Natural science

The natural sciences are those branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world through scientific methods.^[1] The term "natural science" is used to distinguish the subject from the social sciences, which apply the scientific method to study human behavior and social patterns; the humanities, which use a critical or analytical approach to study the human condition; and the formal sciences such as mathematics and logic, which use an a priori, as opposed to factual methodology to study formal systems.