Find solution
What are words synonymous with ''rebellious"?

What is the power of words in science to mean reality or truth?

  • Scientists often invent words to fill the holes in their understanding. These words are meant as conveniences until real understanding can be found. Sometimes understanding comes and the temporary words can be replaced with words that have more meaning. More often, however, the patch words will take on a life of their own and no one will remember that they were only intended to be placeholders. For example, some physicists describe gravity in terms of ten dimensions all curled up. But those aren’t real words—just placeholders, used to refer to parts of abstract equations. Even if the equations someday prove useful, it would say nothing about the existence of other dimensions. Words such as dimension and field and infinity are nothing more than conveniences for mathematicians and scientists. They are not descriptions of reality, yet we accept them as such because everyone is sure someone else knows what the words mean.

  • Answer:

    I think that the layman and psudo-science culture has co-opted those words and decided they represent actual proven things. If you talked to scientists who actually knew i doubt they would hold the same view. For example i see episodes on the history channel talking about worm holes like they actually can be used to travel around. Completely theoretical by the standards of any real scientist. Similarly with extra dimensions, in theory sure, in reality no one would say for sure they exist untill it can be proved. But that doesnt stop laymen from claiming they are real and that you can travel between them.

Fruitpunchsamurai at Answerbag.com Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

because new words have no other meanings so they can be used precisely. any theoretical science is going to, by necessity, deal with an abstraction of the universe or some element of it. i'm a programmer, so i'll give an example from software engineering. if you have a function f(x, y, z) = x + y * z, the function can be partially applied by substituting one of the arguments with a value. for example if i substitute x with 10 then i have f(10, y, z) = 10 + y * z. so in reality, all functions can be thought of as functions of one argument, where the partial application of the function results in a function that takes the remaining arguments. f(10) results in a function f'(y, z) = 10 + y * z, and f'(6) results in a function f''(z) = 10 + 6 * z and f''(1) results in a function f''' = 10 + 6 * 1. in this case, the function f is said to be curried. that new word, curried, tells me exactly the above, in one easy word with no ambiguity. so that's the purpose of the word, but to your main point, we are dealing with an abstraction. but that's fine, even desirable. i want to deal with abstractions, because that's how i understand. so the question of why use an abstraction (language) for an abstraction (math) for an abstraction (the underlying idea that the mathematics models) for the universe, has a simple answer. what else can we do? we can't express or understand the universe in and of itself. if we could, we'd have no use for science to begin with. similarly, maybe i *can* write all my code in assembly, but it would quickly become much to complicated for me to handle.

Anonymous

The square cube law. Gives an accurate, yet simple way to understand entropy. No "new words" are needed.

Moongrim

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.