An example that's vivid for me, in line with Keith's comments below:
I'm pretty sure that Newton's model (Force = Mass * Acceleration) is valid
enough to make man to the moon and back. A quick calculation makes me
think that Einstein's model, at the speeds of the Apollo spacecraft, makes
a difference of only one part in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 ( 1 in 10**18).
I do still enjoy physics!
And, my point for org learning is that, in real-life situation, 1) no
model will ever be perfect, and 2) we can do a lot with valid models that
are not perfect.
-- Rick
On Thu, 16 Jan 1997, K SANDROCK wrote:
> ...Einstein showed us that the correct
> expression is:
> V = (v1+v2)/(1+(v1v2/c**2)) where c is the speed of light.
>
> Now for my statement. In systems engineering we need to distinguish
> between Validity and Truth (with acknowledgement to Thomas Saaty).
> Ptolomy's model was cumbersome and neither valid or true. But
> Newton's models although they can be refuted (they are not
> TRUE models of the real world), are most certainly valid for all
> practical purposes.
--
Richard Karash ("Rick") | <http://world.std.com/~rkarash>
Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer | email: rkarash@karash.com
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