The ability to
predict
Our way of describing
the natural law,
e.g. with an equation
that we write on a piece of paper,
reflects only roughly that which is prescribed by the Natural Law.
The accuracy of the description of
what is actually happening is limited.
This approximate
description though is
extremely useful as
it provides us
with the ability to make a prediction.
That is the way all
applications are made:
We plan, say, the
construction of an aircraft and we predict:
This machine will be able to take off with a load of 60 tons
and reach airspeed of 700 km/h.
After the
construction, during the test flight, we note usually
that we have erred only slightly. The machine carries 59.7 tons
and it reaches 705 km/h.
Our ability to
forecast varies from case to case.
We can predict the
motion of a planet in
the solar system with great accuracy;
the movement of a leaf falling from a tree
with less.
The more we study
the phenomena,
the greater is the accuracy of our
prognosis.
We correct our expression
of the law,
for example by
introducing an additional
factor into our equation, and we measure
more accurately the initial conditions which
sometimes affect the result considerably.
Sometimes we may
need to change
the whole formulation
or even
our perception of the phenomenon
which does not mean that we should give
special significance to this
event.