Final answer:
The goal of a hypothesis-driven experiment is to test, not prove, the hypothesis. Through testing, a hypothesis can be supported or disproven but never fully proven due to the possibility of future contradictory evidence.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement 'The goal of a hypothesis-driven experiment is to prove the hypothesis' is false. The actual goal is to test the hypothesis. An experiment may support a hypothesis by generating evidence that aligns with its predictions, or it may disprove it by showing evidence to the contrary. Even when a hypothesis is supported by experimental results, it is not proven to be absolutely true, as further experiments may provide contradictory evidence. Therefore, a hypothesis can never be completely proven, but can only be supported to the extent that there is no contradictory evidence against it.
A hypothesis must be both testable and falsifiable. Testability ensures that we can create an experiment to examine the hypothesis, while falsifiability means that it can be potentially disproven by the evidence. In science, hypotheses serve as educated guesses which guide the testing and refining process to better understand the natural world.