What is the difference between fact, theory and hypothesis?
To most people, a theory is just a vague and fuzzy sort of fact, and the term “hypothesis” is often used as a fancy word for a “guess”. However, to the true scientist, a theory is a conceptual framework that explains why things are the way they are (observations), and also predicts new explanations and observations. For instance, imagine you are watching the sun rise. This is an observation which is explained by the theory of gravity proposed by Newton. This theory explains many phenomena such as the path followed by the sun as it moves across the sky, and the phases of the moon and the tides. Today, you can use this theory to perform amazing calculations, and to predict the actual position of the sun, the phases of the moon, and even guide a space shuttle across the Solar System!
