8 ms·

> But nonetheless, the experimental data that went into this discovery was largely non-reproducible. I am finding a hard time to grasp what you are telling her

> But nonetheless, the experimental data that went into this discovery was largely non-reproducible. I am finding a hard time to grasp what you are telling here. If you deduce a set of laws A from an event X, you don't need X to repeat to check the validity of A. You can check it against another event Y, where you predict its characteristics using A. If the laws are valid, the prediction ll match the actual observation..

lisper 8y ago
Yes, all that is true. What does that have to do with reproducibility? You're talking about doing a lot of different experiments to test a single theory. Reproducibility is about doing the same experiment over again to see if you get the same results as the first time you did it, i.e. reproduce the results.
- buvanshak 8y ago
  > What does that have to do with reproducibility? That is exactly what I wanted to ask you originally when you cited the celestial mechanics example. It is not relevant in cases we are deriving a theory underlying the behavior, rather than axiomizing the very specific behavior itself...
  - lisper 8y ago
    I don't understand the difference between "deriving a theory underlying the behavior" and "axiomizing [sic] the very specific behavior itself."
    - buvanshak 8y ago
      Suppose you see an object A, moving straight line getting caught in the gravity of object B, ending up in a orbit around it. Deriving an underlying theory would be deducing the force of gravity from it. Axiomizing the very specific behavior would be making a rule that says. "If the object A (and object A only), while moving in a straight line, comes at so and so coordinates with respective to B, will end up in an orbit around it"
      - lisper 8y ago
        Ah. So these are two completely orthogonal issues. The question of what you do with the result of an experiment is completely independent of whether or not you can reproduce that result. The latter is what is under discussion here. So you can, for example, observe that there was a solar eclipse at a particular time and a particular place. But you cannot repeat that observation. (By way of contrast, you can drop and object from a particular height and observe that it takes a particular time to fall. You can repeat that observation.) What you do with those observations has (almost) nothing to do with whether or not you can repeat them.

lisper 8y ago

Yes, all that is true. What does that have to do with reproducibility? You're talking about doing a lot of different experiments to test a single theory. Reproducibility is about doing the same experiment over again to see if you get the same results as the first time you did it, i.e. reproduce the results.

buvanshak 8y ago
> What does that have to do with reproducibility? That is exactly what I wanted to ask you originally when you cited the celestial mechanics example. It is not relevant in cases we are deriving a theory underlying the behavior, rather than axiomizing the very specific behavior itself...
- lisper 8y ago
  I don't understand the difference between "deriving a theory underlying the behavior" and "axiomizing [sic] the very specific behavior itself."
  - buvanshak 8y ago
    Suppose you see an object A, moving straight line getting caught in the gravity of object B, ending up in a orbit around it. Deriving an underlying theory would be deducing the force of gravity from it. Axiomizing the very specific behavior would be making a rule that says. "If the object A (and object A only), while moving in a straight line, comes at so and so coordinates with respective to B, will end up in an orbit around it"
    - lisper 8y ago
      Ah. So these are two completely orthogonal issues. The question of what you do with the result of an experiment is completely independent of whether or not you can reproduce that result. The latter is what is under discussion here. So you can, for example, observe that there was a solar eclipse at a particular time and a particular place. But you cannot repeat that observation. (By way of contrast, you can drop and object from a particular height and observe that it takes a particular time to fall. You can repeat that observation.) What you do with those observations has (almost) nothing to do with whether or not you can repeat them.