1.1 The scope and scale of physics  (Page 6/12)

The word theory means something different to scientists than what is often meant when the word is used in everyday conversation. In particular, to a scientist a theory is not the same as a “guess” or an “idea” or even a “hypothesis.” The phrase “it’s just a theory” seems meaningless and silly to scientists because science is founded on the notion of theories. To a scientist, a theory    is a testable explanation for patterns in nature supported by scientific evidence and verified multiple times by various groups of researchers. Some theories include models to help visualize phenomena whereas others do not. Newton’s theory of gravity, for example, does not require a model or mental image, because we can observe the objects directly with our own senses. The kinetic theory of gases, on the other hand, is a model in which a gas is viewed as being composed of atoms and molecules. Atoms and molecules are too small to be observed directly with our senses—thus, we picture them mentally to understand what the instruments tell us about the behavior of gases. Although models are meant only to describe certain aspects of a physical system accurately, a theory should describe all aspects of any system that falls within its domain of applicability. In particular, any experimentally testable implication of a theory should be verified. If an experiment ever shows an implication of a theory to be false, then the theory is either thrown out or modified suitably (for example, by limiting its domain of applicability).

A law    uses concise language to describe a generalized pattern in nature supported by scientific evidence and repeated experiments. Often, a law can be expressed in the form of a single mathematical equation. Laws and theories are similar in that they are both scientific statements that result from a tested hypothesis and are supported by scientific evidence. However, the designation law is usually reserved for a concise and very general statement that describes phenomena in nature, such as the law that energy is conserved during any process, or Newton’s second law of motion, which relates force ( F ), mass ( m ), and acceleration ( a ) by the simple equation $F=ma.$ A theory, in contrast, is a less concise statement of observed behavior. For example, the theory of evolution and the theory of relativity cannot be expressed concisely enough to be considered laws. The biggest difference between a law and a theory is that a theory is much more complex and dynamic. A law describes a single action whereas a theory explains an entire group of related phenomena. Less broadly applicable statements are usually called principles (such as Pascal’s principle, which is applicable only in fluids), but the distinction between laws and principles often is not made carefully.