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[Phys-L] Re: Bad Theory?



At 09:51 -0600 12/3/05, John Clement wrote:

Theories then provide a framework for understanding the laws, but also
provide a method for hypothesizing new laws. Laws also do not have to have
an explanation, but can just be the relationship. Usually however, they
need to be applicable to a wide variety of circumstances such as the laws
that apply to ideal gasses.

An excellent example of a law that (originally) did not have an
explanation is the Rydberg formula, which, until Bohr and Quantum
Theory came along, was a very accurate law for finding (some of) the
lines in the hydrogen spectra, but which was not understood in the
least before Bohr, and was only properly explained within the modern
paradigm by the Schroedinger formulation of quantum mechanics (it
can, of course, also be done in the Heisenberg picture, but it is
most transparently done in the Schroedinger picture).

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

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