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Re: [Phys-L] strange things in chem book




-----Original Message-----
From: Phys-l [mailto:phys-l-bounces@phys-l.org] On Behalf Of Ken Caviness
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2012 9:11 PM
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] strange things in chem book

I'm a little disappointed that no-one noticed that I was taking Marty's advice
and being as clear and unmoving as he told us to be, in my reply to him! He
made an untrue statement, and I told him so, with no waffling, no wimping
out, no RodneyDangerfielding. :-)

Ken, you are absolutely wrong. I did notice what you were doing. I simply didn't respond because you were doing such a good job. Don't equate non-responsiveness with misunderstanding. :)


I think whether a formula is called a "law" or not has more to do with _when_
it was discovered. There was a time when many such formulas were
referred to as laws. Anyone ever done a timeline of these laws? I suspect
they mostly stop before 1900.

You make a great point here. Words in English are both temporally and geographically contextual in meaning. A milkshake in Tennessee is totally different from a milkshake in Rhode Island (experimentally determined, unfortunately).

I was under the impression (possibly mistaken) that for science, "law" referred to a reliable behavior within boundary conditions such as Kepler's, Ohm's, Newton's, Boyle's, Wein's but didn't have an attempt at explanation of the behavior due to foundational principles. Kepler didn't know the foundations of elliptical orbits, Newton didn't know about curvature of spacetime. Theories go beyond categorizing/equationizing behavior and attempt to find deeper principles which could be extended to broader behaviors (Special Relativity, General Relativity, Planck's blackbody radiation, standard model of particles). In my way of thinking, law would be a LESS expansive idea than a scientific theory, e.g., Law of changing your oil vs Theory of Automotive Engineering.