Introduction to The restless Universe
1 The lawful Universe2 The clockwork Universe3 The irreversible Universe 4 The intangible Universe
5 The uncertain Universe6 Closing items -------------------- Other titles in the Physical World series Describing motion Predicting motion Classical physics of matter Static fields and potentials Dynamic fields and waves Quantum physics: an introduction Quantum physics of matter | Answer and commentsSee Question 1.1 with its relevant text See all the questions Question 1.1
When Jesuits first visited China they spoke about the 'laws of science'. The Chinese thought this was a ridiculous notion: people could be persuaded to obey the laws of the Emperor, but sticks and stones have no intelligence so it is absurd to think of them as 'obeying laws'. How would you respond to this?
The Chinese were perhaps right, but their complaint is more about language than substance. When we talk about a system obeying a scientific law, we do not mean that the system has understood the law and is consciously following it. We just mean that the behaviour of the system follows a pattern that is predictable, and that someone has discovered and announced this pattern as a scientific law.
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