic, see History of physics. \nTheoretical physics began, at least 2,300 years ago under the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, and continued by Plato; and Aristotle, whose views held sway for a millennium. In medieval times, during the rise of the universities, the only acknowledged intellectual disciplines were theology, mathematics, medicine, and law. As the concepts of matter, energy, space, time and causality slowly began to acquire the form we know today, other sciences spun off from the rubric of natural philosophy. During the Renaissance, the modern concept of experimental science, the counterpoint to theory, began with Francis Bacon. The modern era of theory began perhaps with the Copernican paradigm shift in astronomy, soon followed by the actual planetary orbits due to Kepler, based on the meticulous observations of Tycho.\n\nThe great push toward the modern concept of explanation started with Galileo, one of the few physicists who was both a consummate theoretician and a great experimentalist. The analytic geometry and mechanics of Descartes was incorporated into the calculus and mechanics of Isaac Newton, another theoretician/experimentalist of the highest order. Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Leonhard Euler and William Rowan Hamilton would extend the theory of classical mechanics considerably. Each of these individuals picked up the interactive intertwining of mathematics and physics begun two millennia earlier by Pythagoras.\n\nAmong the great conceptual achievements of the 19th and 20th centuries were the consolidation of the idea of energy by the inclusion of h
192507
Are you ready for this?  This is a branch of philosophy called epistemology, or the the study of knowledge.  In order to answer how you really know what you think you know, you first have to know what knowledge is.  That isn't easy either.  In fact, how do I even know I exist and that I'm sitting at this computer typing and am not simply a brain in the jar in some mad scientists laboratory?  (Metaphysics)
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it means something written in books.\na lot of things r written in books but untill u try them in real they are called theoritical.once u try them in real and see the results which match from what u have read in theory(book) then they are called practical.\nthis formula apply to life also.\nu have heard than never do bad to anybody else something bad would happen to u.\nit will remain theorytical untill sometime in life something bad happens to u and u can relate that bad incident to something bad u had done in past.then it will become practical for u.
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Minor theories are challenged and disproved every day. Major theories tend to last longer (that's what makes them major theories).
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You don't understand the definition of a theory and a fact do you? I presume, judging from your words, you believe that a theory is essentially a conjecture, a guess, that sort of thing? Well, you thought wrong.\n\nScientific definitions and mathematical definitions are far different and more precise than everyday language. For us, a salt is that white stuff that preserves foods and gives the food, obviously enough, that "salty" taste. In chemistry, a salt is any ionic compound formed by anions and cations so that the net charge of the compound is neutral. \n\nIn that same manner, a theory is not just a "guess." Theories and facts are not rungs on a ladder of credibility - they complement each other. Theories are really models for explaining a series of natural phenomena, backed by strong evidence. Theories explain facts. Again, they are not "guesses."\n\nAnd, in that manner, evolution is both a theory AND a fact. There is the theory of evolution, which explains it, and there is the fact of evolution. This is similar to the theory of gravity; how the theory explains the fact that gravity exist, and the reason why apples fall down and hit us on the head. \n\nThere is plenty of evidence to support evolution and it is a strongly-backed theory. Also, all theories are incomplete and subject to revision. That applies to all theories - not just evolution. The atomic theory expanded over the last century as the Bohr model evolved into the current electron-cloud model. \n\nAlso, another misconception to clear up - there is nothing proven in science; there is just evidence to support it.\n\nAlso, people who criticize evolution often forget that it doesn't deal with the origin of life, it is NOT random, that the concept of uniformitarianism in science make evolution valid, etc.\n\nI suggest you read a little.
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You state the problem or factor (based on your observations) that you wish to assess. (e.g. "65% of the employed persons in this community commute in single-passenger vehicles rather than using public transportation.")\n\nYou then propose (design) your theory or method for testing or evaluating your chosen assertion.\n\nYou conduct a study to confirm or deny the validity of your original assertion.\n\nYour orginal statement is your hypothesis.\n\nHypothesis: "A supposition; a proposition or principle which is\n      supposed or taken for granted, in order to draw a\n      conclusion or inference for proof of the point in\n      question; something not proved, but assumed for the\n      purpose of argument, or to account for a fact or an\n      occurrence; as, the hypothesis that head winds detain an\n      overdue steamer."\n      [1913 Webster]