Re: [Phys-l] DATA, FACTS, LAWS, THEORIES

[Bernard Cleyet <bernardcleyet@redshift.com>]

I was taught to use "The Energy Principal"  by Peter Redmond whenever  
possible, as it is easier.  This was some time ago -- have laws been  
substituted for principles?

I instinctively used law for the relationship of extension and force  
in my hardening magnetic repulsion oscillator. Not a generalization;   
is this wrong?

bc coffee table experimentalist.


"There is another word, principle, which is sometimes used to refer  
to the
same concepts, but often not.  So some things which are called laws  
maybe
should be principles, and vice-versa.  Both of these provide rules  
which are
used to determine things in specific situations.  I would divide them as
laws being relationships, but principles rules which may not necessarily
imply equations.  So Occam's razor is a principle, and definitely not  
a law.
But there are plenty of murky examples.  Now this opens another can  
of worms
which has already been argued about."  [Clement]

On 2009, Oct 19, , at 08:12, M. Horton wrote:

> "But the one common thing in physics is that all of our laws are
> relationships between variables."
>
> How are the Law of Conservation of Momentum or the Law of  
> Conservation of
> Energy a relationship between two variables?  The two take very  
> different
> forms depending on what types of energy are being converted or what  
> type of
> collision is being discussed.  Newton's First Law of Motion?   
> Newton's Third
> Law of Motion?  Lenz's Law?