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A scientific theory does not necessarily have to have strong experimental support or accepted by the scientific community. Scientists often refer to untested theories and competing theories. Theories can be extremely well-confirmed, such as conservation of energy, or speculative, such as [[String Theory]].  

A scientific theory does not necessarily have to have strong experimental support or accepted by the scientific community. Scientists often refer to untested theories and competing theories. Theories can be extremely well-confirmed, such as conservation of energy, or speculative, such as [[String Theory]].  

No scientific theory can be said to be absolutely true, but a successful theory is most consistent with the actual behavior of the universe.  When a phenomenon is discovered that is inconsistent with the prevailing theory, the theory is either revised or thrown out entirely.  An example of this is  Newtonian mechanics--while Newtons 3 laws of motion provide extremely accurate descriptions/predictions of the behavior of medium-sized objects at low speeds, they are inconsistent with the behavior of very large, very fast, or very small objects.  Newtonian mechanics has been shown to be a limiting case of general relativity (in the limit where velocity goes to 0) and quantum mechanics (in the limit where Planck's constant goes to 0, essentially the limit of large objects).  Usually a theory which is inconsistent with some experimental evidence is not completely falsified; it is instead shown to be a simplified version of a more complete theory.

No scientific theory can be said to be absolutely true, but a successful theory is most consistent with the actual behavior of the universe.  When a phenomenon is discovered that is inconsistent with the prevailing theory, the theory is either revised or thrown out entirely.  An example of this is  [[Newtonian mechanics]]--while Newton's 3 laws of motion provide extremely accurate descriptions/predictions of the behavior of medium-sized objects at low speeds, they are inconsistent with the behavior of very large, very fast, or very small objects.  Newtonian mechanics has been shown to be a limiting case of [[general relativity]] (in the limit where velocity goes to 0) and [[quantum mechanics]] (in the limit where [[Planck's constant]] goes to 0, essentially the limit of large objects).  Usually a theory which is inconsistent with some experimental evidence is not completely falsified; it is instead shown to be a simplified version of a more complete theory.

== Common usage ==  

== Common usage ==