Re: Examples of Coincidence as Misleading Explanation


Rich Sondheim wrote:
Hey,

I was wondering if anyone could give me one or more good examples
where, in the history of physics, coincidence was mistakenly accepted
as a legitimate explanation for a phenomenon that ended up not being
the least bit coincidental

It is the nature of human intelligence to *seek* patterns in the
behvior of the observable universe. This vastly reduces the amount of
anecdotal evidence that must be memorized, allowing a large set of
similar experiences to be replaced in the conceptual model of the
universe by a simple 'rule.' Physics itself may be described as the
search for such rules.

To accept 'coincidence' as an explanation for something to which there
*is* a legitimate rule is to act in a decidedly *unintelligent* manner.

--- or a phenomenon was simply ignored
because it did not conform to the generally accepted theory.

For reasons that should be obvious, there is no available information
on anything which is ignored. Once a record is created noting a
phenomenon, it is no longer 'ignored.'

(Could the wave properties of light be considered an example of the
latter case, given that it called the then generally accepted particle
theory into question ?)

Wave properties of light have *always* been considered in the history
of the study of the nature of light. So have particle properties. The
best answer we have so far is that a 'photon' is a quantized amount of
energy that is best modeled as a travelling wave in Minkowski
four-space, which can exhibit the properties of *either* a particle
moving at c in three-dimensional space *or* a three-dimentional wave,
depending on which properties are being examined (energy, wavelength,
polarization, angular momentum, etc.) and under what conditions
(absorbtion, diffraction, refraction, etc.) Mathematicians can show
this is true of a four-tensor. What is not obvious is what a
four-tensor 'looks like.'

"Analogies are like ropes; they tie things together prett ywell, but
you won't get very far if you try to push them." - Thaddeus Stout

Tom Davidson
Richmond, VA

.

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