You may go outside and see whether what you are wearing is warm or cool enough. Scientists use an orderly approach to learn new information and to solve problems. The methods scientists may use include observing to form a hypothesis, testing a hypothesis, separating and controlling variables, and interpreting data. Observing You observe all the time. Scientists try to observe as much as possible about the things and events they study so they know that what they say about their observations is reliable.
Some observations describe something using only words.
These observations are called qualitative observations. Other observations describe how much of something there is. These are quantitative observations and use numbers, as well as words, in the description. Tools or equipment are used to measure the characteristic being described. Quantitative observations of a dog might include a mass of 45 kg, a height of 76 cm, ear length of 14 cm, and an age of 283 days.