what's the difference between observation and inference
When you do something with that observation, like draw a conclusion or offer an explanation or decide that a chemical reaction occurred, then you are making an inference. The inference may or may not be a correct one. Correctness is not what makes the difference between observation and inference. An observation is the awareness of some condition; inference is the result of a mental process which attempts to explain or catalog or speculate about that observation.
An observation is what you see. An inference is the conclusion you  draw from what you saw.   A common analogy;   You may be doing a chemistry experiment and when youâ¦ put two  substances together, the mixture bubbles and brown gas comes off.  You know that brown gas indicates nitrogen dioxide gas. The observation would be Mixture bubbles and brown gas is given off. The inference would be A gas is produced, nitrogen dioxide. Observations are things you use your five senses to determine - how something smells, looks, tastes, sounds, or feels.