Читать книгу Planning and Executing Credible Experiments - Robert J. Moffat - Страница 62

When the urge strikes to run a new experiment, don't fight it. If the urge has struck you, then talk to yourself – takes notes on what you think you should do, what you think the rig might look like, or what you think might happen. Let this process run until you feel you have really expressed yourself. Then stop and ask, “What question am I trying to answer?”

If the urge has struck someone else, and you are that person’s sounding board, listen actively and take notes. Let the person keep talking until he or she runs dry – then the individual knows you have really heard the idea, entirely. Then ask, “If you do this, and you are successful, what question will you have answered?”

I think you must honor the enthusiastic urge by letting it have center stage until it plays itself out. I simply ask that the speaker (myself or my student) get reasonably specific right away. This is not intended in a critical sense but simply to detail the plan. I take notes about the proposed apparatus, the test conditions, and the proposed data, trying to absorb the real intent of the idea. I keep at this until the speaker (myself or the student) runs out of things to say about what to do.

At this point everything that could be said has been said. The pressure is off. We can get to work.