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"Laws" of physics

Tangential to his own topic E Muehleisen wrote:

Several posts of late have been directed at laws that
apparently should not be graced with the title of law.

As with most things, the subject of "laws" versus "theories" and
so on has reared its head on this list before. See for example

<http://mailgate.nau.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0003&L=phys-l&P=R3600&m=20444>

Someone once said

Fundamental "laws of physics" are merely apparent truths
for which we have no explanation.

Once they are explained they are no longer "fundamental" and
probably should not be called "laws" either but they tend to
retain the name anyway.

John Mallinckrodt mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm