difference between a theory and a law

There is a subtle but crucial difference between scientific theories and laws.

Laws are generalizations about what has happened, from which we can generalize about what we expect to happen. They pertain to observational data. The ability of the ancients to predict eclipses had nothing to do with whether they knew just how they happened; they had a law but not a theory.# Theories are explanations of observations (or of laws). The fact that we have a pretty good understanding of how stars explode doesn’t necessarily mean we could predict the next supernova; we have a theory but not a law.source: Dan Berger, MadSciNet

Thus, we have the law of gravity, and the theory of evolution. A theory does not become a law through a hierarchical promotion due to the collection of more and more supporting evidence.

McComas, William wrote, “
The problem created by the false hierarchical nature inherent in this myth [hypotheses become theories which become laws] is that theories and laws are very different kinds of knowledge. Of course there is a relationship between laws and theories, but one simply does not become the other–no matter how much empirical evidence is amassed. Laws are generalizations, principles or patterns in nature and theories are the explanations of those generalizations (Rhodes & Schaible, 1989; Homer & Rubba, 1979; Campbell, 1953).

source: “Ten myths of science: Reexamining what we think we know….,” Vol. 96, School Science & Mathematics, 01-01-1996, pp 10. http://www.bluffton.edu/~bergerd/NSC_111/TenMyths.html

[Photomedia Forum post by T.Neugebauer from Feb 26, 2006]

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