4 ms·
Sounds a bit like Fermi's quote: "If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you'
by ucaetano 10y ago
Sounds a bit like Fermi's quote:
"If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery."
- api 10y agoI remember that quote too, and the key take aways always seemed like: in science you always learn something. Taking the EMDrive as an example -- we have measurements that contradict current theory, so we are either going to discover new physics or we are going to learn something about the art of making very precise measurements of force in complex mechanical systems. In no case do we learn nothing.
- aminorex 10y agoA third option, of equal merit: We may learn to apply existing theory more correctly and more adequately in a novel configuration.
- ucaetano 10y agoI always understood it as: science is far more interesting when thing don't go as expected. Kinda like how discovering the Higgs Boson was boring. It would have been far more exciting if they hadn't found it!
- aminorex 10y agoA third and equally useful possibility is that we might learn to correctly and productively apply the current theory in a situation and configuration where previously we did not know how to do so.