Other Scientific Applications
Similar conceptual tools are in constant use in the physical sciences. From string theory to cosmology, theories are proposed and predictions are made based upon assumption about the properties of objects that have never been observed. Many of these objects are far harder to imagine than inclined plane with a frictionless surface. John Dalton proposed the positive proton and negative electron structure of atoms almost a century before anyone had seen one, yet groundbreaking advances in chemistry, physics, and eventually quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics were only possible because of that postulate. Similarly, no one has directly observed dark energy or captured any quantity of dark matter. No one has observed a tiny string that was the indivisible foundation of all matter in the universe. Yet, theories that imagine such objects are not tautological; they entail predictions that can be, and have been, disproved. Thus, they serve as valuable tools in the human endeavor to understand the universe, despite the fact that they have not or cannot be found within it.
Read more about this topic: Frictionless Plane
Famous quotes containing the word scientific:
“A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)