Log in

View Full Version : diffrence between theory and a law?



comrade_mufasa
3rd December 2004, 00:57
What is the diffrence between a theory and a law, as in "the theory of evolution" and "the law of gravity"? I all ways thought that a theory is an excepted idea that is not concretely proven and a law was a concretely proven fact.

The Garbage Disposal Unit
3rd December 2004, 02:19
Not even "laws" are necessarilly set in stone, comrade. The beauty of science is that it is ultimately fluid and undogmatic, and any idea is subject to being surpassed at any time . . . as to the iron law of gravity, there seem to be constants, but no one is exactly sure WHY yet.

I partially wish I were taking physics - I love the theory, but I just don't have a head for the numbers.

Does anybody know the song "Paradigm" by UNIT?

comrade_mufasa
3rd December 2004, 18:11
You really should take physics. I myself am very good at math and i'm taking physics. it should seam like the class would be easy for my but i'm not doing to well in the class. My teacher is cool though, the teach knows that the class is not easy but i really work hard and enjoy doing the class so the teach is passing me and a number of other students anyway, good old Thorn. in fact the math is not the hard part it is, at least to me, the procedures of the problems.

commiecrusader
9th December 2004, 09:05
You need mad skills for physics. Remembering all those crazy equations, and doing insane sums... not for me. My brain can't remember numbers easily at all.

ComradeChris
9th December 2004, 20:30
I never took physics either and wish I did. I took the other two major sciences: Chemistry and Biology.

A law basically implies that it is a more general belief and usually has been applied in some way to the natural world. It doesn't necessarily make it correct (but in the vast majority of cases it's accepted as such).

A theory can be just about made by anyone. We all have different theories on events that transpire without a known cause (ie. the origin of life, what would happen if one travels at light speed, etc). They are usually inferences used to explain events aetiologically; or used to predict outcomes of certain events.