Today, not only in scientific, but also in colloquial speech, one can often hear the word “hypothetically”. What is hidden in this token?
The meaning and origin of the word
The semantics of the word is associated with the noun “hypothesis”, which in translation from the ancient Greek language means “assumption”. The term belongs to the world of science. This is a scientific conjecture, an assumption that has not yet been proven and verified. As a result of the experiment, the hypothesis can be proved and go into the category of facts or be refuted. The adjective “hypothetical” derived from this word means “based on a hypothesis”. The meaning of the word “hypothetically” is supposedly permissible.
Assumptions that have become true
Let’s take a look at what facts could once be considered hypothetically. What is the Universe from the point of view of cosmology? It is unchangeable, eternal. To prove this hypothesis, Einstein needed to introduce a cosmological constant in the theory of relativity. Astronomers over time confirmed the hunch of a brilliant scientist.
The proof of Fermat's famous theorem appeared only in 1994, mathematicians searched for it for three centuries. Until 2002, Poincare’s assumption that any three-dimensional object with the properties of a sphere must be accurate to a sphere deformation could be said to be a hypothetical question, but the Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman proved this assumption, and it passed from a category of guesses to a category indisputable facts. Some problems that have long existed in science are still awaiting confirmation. The allegations contained in them, while considering hypothetically.
