ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Hypothetico-deductive method

Okay kiddo, so let me tell you about a fancy-sounding method called the hypothetico-deductive method.

Imagine you have a big puzzle to solve, but instead of just guessing, you want to use a special way of figuring things out.

First, you come up with different ideas, or guesses, about what the puzzle might be like. These guesses are called hypotheses. For example, if you have a puzzle with different shapes, one hypothesis might be that there are more squares than circles.

Then, you test each hypothesis to see if it is true or false. You do this by making observations and conducting experiments. For our puzzle example, you could count how many squares and how many circles there are to see if your hypothesis is correct.

If your hypothesis turns out to be true after testing, you can use it to solve part of the puzzle. If it's false, you come up with a new hypothesis and start the testing process again.

This is where the "deductive" part comes in - you use logical reasoning to make conclusions based on the information you gather from testing your hypotheses.

By using the hypothetico-deductive method, you can solve problems and learn new things by making educated guesses and testing them until you find the right answer. Pretty cool, huh?