3 ms·

Xkcd: Popper

2 points by prossercj 8y ago

bryanrasmussen 8y ago
double negatives means that someone has proved he grew up in Vienna?
- gus_massa 8y ago
  With a lot of simplifications, the main idea of Popper epistemology is that even if you drop 100 stones you can not prove that the acceleration of gravity is 9.8m/s^2 (32ft/s^2) because you will never be sure that the next stone will follow the same physics law. You can only refute "all" the alternatives: That g=10m/s^2. That g=7m/s^2. That g=-1m/s^2. That the stone falls with a constant vertical velocity of 2m/s. That the fall is a cubic with h=7.3 m/s^3 * t^3. That ... Well, there are too many alternatives and you never can refute "all" of them, you can only refute many of them. So, there are laws of physics are not "proven", it's just that the main alternatives are "refuted". You can find the details and a correct explanation in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper [1] The joke is that while technically true, it's too difficult to talk in this way, so most people just talk as if the laws of physics were "proven". As a general rule, you can get a good explanation of the xkcd comics in the explainxkcd site. In this case https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2078 https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2078 But I don't like the current version of the explanation there too much, it will get better in a few days. [1] No one has proven that you can't find the details and a correct explanation in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper
  - bryanrasmussen 8y ago
    Yes, I understand that but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative#Two_negatives_resolving_to_a_positive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative#Two_negatives_... means that the joke is further complicated by, depending on various things, the double negative construction may not actually be saying exactly what is wanted.

3 ms·

Xkcd: Popper

2 points by prossercj 8y ago

bryanrasmussen 8y ago
double negatives means that someone has proved he grew up in Vienna?
- gus_massa 8y ago
  With a lot of simplifications, the main idea of Popper epistemology is that even if you drop 100 stones you can not prove that the acceleration of gravity is 9.8m/s^2 (32ft/s^2) because you will never be sure that the next stone will follow the same physics law. You can only refute "all" the alternatives: That g=10m/s^2. That g=7m/s^2. That g=-1m/s^2. That the stone falls with a constant vertical velocity of 2m/s. That the fall is a cubic with h=7.3 m/s^3 * t^3. That ... Well, there are too many alternatives and you never can refute "all" of them, you can only refute many of them. So, there are laws of physics are not "proven", it's just that the main alternatives are "refuted". You can find the details and a correct explanation in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper [1] The joke is that while technically true, it's too difficult to talk in this way, so most people just talk as if the laws of physics were "proven". As a general rule, you can get a good explanation of the xkcd comics in the explainxkcd site. In this case https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2078 https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2078 But I don't like the current version of the explanation there too much, it will get better in a few days. [1] No one has proven that you can't find the details and a correct explanation in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper
  - bryanrasmussen 8y ago
    Yes, I understand that but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative#Two_negatives_resolving_to_a_positive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative#Two_negatives_... means that the joke is further complicated by, depending on various things, the double negative construction may not actually be saying exactly what is wanted.