Mistakes Made In In Praise Of Careful Science

I think that mistakes are not key in making discoveries. “Thomas Edison said that inventing was 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” as stated in “In Praise of Careful Science.” Inventing is hard, it needs a lot of dedication and work. Few people are lucky to be motivated by mistakes, like Percy Spencer and Isaac Newton. Sometimes mistakes may start the process of making a discovery, but to make a discovery you need careful experiments and study, and those take time and work. An example of a mistake that started the process of making a discovery was in 1947. A young man in his early 20’s named Peter Spencer was going to discover the microwave. Peter Spencer worked at Raytheon and the scientist there discovered the Magnetron through hard work. The Magnetron generated microwaves, microwaves were consisted of two different waves: magnetic and electric. One day while the Magnetron was on, Spencer noticed that the bar of chocolate in his pants had melted. Spencer was the first person to make a connection that the Magnetron could cook food. Spencer mistake of chocolate in his pants gave him the idea of the microwave. After 20 years of hard work, Raytheon perfected the microwave. The mistake that Spencer made started the process of making a discovery, but the 20 years of hard work made the discovery …show more content…
All of these various trials give data that is essential to the end result. Scientist take many years to test and get the results from the experiments. Usually discoveries aren’t made in a day, they take years. John Denker compares slow discoveries to a rock star. “I am reminded of the rock star who said it took him 15 years to become an overnight sensation.” It took a rock star 15 years to become famous, it’s the same way with