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Author Topic:   The nature of scientific "Laws"
cavediver
Member (Idle past 3643 days)
Posts: 4129
From: UK
Joined: 06-16-2005


Message 1 of 2 (382984)
02-06-2007 2:35 PM


In a recently closed thread, our new member EODoc made some claims regarding the nature of scientific laws: The Law of Biogenesis and the Laws of Thermodynamics in particular. These are oft-repeated claims and I would like to propose a thread where we can discuss the role of "laws" in science.
I open with my reply to EODoc but would encourage others to join in with comments, questions and refutations "Is it science?" I guess???
Why is it that laws are only "useful approximations" when they don't do what we want them to do
When is ANY science performed on the basis of "LAWs"? The laws are often the consequences of the underlying science/mathematics - applied under certain circumstances - so in no way can they be universal. And the Law of Biogenesis is simply based upon observation. If someone claimed to have created life in a test-tube, it could not be declared false by appeal to the LoB.
The fact still remains that no one can give an experimental example of where these "useful approximations" have been violated which is why they are laws.
Which laws are we talking about? Newton's Law of Gravitation? Try the precession of perihelion of Mercury, try light bending by the Sun. Newton II? Try that when v~c. Thermodynamic laws? Ok let's look at "thermodynamics" of an electron in a neutral hydrogen atom. Care to define its entropy? Its temperature?

  
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Message 2 of 2 (382994)
02-06-2007 3:26 PM


Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

  
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