science

Science particularly as related to creation and the creation-evolution controversy

Duality of subject and object

This post reflects a previous one here. Color (or colour) is both subjective and objective. Objectively, the rays of color light from a glass prism are different wavelengths (or frequencies) of light. The colors we see are those that reflect from objects; the others are absorbed. Colors are additive. Primary colors are red, green, blue; …

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Reciprocal derivative

The reciprocal difference quotient is or The reciprocal derivative of f(x), symbolized by a reversed prime, is the limit of the reciprocal difference quotient as x1 and x2 approach x: or as h approaches zero: The reciprocal derivative of a linear function, f(x) = ax + b, is The reciprocal derivative of a power function, …

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Adding and averaging rates

A rate is the quotient of two quantities with different, but related, units. A unit rate is a rate with a unit quantity, usually the denominator. A vector rate is a rate with a vector quantity, usually the numerator. Rates with the same units may be added, subtracted, and averaged. Addition Rates with the same …

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Harmonic vector realm

This post expands on Harmonic Algebra posted here. A vector space, or better a vector realm, to avoid connecting it with physical space, is a set V on which two operations + and · are defined, called vector addition and scalar multiplication. The operation + (vector addition) must satisfy the following conditions: Closure: If u …

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Vector inverse and mean

This post is based on research papers by Anderson and Trapp, Berlinet, and the post on Reciprocal arithmetic. The vector inverse x−1 is defined as with positive norm. For a non-zero scalar k, The reciprocal (or harmonic or parallel) sum is symbolized in various ways, but I prefer a “boxplus” to maintain its relation with addition. The …

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With and between independent variables

This post continues the previous post here on independent and dependent variables. The selection of a physical independent variable (or variables) applies to a context such as an experiment. Within that context all other variables are, at least potentially, dependent on the independent variable(s) selected. Functions with the physical independent variable as a functional independent …

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Galileo’s method

Extracts about Galileo from Scientific Method: An historical and philosophical introduction by Barry Gower (Routledge, 1997): Galileo took great pains to ensure that his readers would be persuaded that his conclusions were correct. p. 23 The science of motion was then understood to be a study of the causes of motion, and to be, like …

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Mathematics and beauty

Extracts from Scientific Method in Ptolemy’s Harmonics by Andrew Barker (Cambridge University Press 2004): Mathematics is not the study of all quantities and all quantitative relations indiscriminately. It is the science of beauty. Its task, at the theoretical level, is to interpret, in terms of ‘rationally’ or mathematically intelligible form, the features, movements or states …

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Composition order

Written compositions organized by temporal order are narratives. Items such as descriptions of people, places, or objects are organized as they occur to the narrator, for example, as the narrator takes apart an object or walks through a building or meets various people. This is a common method of composition but there are others. Spatial …

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History and science balanced

As I’ve noted before (here etc.) history and science have different aims and methods. Mixing them just confuses both of them. There is no genuine “historical science” or “scientific history”. History narrates particulars among unique events. Science theorizes universals among repeatable events. In physics time is homogeneous: an experiment is the same whether conducted today …

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