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To: stripes1776; Hank Kerchief
If you want proof you have to go to mathematics. Deductive reasoning provides a proof.

Unless I'm mistaken, theories are proven as fact when demonstrated through exeriments that can be duplicated.

46 posted on 03/27/2010 7:13:51 PM PDT by Grizzled Bear (Does not play well with others.)
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To: Grizzled Bear
Unless I'm mistaken, theories are proven as fact when demonstrated through exeriments that can be duplicated.

Theories in science are not proven as fact. They can only be supported by experimental data. Newtonian theory was supported by experimental data for 200 years. And then in the late 18th century physicists observed data that contradicted Newton's theory. So they had to come up with a better theory. And that was Einstein's theory of relativity. But very soon relativity was contradicted by observations of subatomic particles. So they had to come up with a theory to explain that contradiction, and that was quantum mechanics.

So physics now has two theories that contradict each other, relativity and quantum mechanics. And that's why they are looking for a better theory.

The distinction here is between proving a theory and supporting it. Science does not prove theories. It can only support a theory with data. But this is inductive reasoning, and inductive reasoning is not proof.

48 posted on 03/27/2010 8:44:58 PM PDT by stripes1776 ("That if gold rust, what shall iron do?" --Chaucer)
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