4 ms·
In fact, CMS and ATLAS are sort of same experiment repeated twice, just in parallel rather than serially. Repeatable doesn't imply identical experimental design
by batbomb 10y ago
In fact, CMS and ATLAS are sort of same experiment repeated twice, just in parallel rather than serially. Repeatable doesn't imply identical experimental design.
- bordercases 10y agoDoes it not? If the experimental design is not preserved, don't you open yourself to inconsistent controls between the experiments? Where do you draw the line?
- shkkmo 10y agoIf you think about it, complete replication of any experiment is useless, and impossible. But that doesn't matter, because it is not the experiment you are trying to replicate, is the effect or the observation. Carefully changing the design of the experiment can allow to verify that your explanation of the effect or observation is accurate. Of course, if the change the experiment too much, a failure to replicated will have less useful information.
- bordercases 10y agoIn hindsight I do think it's true that you want numerous experiments with possibly different controls with the exception of whatever is important for the effect. In that sense you want your experiment to "discover the right abstraction" of details that your principle works over. So I think what has to occur is a gradual "loosening up" of the controls from strict replication to weak replication, with both types of replication giving information about the effect you are testing: its validity and its generality, respectively.