Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: neverdem
What can I say? Thay're wrong.
A scientific law, or empirical law, is a general principle that is very well supported by evidence such as experimental results and observational data. Typically scientific laws are limited sets of rules that have a well documented history for successfully predicting the outcomes of experiments and observations. The concept of a scientific law is closely related to the concept of a scientific theory. Typically scientific laws are more limited sets of rules for making predictions about the world than scientific theories.

Contrast this with

In science, a theory is a proposed description, explanation, or model of the manner of interaction of a set of natural phenomena, capable of predicting future occurrences or observations of the same kind, and capable of being tested through experiment or otherwise falsified through empirical observation.

So you see the difference is fundamentally whether the phenomena are simply described (a law) or explained (a theory). Another way to view the relation is that theories use laws as their axioms.

112 posted on 02/17/2007 11:42:13 PM PST by edsheppa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 110 | View Replies ]


To: edsheppa
If I want to impress someone, I try to avoid citations from Wikipedia. Folks have empirical facts on the ground. I could care less for the terms used used to explain them, whether it's hypothesis or law. Its ability to predict future events is all that counts, IMHO. Scientific law is a hypothesis that's been tried and true without fail within experimental error.

There's Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment

They found that now they have exceptions to Mendelian genetics.

Global variation in copy number in the human genome

Mendelian genetics works most of the time, just like Newtonian mechanics. Good night

115 posted on 02/18/2007 1:32:38 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 112 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson