Fallibility of Measurement in other Sciences
(From Surveying Subjective Phenomena, Vol. 1, pp. 14-16) |
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![]() The variation in attempting to evaluate the same physical constant is obvious. This example is not unusual. Similar plots of thermal conductivity as a function of temperature for approximately 400 common metals and material can be found in a supplement to the Journal (Ho et al. , 1974). Nor is the observed variation in the measurement of "thermal conductivity" unique among physical parameters. . . . Not only can physical measurements vary wildly, but even well-publicized "discoveries" in the physical sciences have sometimes been shown to be experimental artifacts. For example, between 1963 and 1974 more than 500 articles in journals (including Science and Nature) discussed a supposed new substance: anomalous water or polywater. Although it resembled ordinary water, polywater was alleged to have a greater density, a reduced freezing point, and an elevated boiling point, among other anomalous properties. In the end, however, it was discovered that this "new substance" was nothing more than an impure solution of ordinary water (see Franks, 1981; Eisenberg, 1981). |
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