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Wegener and Continental Drift

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Using what you learned about plate tectonics, Alfred Wegener, and the basics of scientific investigation from the previous units discuss the following:

Did Wegener reveal his theory of continental drift too soon? For the sake of scientific investigation, how is revealing an explanation for a process early both risky and sometimes necessary?

Apart from lacking an explanation for how the continents could move across the surface of the Earth, Wegener's research was met by skepticism for other reasons. How can a scientist overcome skepticism? What features of the scientific method can help prevent a scientist from being labeled a crackpot?

If Alfred Wegener were alive today, and had access to the technology and data we have now, share a form of evidence that he could have added to his theory or would have changed his theory.

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Solution Summary

The expert determines what Wegener reveals about the theory of continental drift.

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Did Wegener reveal his theory of continental drift too soon?

Anytime a new theory is promulgated, they do not always arrive with 100% proof and certainty without having all the proverbial t's crossed and I's dotted. Therefore, you could posit that Wegener revealed his theory too soon because he did not have a plausible explanation for HOW the drift between the continents. Therefore, his theory could easily be dismissed by the prevailing science of the time, which was predicated upon 70 years. Wegener did not have a credible explanation for the mechanism that caused the drift and the mechanisms that he offered were easily debunked by those in geology and other fields.

For the sake of scientific investigation, how is revealing an explanation for a process early both risky and sometimes necessary?

Revealing a theory prematurely can result in ostracizing from those authorities in fields of knowledge that pertain to the theoretical framework ...

Solution provided by:
Raushaun Rigsby, MSc
Education
  • Associates of Arts , Lone Star Community College
  • Bachelor of Science , Sam Houston State University
  • Masters of Science, Kaplan University
  • Masters of Science , Kaplan University
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