Editing Scientific law (section)

{{Short description|Statement based on repeated empirical observations that describes some natural phenomenon}}
{{Redirect|Laws of the universe|the anime film series|The Laws of the Universe{{!}}''The Laws of the Universe''}}

'''Scientific laws''' or '''laws of science''' are statements, based on [[reproducibility|repeated]] [[experiment]]s or [[observation]]s, that describe or [[prediction|predict]] a range of [[natural phenomena]].<ref>{{OED|law of nature}}</ref> The term ''law'' has diverse usage in many cases (approximate, accurate, broad, or narrow) across all fields of [[natural science]] ([[physics]], [[chemistry]], [[astronomy]], [[geoscience]], [[biology]]). Laws are developed from data and can be further developed through [[mathematics]]; in all cases they are directly or indirectly based on [[empirical evidence]]. It is generally understood that they implicitly reflect, though they do not explicitly assert, causal relationships fundamental to reality, and are discovered rather than invented.<ref>{{cite book|author=William F. McComas|title=The Language of Science Education: An Expanded Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts in Science Teaching and Learning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aXzGBAAAQBAJ|date=30 December 2013|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-94-6209-497-0|page=58}}</ref>

Scientific laws summarize the results of experiments or observations, usually within a certain range of application. In general, the accuracy of a law does not change when a new theory of the relevant phenomenon is worked out, but rather the scope of the law's application, since the mathematics or statement representing the law does not change. As with other kinds of scientific knowledge, scientific laws do not express absolute certainty, as [[Law (mathematics)|mathematical laws]] do. A scientific law may be contradicted, restricted, or extended by future observations.

A law can often be formulated as one or several statements or [[equation]]s, so that it can predict the outcome of an experiment.  Laws differ from [[hypotheses]] and [[postulates]], which are proposed during the [[Scientific method|scientific process]] before and during validation by experiment and observation. Hypotheses and postulates are not laws, since they have not been verified to the same degree, although they may lead to the formulation of laws.  Laws are narrower in scope than [[Scientific theory|scientific theories]], which may entail one or several laws.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ncse.com/evolution/education/definitions-fact-theory-law-scientific-work |title=Definitions from |publisher=the NCSE |access-date=2019-03-18}}</ref> Science distinguishes a law or theory from facts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=National Research Council |year=2008 |title=The Role of Theory in Advancing 21st-Century Biology: Catalyzing Transformative Research |location=Washington, DC |publisher=The National Academies Press |doi=10.17226/12026 |isbn=978-0-309-11249-9 |others=Ebook ISBN 978-0-309-13417-0}}</ref> Calling a law a [[scientific fact|fact]] is [[ambiguous]], an [[overstatement]], or an [[equivocation]].<ref>{{cite journal | url = http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/lehre/pmo/eng/Gould-Fact&Theory.pdf | first = Stephen Jay | last = Gould | author-link = Stephen Jay Gould | title  = Evolution as Fact and Theory | journal = Discover | volume = 2 | issue = 5 | date = 1981-05-01 | pages = 34–37}}</ref> The nature of scientific laws has been much discussed in [[philosophy]], but in essence scientific laws are simply empirical conclusions reached by the scientific method; they are intended to be neither laden with [[ontology|ontological]] commitments nor statements of logical [[wikt:absolute#Noun|absolutes]].

[[Social science]]s such as [[economics]] have also attempted to formulate scientific laws, though these generally have much less predictive power.

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