In elementary school there was a letter we read for English ending with something like the title. The explanation being, if they had tried to revise the letter, they would remember more things to add. So, now being swamped by analytical chemistry, it's the perfect time to start blogging again, write? (Ha!)
Learn with me:
For a while I've griped about the idea that in lab courses, the students aren't really the ones doing experiments. The professor is doing a experiment to assay your talent for lab work and then your skill for writing reports. The students aren't doing anything which hasn't been done perhaps hundreds of thousands of times or more.
This thought floated through my head again, and I thought, "maybe it's still valid linguistically, either the definition is just more broad than my sense of it or etymological it is justified.
From http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=experiment
"experiment (n.)
mid-14c., "action of observing or testing; an observation, test, or trial;" also "piece of evidence or empirical proof; feat of magic or sorcery," from Old French esperment "practical knowledge, cunning; enchantment, magic spell; trial, proof, example; lesson, sign, indication," from Latin experimentum "a trial, test, proof, experiment," noun of action from experiri "to test, try" (see experience (n.)).
experiment (v.)
late 15c., from experiment (n.). Intransitive sense by 1787. Related: Experimented; experimenting."
From http://www.dictionary.com/browse/experiment
"experiment
[noun ik-sper-uh-muh nt; verb ek-sper-uh-ment]
noun
1.
a test, trial, or tentative procedure; an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown or of tearing a principle, supposition, etc.:
a chemical experiment; a teaching experiment; an experiment in living.
2.
the conducting of such operations; experimentation:
a product that is the result of long experiment.
3.
Obsolete. experience.
verb (used without object)
4.
to try or test, especially in order to discover or prove something:
to experiment with a new procedure."
I'm going to say that, both by a broader definition and etymologically, yes, it is valid. I was going to bold the relevant pieces, but many pieces were, and it'd just be a mess.
