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il s'agit de l'hypothèse à tester

English translation: this is the hypothesis that needs to be tested

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:il s'agit de l'hypothèse à tester
English translation:this is the hypothesis that needs to be tested
Entered by: Bertrand Leduc

08:25 May 30, 2012
French to English translations [PRO]
Science - Physics / Definition of stimulated emission
French term or phrase: il s'agit de l'hypothèse à tester
Everything was fine until I got to the item in question. Of course it's not a problem to translate, but I just don't see what it's doing there - there suddenly comes parachuting down the idea that the hypothesis is being tested.
Any ideas?

Émission stimulée

La vision classique de l'émission stimulée consiste à dire que l'électron peut absorber un photon (avec une probabilité associée au coefficient d'absorption d'Einstein).
Il s'ensuit deux possibilités :

Soit l'électron réémet de façon spontanée et isotrope un photon.
On parle alors d'émission spontanée qui est se produit avec une certaine probabilité associée à une constante de temps.
Comme l'électron est libre (non lié à un atome), l'absorption du photon est couplée à un continuum d'énergie dans l'espace des phases de l'électron.
Il s'ensuit que l'électron peut éventuellement réémettre un photon dans un état différent du photon incident.

Soit l'électron entre en collision avec un autre photon qui provoque l'émission de photons jumeaux.
On parle alors d'émission stimulée, et **il s'agit de l'hypothèse à tester**.
Selon les coefficients d'Einstein, il s'ensuit que cette voie de réémission devrait être très dominante par rapport à l'émission spontanée.
claude-andrew
France
Local time: 02:44
and this is the hypothesis that needs to be tested
Explanation:
I think that it should be hypothesis, as hypotheses are individual testable opinions; while theories are collections of hypotheses that are logically linked together into a coherent explanation of some aspect of reality and which have individually or jointly received some empirical support.
Selected response from:

Bertrand Leduc
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:44
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +7and this is the hypothesis that needs to be tested
Bertrand Leduc
4 +4and this is the theory that needs to be tested
Tony M
3involves hypothesis testing
liz askew
Summary of reference entries provided
Spontaneous & Stimulated emission
Wolf Draeger

Discussion entries: 6





  

Answers


12 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +4
and this is the theory that needs to be tested


Explanation:
Well, unless I'm missing something, that seems to be the idea, and I don't see why it doesn't fit in your context?

The first idea is well known and has been provien, while the second is only a theory, and more testing needs to be done on this.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 30 mins (2012-05-30 08:55:32 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Or of course 'assumption' as Chris quite rightly says.

From the rest of the text, it does indeed seem to be the case that this latter notion has yet to be fully proven...

Tony M
France
Local time: 02:44
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 48
Notes to answerer
Asker: Yes, I didn't know that the fact that the second idea is only a theory - if this is the case, then indeed there's no problem. And I suppose it IS the case since they say so!


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  ATP522
3 mins
  -> Thanks, ATP!
agree  Savvas SEIMANIDIS
16 mins
  -> Efharisto, Savvas!
agree  Bashiqa
24 mins
  -> Thanks, Chris!
agree  Cyril B.
39 mins
  -> Merci, Cyril !
neutral  B D Finch: Assumption or hypothesis, rather than "theory".
50 mins
  -> Thanks, B.! :-)
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

37 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +7
and this is the hypothesis that needs to be tested


Explanation:
I think that it should be hypothesis, as hypotheses are individual testable opinions; while theories are collections of hypotheses that are logically linked together into a coherent explanation of some aspect of reality and which have individually or jointly received some empirical support.

Bertrand Leduc
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:44
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Tony M: Yes, I think you're right! I wans't entirely sure exactly which was the actual hypothesis in question, but I think I'm getting a clearer idea now.
4 mins
  -> Thanks Tony!
agree  Cyril B.
21 mins
  -> Thanks Cyril!
agree  B D Finch: Or even a mere "assumption"?
25 mins
  -> Thank you!
agree  Tristan Jimenez
1 hr
  -> Merci Tristan!
agree  Dr Lofthouse
3 hrs
  -> Thank you!
agree  Timothy Lemon
4 hrs
  -> Thank you!
agree  Andrew47: Hypothesis is definately the correct word here. And I agree with Wolf Draeger that this a high school/undergraduate text.
15 hrs
  -> Thanks Andrew!
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37 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
involves hypothesis testing


Explanation:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=On parle alors d'émission s...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 41 mins (2012-05-30 09:06:46 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Scientific Hypothesis, Theory, Law Definitions
chemistry.about.com/od/chemistry101/a/lawtheory.htm
Learn about the difference between a scientific law, hypothesis, and theory.

liz askew
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:44
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Tony M: I don't think 'invovles' really works here in the source text as given.
6 mins
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Reference comments


13 hrs
Reference: Spontaneous & Stimulated emission

Reference information:
I'm no expert in physics, so this is not an authoritative entry at all. But I understand claude-andrew's confusion; the two theories don't contradict one another, there is no choice to be made, no test to determine which is valid and which isn't. Unless the text is out of date?


    Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulated_emission
    Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_emission
Wolf Draeger
South Africa
Native speaker of: English
Note to reference poster
Asker: Exactly, Wolf (and a number of other definitions in the document are out of date). Of course I've searched around for the latest situation, but to no avail. It looks as though the choice is simply between 'hypothesis', 'theory' and assumption'

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