Language of science I: Theories and laws
DOI: 10.1063/1.4796489
Isaac Newton offered us his laws of gravity, describing the attractive force between masses, but refused to offer a theory. Instead, he famously stated, “I have not been able to discover the cause of those properties of gravity from phenomena, and I frame no hypothesis…. It is enough that gravity does really exist, and acts according to the laws which we have explained.”
An attempt to boost the status of special relativity by referring to it as a law rather than a theory would actually have the opposite effect of demoting Albert Einstein’s astonishing contribution. He didn’t describe his (or anyone else’s) observations, he described and explained real phenomena before anyone even knew they were there.
More about the Authors
Joseph Ribaudo. (jribaudo@ucsd.edu) Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, US .
