Never tell a scientist it's "just a theory"
bigthink.com
When the average person has a "theory," they're just guessing. But for a scientist, a theory is the pinnacle of what we can achieve.
  • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
    62·
    1 year ago

    Anyone that uses the term “just a theory” as a way to downplay some kind of scientific statement is showing their ignorance.

    I will take one small issue with one of the things they mentioned in the article. They stated that a theory is the pinnacle. Well that isn’t exactly accurate because a scientific Law is one step above that.

    • StructuredPair@lemmy.world
      41·
      1 year ago

      Laws aren’t better than theories; they are generally statements about a narrow range of phenomena which can be expressed mathematically while a theory covers a wide range of phenomena. For example, theory explains the origin of all conservation laws in physics as being the result of symmetry. Each law covers a specific thing (i.e. conservation of momentum) while the theory covers all conserved quantities.