Operational Definition - Limitations

Limitations

If a definition invokes an historical event, such as having weighed an object sometime in the past, it is no longer repeatable, so it fails to qualify as operational.
Similarly, a specific brick cannot be operationally defined by the process of making it, because that process is historical. (But see the example of the constellation Virgo below for a discussion of how to avoid this difficulty.)

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Famous quotes containing the word limitations:

    Growing up means letting go of the dearest megalomaniacal dreams of our childhood. Growing up means knowing they can’t be fulfilled. Growing up means gaining the wisdom and skills to get what we want within the limitations imposed by reality—a reality which consists of diminished powers, restricted freedoms and, with the people we love, imperfect connections.
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    That all may be so, but when I begin to exercise that power I am not conscious of the power, but only of the limitations imposed on me.
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    ... art transcends its limitations only by staying within them.
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