> However, we lack an intuitive understanding of why the equations work. I think the word mechanism captures what you are describing. We have a set of equatio

> However, we lack an intuitive understanding of why the equations work. I think the word mechanism captures what you are describing. We have a set of equations we know work, but we have absolutely no idea what underling mechanism gives rise to those equations. It's like the position ancient seafarers were in: the could use the sun and stars to navigate, but because they had no idea of the mechanism behind their movements they were happy with the idea the world was flat. It's not a good state of affairs because understanding the mechanism yields far better predictive powers than the mathematical equation describing what happens. For example, we had good equations describing rechargeable battery degradation. But until we understood the mechanism, we were just stumbling about in the dark on how to improve it.