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11 answers

Five answers were given.
Since your question appeared in physics section. The word law meant natural law, not legal word law.
I think of Newton's law. But even relativity theory would not reverse the Newton's law.
You have a good question.

2007-02-09 09:14:18 · answer #1 · answered by chanljkk 7 · 1 0

I guess laws of physics are a human concept, devised by humans to explain things. They're only theories really, but proved beyond *reasonable* doubt by science and experiments. The laws were developed based on human kind's experiences of the world.

If a law does change, you can't go up to nature and say 'hey, you can't do that, our laws say that's impossible!' Nature and physics don't take any notice of human ideas of how the universe works.

I don't think the laws do change, maybe just our way of looking at them does. For example, it may once have been a 'law' that light is a wave but they now reckon it's not, it's a photon, except it's not actually a photon either. Different models help explain things that we can't otherwise understand, but they aren't necessarily right.

I think it would be quite interesting if a law reversed itself, like if newtons laws of motion were suddenly wrong and objects moved at a constant speed even when a force was applied, it would change the world entirely, to such an extent that it would probably cease to exist because the flow of energy would be totally messed up.

That's just my opinion, I didn't write it down very well, sorry, but it makes sense in my head. Sort of.

2007-02-09 17:30:17 · answer #2 · answered by Turtle 2 · 0 0

The constitution of the state and country determine how laws are made. There are provisions for laws to be reversed. Hopefully, we have leaders who are wise enough not to reverse them "randomly" but only for good reasons.

If you're talking about scientific laws, there is no convention. Law is just a term people use for a theory that's been around for a while and works very well. Laws are modified (like Newton's laws under quantum mechanics and relativity) to extend their reach beyond where they have been tested, but they are never really reversed completely. They still have good predictive value in their realm of applicability (or they never would have been considered laws in the first place).

Don't sweat it too much though. Law and theory are just semantic terms.

2007-02-09 17:04:18 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

I think you are talking about the laws of physics? They seem to make sense. Randomly reverse themselves? Whats that?

2007-02-09 17:14:33 · answer #4 · answered by David H 6 · 0 0

No one says that that cannot randomly reverse themselves. But, it hasn't been observed, and using the laws works. So, you use the laws. Why they stop working, then the laws will change.

2007-02-09 17:03:51 · answer #5 · answered by Your Best Fiend 6 · 1 0

The only law that is absolute is Murphy's Law: if anything can go wrong, it will.
As for other "laws"--not human laws, but natural ones such as Gravity-- I think they could change due to factors we humans are not aware of. Also, a law of physics which applies on Earth may not on another planet. Science is becoming increasingly interested in "wild" possibilities such as alternate realities or dimensions. I remember reading once that planets randomly reverse their poles and/or alter their axises...and that ours was overdue for a change. Ok, now my brain is going to explode.

2007-02-09 17:12:31 · answer #6 · answered by Gallifrey's Gone 4 · 0 0

There are two different types of "laws" in physics: laws developed by the process of deductive reasoning, and laws developed by the process of inductive reasoning. Laws developed from deductive reasoning include those mathematical laws that are required by the system of mathematics that we have created (for example, geometric laws such as the Pythagorean theorem that can be proven so long as we accept our fundamental system of mathematics - i.e., two points define a unique line, three non-colinear points define a plane). Laws developed by deductive reasoning cannot "reverse" themselves because they are not dependent on physical observations. They are just dependent on our own language of mathematics and logic. That is, they are internally consistent with each other.

On the other hand, laws developed by the process of inductive reasoning are based on observations of nature. They are "laws" because our observations of nature indicate that, to the best of our ability to measure and observe, they are always consistent with our observations and measurements. These "laws" cannot be proven to be true - and as our ability to observe and measure improves with new technologies, they are often found to be false. For example, at the turn of the 20th century, quantum physics and relativity were created to explain the failure of the existing "laws" of classical physics.

It is certainly possible - even probable - that laws of physics developed by inductive reasoning will need to be modified in the future. For example, humans are living in a brief instant of time. We do not know - we cannot reliably measure - whether the "constants" of the universe will change over millions of years. Perhaps as the universe expands, the gravitational constant is changing - we just cannot know that answer because humans have only been able to make reasonable measurements of the gravitational "constant" for the past few centuries out of billions and billions of years.

2007-02-09 21:00:18 · answer #7 · answered by volume_watcher 3 · 0 0

Laws are written limits to what we, as a society, may and may not do. Their purpose is to help us to coexist as a collective group of individuals, with a common framework for us to live our lives within.

However, laws DO change, even so far as to reverse themselves, as our societies grow and evolve. Prohibition is a prime example, whereby the consumption of alcohol was deemed "illegal", only to be reversed years later when society decided that the law was not only applicable but unenforcable.

2007-02-09 17:03:28 · answer #8 · answered by pblcbox 4 · 0 0

Nobody says they would or wouldn't.

They are laws since there is no evidence that they work otherwise and since they are commonly accepted.

Even so, laws do change. Look at Newton's Laws of Motion. They work fine at the speeds we normally observe, but at the speed of light, then Einstein's "theory" seems to kick in.

2007-02-09 17:07:45 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

Nothing can be proved to be totally impossible; read some David Hume to recognize that.

But still there's a right way to bet and a wrong way.

2007-02-09 17:04:12 · answer #10 · answered by Curt Monash 7 · 0 0

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