Hacker News Reader

Comment by LucasLanglois | Hacker News Reader

Interestingly, this highlights that despite popular belief, the scientific process is not about being right or wrong but rather what's powerful.

A theory is promoted because it is powerful in explaining observations and providing tools for humanity until it is improved by the next one. You can build a gun with gravitation but you need relativity for a rocket.

View on HN

Quoting from the article "Newton's theory of gravitation, while incomplete over vast distances and enormous speeds, is perfectly suitable for the Solar System. Halley's Comet appears punctually as Newton's theory of gravitation and laws of motion predict. All of rocketry is based on Newton, and Voyager II reached Uranus within a second of the predicted time. None of these things were outlawed by relativity."

We need relativity to correct the atomic clocks on GPS satellites so as to maintain positional accuracy to a few feet, but getting the satellites up there needed only Newtonian mechanics.

All models are wrong; some models are useful.

> the scientific process is not about being right or wrong but rather what's powerful.

Ugh, this is something that bothers me all to hell and back about the non-scientific minded.

"Your science was wrong about (this minute detail), therefore whatever completely made up bullshit I thought up without any supporting evidence is totally valid"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com