Quote:
Originally Posted by Stu Pidasso
No where in that description of a physical/scientific law does it include a requirement for an explaination as Sklansky suggested. All that is required for a law of regeneration of amputated limbs is a pattern of such observations. If all leggless people clapped their hands and said "I wish I had legs" and poof they had legs.....well then the law of amputated limb regeneration would state that leggless people who clap their hands and verbally wish for restored limbs have their missing legs restored.
Sorry about the misspellings....I will try harder.
Several general properties of physical laws have been identified (see Davies (1992) and Feynman (1965) as noted, although each of the characterizations are not necessarily original to them). Physical laws are:
* True, at least within their regime of validity. By definition, there have never been repeatable contradicting observations.
* Universal. They appear to apply everywhere in the universe. (Davies, 1992:82)
* Simple. They are typically expressed in terms of a single mathematical equation. (Davies)
* Absolute. Nothing in the universe appears to affect them. (Davies, 1992:82)
* Stable. Unchanged since first discovered (although they may have been shown to be approximations of more accurate laws—see "Laws as approximations" below),
* Omnipotent. Everything in the universe apparently must comply with them (according to observations). (Davies, 1992:83)
* Generally conservative of quantity. (Feynman, 1965:59)
* Often expressions of existing homogeneities (symmetries) of space and time. (Feynman)
* Typically theoretically reversible in time (if non-quantum), although time itself is irreversible. (Feynman)
Often those who understand the mathematics and concepts well enough to understand the essence of the physical laws also feel that they possess an inherent intellectual beauty. Many scientists state that they use intuition as a guide in developing hypotheses, since laws are reflection of symmetries and there is a connection between beauty and symmetry. However, this has not always been the case; Newton himself justified his belief in the asymmetry of the universe because his laws appeared to imply it.
Physical laws are distinguished from scientific theories by their simplicity. Scientific theories are generally more complex than laws; they have many component parts, and are more likely to be changed as the body of available experimental data and analysis develops. This is because a physical law is a summary observation of strictly empirical matters, whereas a theory is a model that accounts for the observation, explains it, relates it to other observations, and makes testable predictions based upon it. Simply stated, while a law notes that something happens, a theory explains why and how something happens.
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How would the law of human regenerative limbs be described by a math equation? There is a reason why there are now laws listed in that URL that fall under biology/human anatomy.. But that's what college is for or self directed study..
It's like you are stuck in a loop of science fails and until you remedy that you will continue to loop.