| Speed of light may have changed | |
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JavaGuy - Student  |
Seriously. _______________ My signature is only one line. You're welcome. |
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JavaGuy - Student 
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Right. I'd add that the people who use the scientific method are flesh and blood. We're woefully flawed. _______________ My signature is only one line. You're welcome. |
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Buzz - Student 
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Science is definite. Its just not perfect. _______________ When you are going through Hell, keep going. -Sir Winston Churchill. Those who seek power and control of others, no matter the level, no matter the intentions, should never be given it. |
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JavaGuy - Student
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Science most certainly is a "definite thing." It's a method of rational inquiry that evaluates claims using observable evidence. To be fair game for science, a hypothesis must be "falsifiable," not meaning that it is false, but meaning that if it is false, there can be observable evidence to show that it is false. For example, the claim that water becomes ice below 32 degrees F is a falsifiable claim--if it is false, you can show me by cooling water below that temperature and demonstrating that it is not frozen. This claim has been tested over and over. I might also claim that the rooster's crow causes the sunrise. This is fair game because I can do an experiment: See if a rooster crowing at midnight will cause the sun to rise. Being falsifiable does not mean a claim is false, but in this case the claim is false, and we can find evidence to prove it. Note that in this case, when the sun fails to rise I might get squirrely and try to say that the sunrise six hours later was the delayed result of the rooster's crow--but in so doing I am retroactively changing my hypothesis to something that is no longer falsifiable. Things that are not falsifiable are not fair game for the scientific method. This is not to say that they are simply "a matter of opinion," as some would have us believe. Some things in life are a matter of opinion, and others are questions of fact. But some questions of fact are hidden from scientific inquiry by their very nature. The existence of God, for example, is not falsifiable: If there is no God, it cannot be proven that there is no God. Can't be done. This is still a question of fact, however. Either it is a fact that there is a God, or else it is a fact that there is not. One of those is definitely the correct answer, but the scientific method is constrained to observable evidence. Note that the scientific method comes at things from a perspective of disproving hypotheses. A salesman or politician tries to prove his point. A scientist--well, a good one anyway--tries to disprove his own hypothesis. When he tries hard to disprove his idea and fails, then he turns to his skeptical peers and asks them to try to disprove it. When a hypothesis has been sufficiently tested that disproving it is obviously a fool's errand, the scientific community calls it a theory, and it is provisionally accepted as fact. A scientific "law," e.g. Newton's Laws, is a theory that has been so rigorously tested for so very long that there is virtually no doubt of its being fact. Not that even a scientific law, the most strongly accepted, is only a provisional truth until something better comes along. But note how this method of trial-and-error advances knowledge. The scientific method does not change. Our understanding of the universe changes the more we use it. Newton's Laws, for example, are now known to be a special case of the relativistic laws. Under "Newtonian" conditions, i.e. moving at the speed of "everyday" things and not close to the speed of light, the relativistic equations give us the same results as Newton's equations. So although Newton's Laws are indeed Laws in the scientific sense of the term, even those eventually were found to be flawed when evidence surfaced to falsify them. Yet note that Newton's Laws did advance our knowledge. Relativity didn't show that they were "wrong" per se, but that they were a special case of more general laws that cover cases we had not yet examined. When Newton's Laws were new, Man's understanding of the physical world became much more accurate than it had been. Relativity found some flaws in that and advanced our understanding further, but that doesn't change the fact that the scientific method worked--it advanced our knowledge and understanding. Science does not change. Science is just a set of rules for evaluating hypotheses. It is our checklist of hypotheses, as evaluated under those unchanging rules, that changes--for the better--over the years. _______________ My signature is only one line. You're welcome. |
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skankerkid - Student 
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just think about warp speed dude... oh sorry wrong series. see i got confused cause they both start with star and ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahah..ha....ha.....ha.....ha...............aah that was pathetic.  _______________ Shout out to DJ Sith cause he's my big bro. Shout out to Debbie because she's my sister in-law. Also it aint cool if aint skewed. This comment was edited by skankerkid on Jul 02 2004 11:58pm. |
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Charly - Student 
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Quote: I'm not sure if this is the end of science as we know it. If c changes over time and we know it's current speed, then we can work with all the normal laws of physics as they currently stand at this point in time. If it changes tomorrow or in the next eon then you gotta recalculate.  Anyone read this? |
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Ashyr - Student 
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Quote: I've noticed lately that the light has been taking longer to fill up the room when I flip the switch on my living room lamp. I wonder why it's been taking everyone else so long to notice... LOL Except they are saying that it's been speeding up over the years. Maybe I've been reading it wrong, but are they saying that because the universe's heat has risen, that the speed of light is faster? Since when does the speed of light have anything to do with heat? _______________ Top ten reasons to get a better computer...|My fan |
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JamesF1 - Student 
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Science really isn't a definate thing, as most like to think it is, things change - new methods arise, etc. I don't think there's many things in science we can be 100% sure of, as something over time is bound to change. Whether that be the methods or the measuring or whether it be the discovery that something in the world itself has changed. Don't rely too heavily on science, something new always comes along and replaces the old '100% Fact' _______________ Website |
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Bandit - Student 
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I've noticed lately that the light has been taking longer to fill up the room when I flip the switch on my living room lamp. I wonder why it's been taking everyone else so long to notice... _______________ Part-Time Player (Weekend Warrior). Recipient of the prestigious "Longest-Post-Ever Award" (bestowed on me by Flash on March 23rd, 2004) |
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GrumblyBear - Ex-Student 
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Quote:
Quote: Just maybe we don't know what we think we know. Of course we don't, or else we'd have flying cars by now  For real, man! I've been waiting! |
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Roan Belouve - Retired 
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Huh!!!! Some things are best left to those with a sensible amount of brain cells, I'm outta my depth. I'm off to lie down for a while!!!! _______________ *Bro to Vaxxla,Padawan of FiZZandOdan-Wei Part of the mighty Belouve Dynasty-Knight of Nippledom.Twin of Selphestal!**Proud Master to Kaelis and Acura Friend to anyone who would call me the same . Pic by the amazing Majno (merry)
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Menaxia - Student 
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I should read that article, but it was the longest one in the issue, at the same time as the womens' semi finals at wimbledon.... _______________ This is not the place to look for me |
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Fizz of Belouve - Student 
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interesting. yet, Einstein was wrong and right about a lot of facts, just think about his gravitational constant, which might be proven correct after all isnt it a wicked universe we live in ? yet I like to quote a german physicist: "If all our axiom and laws are wrong, they are damned good wrong" _______________ One of the Belouve boys, founder of the mighty FiZZsters Midbie council #20 - Fizz - #1933 - Jan '03 - Aug '04 "Renfield, you idiot!" |
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DJ Sith - Jedi Council 
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I'm not sure if this is the end of science as we know it. If c changes over time and we know it's current speed, then we can work with all the normal laws of physics as they currently stand at this point in time. If it changes tomorrow or in the next eon then you gotta recalculate. _______________ My car is made of Nerf. |
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Gradius - Ex-Student 
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Quote: Just maybe we don't know what we think we know. Of course we don't, or else we'd have flying cars by now _______________ - Proud padawan of Kueller. - We really are at the beginning of it all. The trick, of course, is to make sure we never find the end. - Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything - <gen-e-sis-happy> Liek, you can train, liek, a n00b, but he'll just be a trained n00b... --> Wise words! - "daer SOE me likes your a company i am having your some money for letting me do stuff cos mes the best amd i do it all meself" - Slider |
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n00b - Student 
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Just maybe we don't know what we think we know. _______________ Gone but hopefully not forgotten... |
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Selph Senatu - Student 
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That's weird. |
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