The Importance of Scientific Experiments
科学实验的重要性
William Stanley Jevons
威廉·斯坦利·杰文斯
The rise of modern science may perhaps be considered to date as far back as the time of Roger Bacon, the wonderful monk1 and philosopher of Oxford, who lived between the years 1214 and 1292. He was probably the first, in the mid- tide ages to assert3 that we must learn science by observing and experimenting on the things around us, and he himself made many remarkable4 discoveries. Galileo, however, who lived more than 800 years later (1564 to 1642), was the greatest of several great men, who in Italy, France, Germany, or Eng- land, began by degrees to show how many important truths could be discovered by well-directed observation. Before the time of Galileo, learned men believed that large bodies fall more rapidly towards the earth than small ones, because Aristotle said so. But Galileo, going to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, let fall two unequal stones, and proved to some friends, whom he had brought there to see his experiment, that Aristotle was in error. It is Galileo’s spirit of going direct to Nature, and verifying our opinions and theories by experiment, that. has led to all the great discoveries of modern science.
现代科学的兴起也许要追溯到罗杰·培根的时代.罗杰·培根是牛津杰出的僧侣和哲学家，他出生于1214年，死于 1292年。他可能是中世纪第一个提出我们必须通过对周围事物进行观察和实验来学习科学的人，他自己也有许多卓越的发现。然而，生活在三百多年之后的伽利略（1564-1642），却是好几个伟大人物中最伟大的一个，这些人在意大利，法国，德国和英国开始逐步使人们看到许多重要的真理是可以通过掌握得当的观察去发现的。在伽利略之前，学者们相信大的物体掉到地面比小的物体要快，因为亚理斯多德是这样说的。可是，伽利略登上比萨斜塔的顶端，让两块体积不相等的石头同时落地，从而向一些他带去观看实验的朋友们证明，亚理斯多德错了。正是伽利略的这种直接到大自然中去通过实验来证明我们的判断和理论的精神，导致了所有现代科学的伟大发现。
