Not why?... How?

Question

When I took AP Chemistry last year, my teacher would tell me never to ask why, only how. And my father has explained to me that in Science, as in Math, you can't ask why because some things just are. My question is: Do people declare something as an "it just is" when Science can no longer probe its mysteries? Or is that just the furthest point Science has gotten or is needed to go to before exploration of the subject becomes unbeneficial to society? Hasn't anyone been curious enough to explain the whys... or just got too lost to explain them?

Answer 1

Why implies there is a reason something happens. There is no reason chemistry is the way it is (unless you want to attribute it to God, but that's not the question here).

How implies there is a mechanism by which something happens. This can easily be tested, reported, critiqued, duplicated, etc.

Science does not declare something "just is". Science tries to determine the mechanisms that govern our world, so we can best work within our world. We cannot determine the reason these mechanisms exist.

Answer 2

Well, I've just taken a philo class as a freshman college course, and i might have an answer to that question. I think that there are just certain things that must be accepted as fact, and nothing else but fact. If we tried to explain those things, the explanations would be meaningless. Certain questions your teacher would not be able to answer simply because he does not want to take the time out to explain them. The explanations may be too difficult and outside of your scope of understanding. Although most things in science are explanable, there are some things that just cannot be presented with a why, simply because it is logically impossible to do so.

Answer 3

Somethings are true whether you believe them or not. That being said, many things in Science are theories that have a heck of a lot of factual back up. That is how some things come to be accepted. Challenge these things. Rage against these standards and ask why. The fact that two very smart people share a PHILOSOPHY doesn't make it the only way to approach things. There is way more we don't know and understand than what we do know and pretend to understand.

Answer 4

Yeah I hate that too. Welcome to the scientific community. These guys stopped asking why to a LOT of questions over the years, like why does gravity do what it does? Why is there a charge separation that creates lightning? Why do the rays extending out from the crater Tycho on the moon stretch a quarter of the way around the moon?

These guys just don't know anymore, and even in the face of new evidence they just... don't.... care? I don't know what it is, but we ought to know that lightning isn't created by cold blowing air hitting warm moist air. Elves and sprites show us this.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpappadiaz/discharge.gif

We think we know how the Great Pyramid was built, but do we know why? Well pyramid means "fire in the middle" in Greek. The capstone from the Great Pyramid is missing but it was most likely made of gold, making the pyramid a massive lightning rod. We know the green electric fire exists, so what exactly were these ancient priests up to in there? That would be our why.

The Arch of the Covenant was made of gold, and the directions for it in the Bible tell us exactly how to make an electric capacitor. Another portion of the Bible explains a mercy seat, with two gold cherubs on either side between which the arc of God existed. What kind of fire do you think was on the burning bush that spoke to Moses? That green electric fire.

Why is all this going on? Why do people neglect the obvious? Because they're blind and stupid and somewhere along the line they got to thinking that ALL men were created equally, of mind and body. The truth is that we're not, and some men are smarter and are more qualified to figure these things out than others.

Electromagnetics run the Universe, and cause our planets to spin around inside the Sun's magnetic field. Keep asking why dude, we need more thinkers like yourself. Right now we are allowing very close-minded men whose livelihoods depend on how they are accepted by their peers to make decisions for us.

If these men stray too far from the mainstream, they risk putting a light on themselves that can make or break them and many of these people don't do well under that kind of pressure... so they don't... and we learn the same old recycled garbage regardless if new evidence suggests it may not be true. In fact, these men have found a new way to keep the same old garbage out there: they incorporate it into their old theories. Star systems and clouds of hydrogen and entire galaxies spinning too fast? Dark matter. We can't see it, but we know it must be there because of gravity.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e397/Bigpappadiaz/DarkGalaxy.jpg

What do you NOT see in that picture? A cloud of hydrogen gas, spinning waaaaay to fast for the amount of matter in there that we can detect. So what's holding VIRGOHI21 together? Dark matter they say! According to Dr Robert Minchin, of Cardiff University: "From its speed, we realised that VIRGOHI21 was a THOUSAND TIMES more massive than could be accounted for by the observed hydrogen atoms alone." Added emphasis on the THOUSAND because that's just ridiculous that they'd even propose that.

You think they would start asking why, but nope. Dark matter and gravity.

Answer 5

Why implies cause and effect. Even though this is a fundamental driving force especially in physics, there are some things (like a prev answerer stated about why is there a universe) which we know the effect but cannot explain the cause without getting metaphysical.

Answer 6

It's because the question "why" is a metaphysical (beyond physics) question. Science can't provide an answer for WHY the universe exists (for instance--God, chance, accident) but it can answer HOW the universe came into existence (the physical mechanisms that have allowed the universe to evole into what it is today).

Answer 7

Sometimes science will take you not quite there. So somebody is able to provide a stepping stone [theory] to get you where you are going. I'm answering this as a pragmatist and not a scientist.

Answer 8

I think that many of the whys have been answered but many of the explanations being taught to you are just the beginning/simple explanations. When you get into the more advanced classes you begin to learn the whys of things. They are just too detailed and complex to be taught at first.

Answer 9

my three year old is constantly asking why, why why??? in science, i guess you should always be asking why...that's the only way to really keep going with it....personally i hate science, it's difficult and i have to really study to stay on top of it....but i would think why is always the fundamental question on every researcher's mind.....