Final answer:
Scientists conduct experiments to explain what happened and why things didn't go as expected. The results of experiments can be surprising and may lead to the need for alternative hypotheses. Scientists test their hypotheses through experiments, analyzing the results and constantly questioning their conclusions.
Step-by-step explanation:
Scientists need to do experiments to explain what happened and why things didn't go as expected. The results of an experiment may sometimes surprise scientists. For example, they might have predicted that a certain disinfectant would be effective, but it turns out that it's not. In other cases, a natural product tested might be more effective than predicted. Scientists have a tendency to overlook unexpected findings that disagree with their initial assumptions, but they learn from these surprises and develop alternative hypotheses.
When scientists conduct experiments, they are testing their hypotheses. If the experiment's results agree with the predictions of the hypothesis, it doesn't necessarily prove that the hypothesis is absolutely correct. More experiments need to be conducted to validate the hypothesis. However, if the experimental results are inconsistent with the hypothesis, the scientist must discard it and come up with an alternative explanation. The more experiments that support a hypothesis, the more likely it is to be accepted as a useful description of nature.
Experiments are necessary because the natural universe is not always obvious. While some concepts like gravity may seem obvious, the composition of the universe with 115 fundamental chemical building blocks called elements is not. Scientists test hypotheses through experiments to gather evidence and learn about the phenomenon they are studying. They analyze the results, draw conclusions, and constantly question their own findings to find the truth.