Flat Earth
Science works according to certain rules. One of them is that when a scientist has a new idea that he thinks is right, he publishes his results so scientists all around the world can check his results. If their experiments agree with his, his theory will be accepted as correct.
But it doesn't stop there. Other scientists will take the theory and build on it, attempting to explain the way our world works. Eventually the theory will be the basis of many other theories, and all of them may accurately describe, predict, or explain the way things work.
But, surprisingly, this does not necessarily mean that the original theory was 'correct'! It all depends what you mean by 'correct'.
For example, a long time ago, most people believed the theory that the earth was flat. This is obviously an incorrect theory.
Then a new theory came along. This new theory stated that the earth was a sphere. Most people believe this theory ... you probably do too.
But it's not a correct theory either!
In fact, the true shape of the earth is an 'oblate spheroid', which is a sphere that is thicker at the equator than at the poles. The difference in thickness is almost unnoticeable; if you drew a picture of the earth, the difference in thickness across, compared to top to bottom, would be less than the thickness of your pencil line.
But the fact remains that the theory that the earth is a sphere is incorrect.
However, you must agree that the sphere theory is almost correct. It's certainly a far more correct theory than the 'flat earth' one!
Theories can be dead wrong. ('Flat earth') They can also be partly right. But most importantly, they can be mostly right!
Here's an example of a mostly right theory. The 'Law of Gravity' is really only a theory, did you know that? (There's actually no such thing as a 'law' in science ... only a theory that most scientists accept as being mostly correct). What we mostly know about gravity was first described by Isaac Newton some 400 years ago, and his theory was so perfectly descriptive of what we experience in our ordinary world, that it was generally accepted to be true ... at least, until the 20th century, when Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking showed that there is more to gravity than Newton realized. A new theory of gravity, one that will also explain what happens inside black holes, is now generally accepted to be 'mostly true'.
But it doesn't stop there. Other scientists will take the theory and build on it, attempting to explain the way our world works. Eventually the theory will be the basis of many other theories, and all of them may accurately describe, predict, or explain the way things work.
But, surprisingly, this does not necessarily mean that the original theory was 'correct'! It all depends what you mean by 'correct'.
For example, a long time ago, most people believed the theory that the earth was flat. This is obviously an incorrect theory.
Then a new theory came along. This new theory stated that the earth was a sphere. Most people believe this theory ... you probably do too.
But it's not a correct theory either!
In fact, the true shape of the earth is an 'oblate spheroid', which is a sphere that is thicker at the equator than at the poles. The difference in thickness is almost unnoticeable; if you drew a picture of the earth, the difference in thickness across, compared to top to bottom, would be less than the thickness of your pencil line.
But the fact remains that the theory that the earth is a sphere is incorrect.
However, you must agree that the sphere theory is almost correct. It's certainly a far more correct theory than the 'flat earth' one!
Theories can be dead wrong. ('Flat earth') They can also be partly right. But most importantly, they can be mostly right!
Here's an example of a mostly right theory. The 'Law of Gravity' is really only a theory, did you know that? (There's actually no such thing as a 'law' in science ... only a theory that most scientists accept as being mostly correct). What we mostly know about gravity was first described by Isaac Newton some 400 years ago, and his theory was so perfectly descriptive of what we experience in our ordinary world, that it was generally accepted to be true ... at least, until the 20th century, when Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking showed that there is more to gravity than Newton realized. A new theory of gravity, one that will also explain what happens inside black holes, is now generally accepted to be 'mostly true'.
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