Verification

Verification: The process of determining whether a specified source says what others say that it says.

For example, if you come across a passage in a book that says "Well known authorities on lunar geology tell us that the moon is made of green cheese", you might want to check to see who the well known authorities are who make this statement. If the work in which you find this statement is well done, it should tell you who those authorities are, and where they made this statement. One such claim is presented here. In this particular instance the well known authorities that are referred to turns out to be the National Aeronautic and Space Administration. If you go to the above site you can confirm (verify) that the good folks at NASA really did make this statement. Specifically, they tell us that "Using the new camera on the recently refitted Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have been able to confirm that the Moon is made of green cheese. The telling clue was the resolution of a numeric date after which the Moon may go bad. Controversy still exists, however, over whether the date resolved is truly an expiration date or just a "sell by" date." Please refer to the article on "Validation for further consideration of this statement.