Experiment, Invention, Discovery | Vocabulary
About this video
In his vocabulab, David teaches experiment (trying out a new idea to see if it works), invention (a new thing or idea someone comes up with) and discovery (finding or learning something for the first time). He explains that the prefix dis- means not or the opposite of, so discover is the opposite of cover.
You'll be able to
- explain what experiment, invention and discovery mean.
- explain how dis- changes a word to its opposite.
- tell the difference between inventing something and discovering something.
Key words
- experiment
- Trying out a new idea to see if it works; it can be a noun or a verb.
- invention
- A new thing or idea that someone comes up with.
- inventor
- A person who comes up with new things or ideas.
- discovery
- Finding or learning something for the first time.
- dis-
- A word part that means not, or the opposite of.
Transcript
- [David] Ah, wordsmiths, hello. Welcome to Khan Academy, home of my beloved vocabulary laboratory, the vocabulab for short. Here is a word I just created: (liquid bubbling) plumtigenous. It's very new. I don't know what it means yet. But that's sort of the joy of the vocabulab, wordsmiths.
We experiment, we make inventions, we goof around, all in the service of discovery. And those, as it happens, are our words today. I'll go through each of them and how they're used. First, experiment. Experiment. It's a noun. It means the act of trying out a new idea to see if it works.
Often you'll see it in the context of science. It's also a verb. To experiment means to try out a new idea to see if it works. Second word, invention. Invention. Another noun. It's a new thing or idea that someone comes up with. Oh, there's also inventor, which is a person who comes up with those new things or ideas.
They've invented them. And finally, discovery. Discovery. Yet another noun. It means the act of finding or learning something for the first time. You'll see it in a verb form as discover, to find or learn something for the first time. The word origin I wanna focus on today is the dis in discovery.
It means not, the opposite of. To discover something is the opposite of covering it, to uncover it, to blow away the cobwebs, or dig something out of the ground, or see something no person has ever seen before. We can see this in other words. You like something, you approve of it, and the opposite, you dislike something, you disapprove.
Adding dis changes that word to its opposite. So to with cover and discover. You cover things up to hide them and you find or reveal things by discovering them. Let's use these words in some sentences. "My newest invention turns gold into into crabs. "It's not very popular."
This is a thing I came up with, an invention that I made. I'm its inventor. You're welcome. (chuckles) I probably should have made the machine go the other way, huh, crabs into gold? Well, I'll invent that one next. "If this experiment works," Dr. Bunting declared, "I'll be able to breathe underwater!"
She's trying out a new idea to see if it works. She's doing an experiment. She's experimenting. I do not think her experiment will work. But you know what? That's why I'm stuck here with the golden crab machine. So growth mindset, David. We'll figure it out yet.
Last sentence, "Horatio is a great explorer, "but he's most famous for his 1995 discovery "of the donut hole." I love the idea that there's just some valley somewhere that Horatio discovered where all the inside bits of the donuts go. He was the guy who found it.
It's his discovery. I can't wait to see what you discover on your word journey, wordsmiths. In the meantime, I'm going to keep on working here in the vocabulab learning new words and seeing whether or not I can invent new ones myself. I'll figure you out yet, plumtigenous.
Full of plums? Like a plum? We'll get there. You can learn anything. David out.
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