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Anonymous
Anonymous asked in Science & MathematicsOther - Science · 2 months ago

Do you know any scientific theories that were recently proven as fact?

12 Answers

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  • 2 months ago
    Favourite answer

    I do not know of any theory that is fact.  I know many theories that have been supported by later discoveries and facts, and may theories that explain facts and predict well, but not a single one that IS fact.

  • Anonymous
    1 month ago

    Gravity, round Earth etc. 

  • 1 month ago

    Yes. It's a fact that the government is printing huge amounts of money out of thin air backed by nothing. And it's a fact that a hamburger will soon cost $10. Also it's a fact that fuel will cost so much that you will have to walk to Wendy's. 

  • 2 months ago

    In science, a theory is never proven. There is always the possibility that new discoveries will contradict the theory. 

  • 2 months ago

    The Higgs boson.

  • 2 months ago

    Some species need no males to propagate.  The story of the crayfish in Europe that went maleless hit the news recently.  Check online or at Livescience. 

  • 2 months ago

    That's like asking if you've ever seen a car turn into a truck. They're not the same thing, and the one does not become the other.

  • 2 months ago

    If there is a "fact" involved in a scientific theory, it is a related mathematical "law".

    eg. Gravity is explained by a theory; the factual interactions of force vs mass and distance are defined by the equation F = G x M x m / R^2

    (G being the gravitational constant 6.674x10^-11, M & m masses, R distance between centres of mass).

    Likewise Ohms Law defines the factual relationship between current voltage and resistance in electrical or electronics engineering.

     

    But generally, anything accepted by science as a valid theory can be also be considered as a fact-based-on-the-present-state-of-knowledge; it has been thoroughly proven and no one has found any contradictory evidence.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    2 months ago

    A theory can, by definition, never be "proven". Nor would anyone want to demote the value of a theory to just that of a fact. Example, Darwin, during his time on the Beagle, observed many facts. He put them together and formulated the theory of natural selection. This theory has probably been tested more than any other theory in science and has never been disproven. That is as close as you can come to proof (outside of math and logic). In the words ascribed to Einstein "No amount of testing can prove me right but one experiment could prove me wrong."

  • ?
    Lv 7
    2 months ago

    No. That isn't really how we use those words in science but if we allow anything to be a fact and to be proven by observation we would say that by now, say,  Atomic Theory is a proven fact because it is frankly unthinkable for it not to be true. So are there more recent theories with the same level of confidence? As far as I'm aware, there is nothing recent that would be classed as a theory. Things like the detection of the Higgs particle and gravitational waves are not theories in themselves, they are details within otherwise well established older theories. And all the other theories ("proven" or not) that come to mind are old too. In fact it is the nature and definition of a theory to tie together several ideas so as to explain a general phenomenon. And really there are very few new phenomena at all, and even fewer that need a new theory to explain them. Usually they are just explained - or not.

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