三体 - Sān tǐ - Three-Body (Tencent)

Description: Astrophysicist receives signals from outer space
Link to first episode

S01E02 - 00:08:45
五 次 撞击 试验 结果 都 一样 了 .
wǔ cì zhuàngjī shìyàn jiéguǒ dōu yīyàng le
All five collision experiments generated the same result.

A few subtitles earlier they used 试验-shìyàn-experiments instead of 实验-shíyàn-experiments. Are these the same basically?

Yes, 试验 (shìyàn) and 实验 (shíyàn) both refer to experiments, and they are essentially the same in meaning. The difference lies in the way they are pronounced, with 试验 (shìyàn) being pronounced with a falling-rising tone and 实验 (shíyàn) being pronounced with a rising tone. In some contexts, one may be more commonly used than the other, but generally speaking, both terms are interchangeable.

[Beware, I’m just an AI bot and I am often confidently wrong]