首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis: you can never prove it. No matter how many
Any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis: you can never prove it. No matter how many
admin
2011-01-02
32
问题
Any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis: you can never prove it. No matter how many times the results of experiments agree with some theory, you can never be sure that the next time the result will not contradict the theory. On the other hand, you can disprove a theory by finding even a single observation that disagrees with the predictions of the theory. As philosopher of science, Karl Popper has emphasized a good theory is characterized by the fact that it makes a number of predictions that could in principle be disproved or falsified by observation. Each time new experiments are observed to agree with the predictions the theory survives, and our confidence in it is increased; but if ever a new observation is found to disagree, we have to abandon or modify the theory. At least that is what is supposed to happen, but you can always question the competence of the person who carried out the observation.
In practice, what often happens is that a new theory is devised that is really an extension of the previous theory. For example, very accurate observations of the planet Mercury revealed a small difference between its motion and the predictions of Newton’s theory of gravity. Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicted a slightly different motion from Newton’s theory. The fact that Einstein’s predictions matched what was seen, while Newton’s did not, was one of the crucial confirmations of the new theory. However, we still use Newton’s theory for all practical purposes because the difference between its predictions and those of general relativity is very small in the situations that we normally deal with. (Newton’s theory also. has the great advantage that it is much simpler to work with than Einstein’s ! )
It turns out to be very difficult to devise a theory to describe the universe all in one go. Instead, we break the problem up into bits and invent a number of partial theories. Each of these partial theories describes and predicts a certain limited class of observations, neglecting the effects of other quantities, or representing them by simple sets of numbers. It may be that this approach is completely wrong. If everything in the universe depends on everything else in a fundamental way, it might be impossible to get close to a full solution by investigating parts of the problem in isolation. Nevertheless, it is certainly the way that we have made progress in the past. The classic example again is the Newtonian theory of gravity, which tells us that the gravitational force between two bodies depends only on one number associated with each body, its mass, but is otherwise independent of what the bodies are made of. Thus one does not need to have a theory of the structure and constitution of the sun and the planets in order to calculate their orbits:
Today scientists describe the universe in terms of two basic partial theories-the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. They are the great intellectual achievements of the first half of this century. Unfortunately, however, these two theories are known to be inconsistent with each other-they cannot both be correct. One of the major endeavours in physics today, is the search for a new theory that will incorporate them both-a quantum theory of gravity. We do not yet have such a theory, and we may still be long way from having one, but we do already know many of the properties that it must have.
According to the passage, why can’t any physical theory be permanently established?
选项
A、Such a theory is only suggested as a possible way of explaining an idea.
B、The person proposing such a theory may be incompetent.
C、Observations always disagree with predictions.
D、Observations are always falsified by predictions.
答案
A
解析
本文第一段第一句就指出,任何物理理论总是暂时性的,因为它只是一种无法得到证实的假设。而hypothesis的意思就是a possible way of explaining an idea。因此选A。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/S5uYFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Allofuswouldagreethatinordertobesuccessfulinthepresent-daysociety,weuniversitygraduateshavetopossesscertain
1 Divorceisoneofthosecreations,likefastfoodandliterock.thathavemorepeoplewillingtoindulgeinitthanpeoplewi
Asignificantnumberofpeopleseektoadoptchildrenfromothercountries,aprocessknownasinternationaladoption.Peoplese
TheFamilyThenandNow Thingswerenevereasywithinthefamily.Butatatimewhenthefamilywasorientedtowardtheproduc
DreamFunctions Dreamingisacommonphenomenon.Practicallyallpeopledream,althoughwhethertheycan【1】________themisa
Thefollowingwords,EXCEPT________,formaminimalsetandthreeminimalpairs.
1993年成立了西藏翻译工作者协会,并先后成立了拉萨市和日喀则地区分会;共举办了7期翻译培训班,培训337人次;1994年在西藏举办了全国第二次暨西藏首届藏语文翻译学术研讨会,并先后派人员参加了在北京、青海、甘肃、新疆等地举办的全国性翻译学术研讨会和在澳大
InformationSuperhighwayatWorkThechangesinhowwecommunicatemakeitnecessarytochangehowwethinkaboutcommunicati
Inthelate1960smanypeopleinNorthAmericaturnedtheirattentiontoenvironmentalproblems,andnewsteel-and-glassskyscra
DidMarcoPoloTelltheTruth?ThereisacontroversyaboutMarcoPolo’striptoChina.DidMarcoPolotellthetruth?Ifyo
随机试题
舌绝不能言,足废不能用,口干不欲饮,脉沉细弱者,治宜选用()(1994年第54题)
开式喷头是无释放机构的洒水喷头,其喷水口保持常开状态。()
下列哪些物质可通过逆向轴浆流动而被运输?
关于术前用药吗啡的叙述下列哪项不正确
兴达公司共有职工400余人,该公司职工商定就职工的劳动报酬、安全卫生条件和保险福利等事项和兴达公司签订集体合同,则下列说法符合法律规定的是:()
某公司每年需要甲材料10000件,每次订货成本为400元,每件材料的年储存成本为2元,该种材料的采购价为20元/件。假设一次订货量在4000件以上可获2%的折扣,在5000件以上可获5%的折扣。要求:计算经济进货批量。
某企业销售产品每件220元,若客户购买100件(含100件)以上,每件可得到20元的商业折扣。某客户2013年12月10日购买该企业产品100件,按规定现金折扣条件为2/10、1/20、n/30。适用的增值税税率为17%。该企业于2013年12月26日收到
为提高司法公信力,保证法院、检察院独立行使审判权与检察权,党的十八届四中全会提出的具体措施有()。
太平天国初步建立政权的标志是()。
已知二次型f(x1,x2,…,xn)=(x1+a1x2)2+(x2+a2x3)2+…+(xn+anx1)2.a1,a2,…,an满足什么条件时f(x1,x2,…,xn)正定?
最新回复
(
0
)