1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910298964303321

Autore

Falmagne Jean-Claude

Titolo

On Meaningful Scientific Laws / / by Jean-Claude Falmagne, Christopher Doble

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin, Heidelberg : , : Springer Berlin Heidelberg : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2015

ISBN

3-662-46098-X

Edizione

[1st ed. 2015.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (175 p.)

Disciplina

004

Soggetti

Algorithms

Computer science—Mathematics

Difference equations

Functional equations

Philosophy and science

Algorithm Analysis and Problem Complexity

Math Applications in Computer Science

Difference and Functional Equations

Philosophy of Science

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Overview -- Extensive Measurement -- Functional Equations -- Abstract Axioms and their Representations -- Defining Meaningfulness -- Meaningfullness and Dimensional Invariance -- Propagating Axioms via Meaningfulness -- Meaningful Representation of Scientific Codes -- Order Invariance under Transformations -- Open Problems -- Bibliography -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

The authors describe systematic methods for uncovering scientific laws a priori, on the basis of intuition, or "gedanken experiments". Mathematical expressions of scientific laws are, by convention, constrained by the rule that their form must be invariant with changes of the units of their variables. This constraint makes it possible to narrow down the possible forms of the laws. It is closely related to, but different from, dimensional analysis. It is a mathematical book, largely based on solving functional equations. In fact, one chapter is an



introduction to the theory of functional equations.