Never tell a scientist it’s “just a theory”
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/never-tell-scientist-just-a-theory/Open linkView original on lemmy.worldSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on lemmy.worldhttps://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/never-tell-scientist-just-a-theory/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
3 replies
Anyone that uses the term "just a theory" as a way to downplay some kind of scientific statement is showing their ignorance.
I will take one small issue with one of the things they mentioned in the article. They stated that a theory is the pinnacle. Well that isn't exactly accurate because a scientific Law is one step above that.
Laws aren't better than theories; they are generally statements about a narrow range of phenomena which can be expressed mathematically while a theory covers a wide range of phenomena. For example, theory explains the origin of all conservation laws in physics as being the result of symmetry. Each law covers a specific thing (i.e. conservation of momentum) while the theory covers all conserved quantities.
Every now-accepted physical law was once a theory - Newton, Kepler, Einstein, you name it