[Robert Peirce]

On 3/17/15 9:33 PM, wrote:
Yep. The one thing that is required of a scientific theory is that it
must be possible to prove it is false. It is considered valid until
that point.

The term is "falsifiable."

True but not really important. Falsifiable is an adjective derived from
the verb falsify which by one definition means to prove a statement or
theory to be false.

Really? Care to cite these specific mathematical proofs?

Can't do it. I was quoting somebody else and I don't have access to his
notes.

"Proven" by whom? Where are these proofs?

See above. ScottW said the proof was of something other than what
Armstrong did, which may be true.

My only point, which may have been poorly stated, was that many people
accept theories as truth when they aren't. They may, in fact, be true,
but only until they aren't.

Name any credible attempts to "prove" that Nyquist's theorem is
wrong. While you're at it, sow us similar proofs that Pythagorus's
theorem is wrong as well.

I don't think Nyquist's theory is a theorem because theorems are proven
by reasoning from something already accepted. I think of geometric
proofs in this regard. Theories usually require experimental evidence,
even if they begin as mathematical conjecture. I don't know that to be
the case with Nyquist, but I am assuming it is. I could be wrong.

I know of no proofs that either are wrong. My only point is one cannot
accept Nyquist's theory as true. It may be, but the neat thing about
science is that somewhere down the line you may find that it isn't.

No, a gospel is something someone believes because they
have faith in it.

I agree. I used gospel as a synonym for true. It is a colloquialism
that may not be commonly used in your area.

A "theorem" is not a gospel, rather it
is something that it supported by a very sound set of
mathematical concepts.

I think that is true [gospel] as well.


You or anyone else can choose to "believe" or not in any
theorem: denying its validity is something your get to
do at your won peril: the physical world around cares not
one wit of your's or anyone else's "belief".


Or theory! I don't think I said I believed in any of this. I said, if
it is a sound scientific theory, it has to be capable of being proved
false, usually because it turns out not to conform to the physical world.