Well Tony - Steve appears to have leaped off that fence.

[pctower]

Yep, there are scientific methods(plural), not just a scientific method.

I respectfully disagree. There are four basic steps to the scientific method:

1. Observe something.

2. Come up with an explanation (an hypothesis) to explain what you observed.

3. Use this explanation to predict new things you would see if the explanation is correct.

4. Put the explanation to the test by finding out if the things you predict will actually occur (through empirical testing).

You can wander in and out of those steps, as I tried to describe in my prior post. But sooner or latter you've got to pass the ultimate test - you must make it past step 4.

See:

http://teacher.nsrl.rochester.edu/ph...AppendixE.html

and

http://phyun5.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics...00000000000000