What Are Mistakes Beneficial Or Harmful

Mistakes. Harmful or Beneficial?

Have you ever wondered how the microwave came to be? Or how some scientists were able to find ancient artifacts? Was it luck or just a hunch? Mistakes are a key part of discovery. Without mistakes we may have never been asking ourselves the questions we ask today? How did it happen?

First and foremost, Mistakes offer an idea or thought one may have never thought of. For example, in "How a Melted Bar of Chocolate Changed Our Kitchens," Percy's chocolate bar melted in his pocket. Do you think we would have the microwaves we use today if that chocolate bar had not melted? Due to Percy's mistake, he investigated what made the bar of chocolate melt. Paragraph 16 of "How a Melted Bar of Chocolate Changed Our Kitchens"
states, "He had a moment of realization. He asked for popcorn kernels, put them near the heat. Minutes later, the man we thank for microwave popcorn had a discovery on his hands." Of course, it was not Percy Spencer who discovered the microwave, he discovered what the microwave could do. A 19th century English writer Martin Farquhar Tupper once quoted, "Error is a hardy plant; it flourisheth in every soil." Percy Spencer may have never thought of heating popcorn kernels in a microwave to make popcorn if he had not had the idea or thought that the microwave produced heat. Then what would we eat while watching a movie at the movie theater?

Secondly, Mistakes help a person know what not to do.
Think about it, as a child you made plenty of mistakes. You would get punished and idealy never make the same mistake again. In comparison, 19th century Scottish athour Samuel Smiles quoted, "We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do by finding out what will not do: and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery." So in addition to never making the same mistake again, refer to "Lost Cities, Lost Treasure." An adventurer in 1871 named Heinrich Schliemann was seeking the lost land of Troy. Schliemann came across a British archaeologist named Frank Calvert who owned part of a site in Turkey. Calvert had Schliemann fund and share his work becasue he did not have enough money to dig there. This was Calvert's mistake. The discovery he made from his mistake of inviting Schliemann into his work was the disrespect Schliemann showed toward the artifacts that laid undisturbed for centuries. Also, in paragraph eight it reads, "Schliemann took the credit for what was found, and Calvert's contribution was almost forotten." This excerpt makes it clear that Calvert made a mistake and he learned from his mistake and probably never made it again. As we all do on a daily
basis.

However, some people might think mistakes lead to problems, not progress. In science, mistakes are not always beneficial. From the artical "In Praise of Careful Science" paragraph 19 states, "Scientist John Denker says that many "big discoveries" were actually invented step by step...A lot of these small discoveries were predicted, and then proven, with no mistakes." This excerpt explains that scientists want to avoid mistakes because they can tamper with results. Scientists are not particularly right beacuse as I mentioned earlier, people learn from mistakes. In "In Praise of Careful Science" four lines read, "The typical role of a mistake in science is not...but to teach a scientist how to do better next time." Scientists self-correct themselves in order to make an accurate or better discovery the next time they repeat the experiment. So in conclusion, even though scientists believe mistakes are not key to discovery, they are. Scientists learn from their mistakes just like nonscientists do in their daily lives.

To sum it all up, mistakes are a key part of discovery. They offer an idea or thought one may have never thought of and people learn from them, making the most tremendous discoveries. Some people may disagree but overall mistakes are beneficial whether they chose to believe it or not. Like 18th century author and philosopher Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire once quoted, "Love truth, but pardon error."