Abstract
A relationship or a scientific law describes the regular sequence of a happening obtained by the result of the systematic observation of physical reality which is therefore characterized by the repeatability of its results being equal the recreation of its initial conditions. This aspect has been heavily underlined in Chap. 1. We have said that in its very nature the scientific method consists of repetitive logical phases (the abduction phase, the deduction phase and the induction phase, cf. Chap. 1). These three phases enable us to formulate a hypothesis which can explain the observations we have made, to foresee from these same hypotheses a number of “states” of evolution in the physical system under consideration and validate the consistency of the hypotheses formulated using a further phase of verification.
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Notes
- 1.
Frequently, we are talking about verifications carried out by experimentation, sometimes of demonstrations from logical deductions. In this sense, we could refer, for example, to the deductions formulated by Einstein in creating his Relativity Theory, which consisted in long mathematical demonstrations, i.e., by developing complex mathematical equations. Paradoxically, Einstein reached the definition of his theory of relativity without ever carrying out a single experiment to validate his thought, but using only reason and mathematics. Other physicists, contemporaries of his, would have the burden of using experimental methods to verify the consistency of his theories. This is a rare case in the history of scientific thought, in which a scientist discovered a law that was universally valid without ever knuckling down to the phase of experimental verification.
- 2.
- 3.
To allow for simplicity of discussion we can leave out the fact that in this specific case the non-specialized knowledge of the man in the street would be enough. Let us imagine, however, a situation where there is real need of an expert’s specialization. In any case, even in the complexity of the disciplines that are being utilized, knowledge must be transferred and made comprehensible to the non-technician, such as the attorney, the judge, the magistrate.
- 4.
N.R. Hanson, Pattern of Discovery, Cambridge University Press, London, 1958.
- 5.
To put it in Hanson’s words “to know why the kingdom was lost it is not enough to know that a battle was fought, that a battalion and a rider fared badly, that a horseshoe-nail was missing. It is also necessary to be familiar with the frictional properties of nails imbedded in cartilaginous substances, to know why horses are happier when shod, why dispatch carriers requires horses, how helpless an isolated battalion can be, how much an army’s fortunes can depend on one battalion, and the ways in which the security of kingdoms can depend on military success.”
- 6.
N.R. Hanson, op. cit.
- 7.
We refer, for example, to airbags that have not worked correctly, to the fact that the chassis of the vehicle has a flaw in absorbing an impact from the side, or even that the guard rail on the road is not the right shape and/or cannot absorb the impact.
- 8.
An invariance law is a law that, in clear surrounding conditions, forces the events to develop in a repetitive manner. The law of gravity is an example of an invariance law, which establishes that, on condition it is not above a certain height, a body which has been left free will be attracted towards the ground with an acceleration equal to 9 · 81 m/sc2.
- 9.
This “necessary” condition is clearly connected to the probability that the patient will survive after an operation; we must, therefore, define in terms of “logical” first, and then of statistical probability, the normal implications of a surgical operation carried out to reduce the pressure of blood that has spilled inside the cranium.
- 10.
In Chap. 1 we already met R. P. Feynman. His famous Lessons in Physics are milestones still today in the physics that is taught in universities all around the world, Lessons in Physics, Addison Wesley, 1963. Starting out from the description of the scientific method and the meaning of research, Feynman’s lessons describe the evolution of physics in the XX century, illustrating its connection with other sciences.
- 11.
Remember that we do not generally have an available filmed documentation of all that happened. If we are luckier, there is some film footage to get down to work on, but for a great deal of other instants in time we cannot have any recordings that can be rewound as we please so we can analyze and extract the instants that we consider the key events of the chain. Moreover, even in cases where we have available filmed footage of the fact, it must never come as a surprise if, during a hearing two technical consultants or two lawyers interpret each film still in diametrically opposing ways. For this reason, analysis of the traces becomes of fundamental importance even in cases where we consider ourselves fortunate because we are in possession of a document that allows us to examine the sequence of events in an historical way.
- 12.
For example, the braking skid marks left on the asphalt and the presence of other fragments of material found in particular positions allow us, when they are interpreted correctly, to reconstruct the blowout event of the car tire including the trajectory the vehicle followed subsequent to the event. Further analysis could give us even more information about the phenomenon that has taken place: the placement of the fragments of tire material found, for example, at a certain distance from the first skid marks could mean that the blowout took place earlier in time than the braking of the car and not vice versa. The blowout of the tire represents the phenomena that took place at a given instant in time: this blowout is responsible for the alteration of the vehicle + driver system in normal operating conditions to the skidding condition as the driver loses control of the vehicle.
- 13.
J. Woodward, “Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation.”
- 14.
The term “manipulated” is employed by Woodward in the sense that the relationship between X and Y is able to describe properly as Y would change through a causal process that is “activated” by a certain variation of X produced. To produce variation on X, we would be capable to “manipulate” system; manipulation is therefore synonym of experimental test in scientist’s words. Scientist provokes system variation by producing conscious modifications of X, so that system replies with variation of Y. Finally scientist reasons whether modifications of system have occurred under invariant laws that links X inputs to Y outputs.
- 15.
The discovery of “invariant” and “universal laws” allowed scientists to explain why the phenomena and to predict them. Discovering gravitational invariant laws, for example, has allowed humans to construct an object that, by burning the fuel, can receive a force upward with a certain speed to get a specific point in the Earth’s orbit and thus to release another object that moves regularly at a certain distance from the ground and transmits our preferred program on our satellite TV.
- 16.
If for no other reason that the fact that it would appear practically impossible to have precise knowledge of the conditions which have created a “past” event which we are trying to reconstruct using the traces left by the evolution of that system (cf. Chap. 1).
- 17.
The principle formulated by Newton (perfecting what had already been expressed by Galileo) affirms that to change in any way the speed and the direction where a body is moving you need to apply a force.
- 18.
Generally speaking, the energy expended in the movement of a body is equal to the force that is acting on that body multiplied by the distance it has travelled.
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D’Errico, F., Casa, M.D. (2016). Causation by Scientific Laws. In: The Sequence of Event Analysis in Criminal Trials. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47898-1_3
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