History Main / GravityIsOnlyATheory

* Climate change is a highly debated subject in the political spheres of the United States (less so in its scientific field, with roughly 97% of climate scientists supporting the model, or in the rest of the world). Its controversial nature invites us to [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment proceed with caution]].

** This leads to one of the show's funniest jokes: there's a knock on the door, and Chandler responds, "Uh oh, it's Isaac Newton and he's pissed."

* Climate change is a highly debated subject in the political spheres of the United States (less so in the scientific community, with roughly 97% of them supporting the model, or in the rest of the world). Its controversial nature invites us to [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment proceed with caution]].

** Gravity is often used to explain why even the most demonstrable theories remain theories and most scientist don't think there should be an "objective fact" category for science. Yes it's been known since mankind fist existed that things fall down, but ''why and how'' is not nearly as self evident. Even since the theory of gravity was first put forth, it's had to be modified to fit with new discoveries, as discussed above.

* This was the original position of the Catholic Church with regards to the heliocentric model (i.e. that the Earth and planets orbit the Sun rather than the Sun, planets, and basically everything else orbiting the Earth, considered the literal centre of the universe) during the time of Copernicus and Galileo. These men were allowed to publish under the proviso that it was basically a mathematical model to simplify understanding of how the universe worked, eliminating the complexities (such as "epicycles") needed to make sense of the movements of stars. Galileo got into trouble with he Church when he started making claims to theology that contradicted the Church's official teachings on Scripture, and basically appearing to mock Pope Urban VIII, by putting his works in the mouth of the Simplicio in his book ''Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems'', when that Pope had asked him simply to make an unbiased comparison of those systems and [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor insert his own words]] [[ExactWords somewhere]].
* Climate change is a highly debated subject in the political spheres of the United States (less so in the scientific community, with roughly 97% of them supporting the model, or in the rest of the world). It's controversial nature invites us to [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment proceed with caution]].

For various reasons, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Evolution}} theory of evolution]] is the only scientific theory that gets challenged on a regular basis in RealLife. [[note]]To be perfectly precise, a ''theory'' is a model that interprets and explains facts and allows for prediction - using the gravity example, a fact is that when I dropped my pen just now, it fell to the floor, while theory of gravity is a conceptual framework that lets me say, with reasonable conviction, that my pen will fall to the floor when I drop it tomorrow, and it would have fallen to the ground if there were no floor. It might do so by claiming gravity waves, gravitons, curvature of space or tap-dancing garden gnomes, and we have no real way of determining which one is true - only of weeding out theories that are false (because a false or insufficient theory will fail at prediction eventually). What "theory" actually is is a tricky, tricky subject - just go to your friendly university library and ask for some books on philosophy of science.[[/note]] In some works, however, the theory of gravity comes under fire as well, most often for purposes of analogy and satire. [[note]]The ''presence'' of gravity is not theoretical and is very clearly observed. It's the ''explanation of how gravity operates'' (as opposed to the phenomenon itself) that is indeed a theory, and has changed from time to time in the wake of new evidence, as scientific theories do. Gravity is currently best explained by the General Theory of Relativity, which has been empirically demonstrated to be correct, but which conflicts with quantum mechanics, which treats time as a constant.[[/note]]

* Climate change is a highly debated subject in the political spheres of the United States (less so in the scientific community, with roughly 97% of them supporting the model, or in the rest of the world). It's controversial nature invites us to [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment proceed with caution]].

For various reasons, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Evolution}} theory of evolution]] is the only scientific theory that gets challenged on a regular basis in RealLife.[[note]]To be perfectly precise, a ''theory'' is a model that interprets and explains facts and allows for prediction - using the gravity example, a fact is that when I dropped my pen just now, it fell to the floor, while theory of gravity is a conceptual framework that lets me say, with reasonable conviction, that my pen will fall to the floor when I drop it tomorrow, and it would have fallen to the ground if there were no floor. It might do so by claiming gravity waves, gravitons, curvature of space or tap-dancing garden gnomes, and we have no real way of determining which one is true - only of weeding out theories that are false (because a false or insufficient theory will fail at prediction eventually). What "theory" actually is is a tricky, tricky subject - just go to your friendly university library and ask for some books on philosophy of science.[[/labelnote]] In some works, however, the theory of gravity comes under fire as well, most often for purposes of analogy and satire.[[note]]The ''presence'' of gravity is not theoretical and is very clearly observed. It's the ''explanation of how gravity operates'' (as opposed to the phenomenon itself) that is indeed a theory, and has changed from time to time in the wake of new evidence, as scientific theories do. Gravity is currently best explained by the General Theory of Relativity, which has been empirically demonstrated to be correct, but which conflicts with quantum mechanics, which treats time as a constant.[[/note]]

For various reasons, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Evolution}} theory of evolution]] is the only scientific theory that gets challenged on a regular basis in RealLife.[[labelnote:Note]]To be perfectly precise, a ''theory'' is a model that interprets and explains facts and allows for prediction - using the gravity example, a fact is that when I dropped my pen just now, it fell to the floor, while theory of gravity is a conceptual framework that lets me say, with reasonable conviction, that my pen will fall to the floor when I drop it tomorrow, and it would have fallen to the ground if there were no floor. It might do so by claiming gravity waves, gravitons, curvature of space or tap-dancing garden gnomes, and we have no real way of determining which one is true - only of weeding out theories that are false (because a false or insufficient theory will fail at prediction eventually). What "theory" actually is is a tricky, tricky subject - just go to your friendly university library and ask for some books on philosophy of science.[[/labelnote]] In some works, however, the theory of gravity comes under fire as well, most often for purposes of analogy and satire.[[note]]The ''presence'' of gravity is not theoretical and is very clearly observed. It's the ''explanation of how gravity operates'' (as opposed to the phenomenon itself) that is indeed a theory, and has changed from time to time in the wake of new evidence, as scientific theories do. Gravity is currently best explained by the General Theory of Relativity, which has been empirically demonstrated to be correct, but which conflicts with quantum mechanics, which treats time as a constant. [[/note]]

For various reasons, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Evolution}} theory of evolution]] is the only scientific theory that gets challenged on a regular basis in RealLife.[[labelnote:but note]]To be perfectly precise, a ''theory'' is a model that interprets and explains facts and allows for prediction - using the gravity example, a fact is that when I dropped my pen just now, it fell to the floor, while theory of gravity is a conceptual framework that lets me say, with reasonable conviction, that my pen will fall to the floor when I drop it tomorrow, and it would have fallen to the ground if there were no floor. It might do so by claiming gravity waves, gravitons, curvature of space or tap-dancing garden gnomes, and we have no real way of determining which one is true - only of weeding out theories that are false (because a false or insufficient theory will fail at prediction eventually). What "theory" actually is is a tricky, tricky subject - just go to your friendly university library and ask for some books on philosophy of science.[[/labelnote]] In some works, however, the theory of gravity comes under fire as well, most often for purposes of analogy and satire.[[note]]The ''presence'' of gravity is not theoretical and is very clearly observed. It's the ''explanation of how gravity operates'' (as opposed to the phenomenon itself) that is indeed a theory, and has changed from time to time in the wake of new evidence, as scientific theories do. Gravity is currently best explained by the General Theory of Relativity, which has been empirically demonstrated to be correct, but which conflicts with quantum mechanics, which treats time as a constant. [[/note]]

** At the end of "Fastest with the Mostest", Wile E. stares at the Road Runner, still standing on a floating piece of rock, much to Wile E.'s confusion. He [[SignLanguage pulls out a sign]] that says, I WOULDN'T MIND, EXCEPT THAT HE DEFIES THE LAW OF GRAVITY!, but the Road Runner holds a sign that says, SURE, BUT I NEVER STUDIED LAW!, as he speeds away.

** In [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2703#comic a much later strip,]] a biology teacher reverses the arguments against evolution-- he argues that ''history'' is only a theory. More specifically, he does not believe in "the theory of revolution": According to his religion, all states were created in their current form (he handwaves away revolutions he could personally observe as "microrevolutions" whose resulting states are basically the same.[[note]]This is a parody of the creationist tactic of handwaving away as "microevolution" clearly observed cases of natural selection such as the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.[[/note]]) However, [[spoiler: he was deliberately using InsaneTrollLogic in order to prove his point that teaching Intro Biology was tougher than teaching Intro History, because even though both have to deal with wackos and conspiracy theorists of all flavours the biology professor actually has to deal with bullshit "theories" as well]].

* Climate change is a highly debated subject in the political spheres (less so in the scientific community, with roughly 97% of them supporting the model). It's controversial nature invites us to [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment proceed with caution]].

* Some hardcore SJW's beleive that biology and ''objective facts'' are social conventions, and are respectively transphobia and racism for reasons that make sense only to themselves.

* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', it was a fairly simple matter to learn how to fly. All one had to do was learn how to throw oneself at the ground... and miss. FromACertainPointOfView this is true physically: if you're up at some distance from the surface of the earth and move aside with enough speed, you will be "falling over the horizon". After some time you'll have gone all round the Earth: you're in orbit.

* Similarly, some hardcore SJW's beleive that biology and ''objective facts'' are social conventions, and are respectively transphobia and racism for reasons that make sense only to themselves.

For various reasons, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Evolution}} theory of evolution]] is the only scientific theory that gets challenged on a regular basis in RealLife.[[labelnote:but note]]To be perfectly precise, a ''theory'' is a model that explains facts and allows for prediction - using the gravity example, a fact is that when I dropped my pen just now, it fell to the floor, while theory of gravity is a conceptual framework that lets me say, with reasonable conviction, that my pen will fall to the floor when I drop it tomorrow, and it would have fallen to the ground if there were no floor. What "theory" actually is is a tricky, tricky subject - just go to your friendly university library and ask for some books on philosophy of science.[[/labelnote]] In some works, however, the theory of gravity comes under fire as well, most often for purposes of analogy and satire.[[note]]The ''presence'' of gravity is not theoretical and is very clearly observed. It's the ''explanation of how gravity operates'' (as opposed to the phenomenon itself) that is indeed a theory, and has changed from time to time in the wake of new evidence, as scientific theories do. Gravity is currently best explained by the General Theory of Relativity, which has been empirically demonstrated to be correct, but which conflicts with quantum mechanics, which treats time as a constant. [[/note]]

For various reasons, the [[UsefulNotes/{{Evolution}} theory of evolution]] is the only scientific theory that gets challenged on a regular basis in RealLife. In some works, however, the theory of gravity comes under fire as well, most often for purposes of analogy and satire.[[note]]The ''presence'' of gravity is not theoretical and is very clearly observed. It's the ''explanation of how gravity operates'' (as opposed to the phenomenon itself) that is indeed a theory, and has changed from time to time in the wake of new evidence, as scientific theories do. Gravity is currently best explained by the General Theory of Relativity, which has been empirically demonstrated to be correct, but which conflicts with quantum mechanics, which treats time as a constant. [[/note]]

* * Climate change is a highly debated subject in the political spheres (less so in the scientific community, with roughly 97% of them supporting the model). It's controversial nature invites us to [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment proceed with caution]].

* * Climate change is a highly debated subject in the political spheres (less so in the scientific community, with roughly 97% of them supporting the model). It's controversial nature invites us to [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment proceeds with caution]].

* * Climate change is a highly debated subject in the political spheres (less so in the scientific community, with roughly 97% of them supporting the model). It's controversial nature invites us to [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment proceeds with caution]].

* * Climate change is a highly debated subject in the political spheres (less so in the scientific community, with roughly 97% of them supporting the model). It's controversial nature invites us to [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment proceeds with caution].

* Climate change is a major sticking point in the current political climate due to a number of studies showing that not only can climate change be a natural occurence but also that the heating and cooling of the world is cyclical. This often gets in the way of political attempts to go green as there will be people who doubt the possibility of man-made climate change.