scientific laws

Sometimes scientific terminology can be quite confusing – everyday words like ‘theory’  & ‘law, for example, mean something different when used in a scientific context. And just what is a law in science, anyway? I’ve just stumbled across a brief excerpt from an interview with Richard Feynman, where he uses some great analogies to answer that question. (Gosh, he must have been a wonderful teacher!)

 

2 thoughts on “scientific laws”

  • It’s a great analogy, although I have to admit my instant thought was that it’d help to know chess. The final example I think is good (the pawn reaching the far end), as it’s one that’s easy to forget and would be “unexpected” and confusing in a very similar sense that rare exceptions are in data analysis.

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