What is the difference between observing and making an inference?

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An observation is merely taking notice of something happening in real life.An inference is the next step, taking what you observed and inferring that it's related to something else. Example: I notice that if I freeze water, when it turns into ice, it seems to be larger. So I'd infer that water molecules expand when they freeze.Scientists often make inferences and then experiment to prove their inference correct or wrong, and coming to a conclusion.