I Believe We Were Created: Change My Mind
The basics. Start simple, from the top. Don't preach. My first question is, what is the scientific method?
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ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Richard Feynman said it better than I can so here is an extract from one of his talks:
[quote]In general, we look for a new law by the following process; first, we guess it… Then we compute the consequences of the guess… to see what it would imply. Then we compare those computation results to nature or we say compare to experiment or experience. We compare directly with observation to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t make a difference how beautiful your guess is, to doesn’t make a difference how smart you are or what his name is, its wrong. That’s all there is to it. [/quote]
Source: https://www.mojologic.com.au/speech-32-richard-feynman-the-scientific-method/
Here is the man himself saying it:
[media=https://youtu.be/0KmimDq4cSU]
[quote]In general, we look for a new law by the following process; first, we guess it… Then we compute the consequences of the guess… to see what it would imply. Then we compare those computation results to nature or we say compare to experiment or experience. We compare directly with observation to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t make a difference how beautiful your guess is, to doesn’t make a difference how smart you are or what his name is, its wrong. That’s all there is to it. [/quote]
Source: https://www.mojologic.com.au/speech-32-richard-feynman-the-scientific-method/
Here is the man himself saying it:
[media=https://youtu.be/0KmimDq4cSU]
newjaninev2 · 56-60, F
@ninalanyon Wonderful, isn’t it! One of the clearest, most elegant, and effective explanations I’ve ever seen
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
@newjaninev2 His lectures were one of the set books when I studied for my Applied Physics degree in the mid '70s. Feynman was an excellent lecturer and populariser, he had a gift for cutting out what is unnecessary and laying the essence of a problem bare.
I remember that he was asked to consult on the construction of Danny Hillis' Connection Machine (a massively parallel computer). One of the problems that they were having was to do with the speed of communication between parts of the computer. Now Feynman was not an electronics engineer so he applied the tools that he was comfortable with, in this case, differential calculus, and succeeded where Hillis and his team had struggled.
And of course he was called in to the enquiry on the Challenger Shuttle disaster. Then he demonstrated the cause of the failure in a way so simple that a five year old could see it.
I remember that he was asked to consult on the construction of Danny Hillis' Connection Machine (a massively parallel computer). One of the problems that they were having was to do with the speed of communication between parts of the computer. Now Feynman was not an electronics engineer so he applied the tools that he was comfortable with, in this case, differential calculus, and succeeded where Hillis and his team had struggled.
And of course he was called in to the enquiry on the Challenger Shuttle disaster. Then he demonstrated the cause of the failure in a way so simple that a five year old could see it.
newjaninev2 · 56-60, F
@ninalanyon Yes, I remember his work on Challenger... and the attempts to shut him down when it became obvious how appallingly simple and foreseeable the cause had been