Descriptions and explanations

Lavoisier

An example will illustrate the difference between these two concepts:

• Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier is considered the father of modern chemistry. His Traité Élémentaire de Chimie revolutionized many of the ideas that until then had dominated this science. However, when it comes to the chemical reactions it describes, this book is a mere catalogue. So we are told something like this:

If we mix oxygen gas and hydrogen gas and apply fire or an electric spark to the mixture, an explosion occurs and the result is water.

This is a description. It tells what happens but offers no explanation of the phenomenon.

The limits of physics

There are two kinds of limits in scientific research:

1.      Theoretical or intrinsic limits: when these limits exist, no matter how many scientific discoveries may be made in the future, they won’t be exceeded.

2.      Practical limits: they appear when, in theory, a problem can have a solution, but there are practical reasons that make it impossible, at least for the time being. In these cases, we cannot affirm that the problem won’t be solved in the future.

Sometimes we don’t know if a given limit is theoretical or practical. In these cases, what will happen in the future is open. If the limit turns out to be theoretical, it will never be exceeded. If it is practical, it will be exceeded if our technical capabilities exceed the technical needs for its resolution, being possible that this will never happen. Take, as an example, the inherently difficult math problems I mentioned in the previous post.