“ Science is only useful if it tells you about some experiment that has not been done; it is no good if it only tells you what just went on. ”
Richard Feynman, The Character of Physical Law (1965). copy citation
| Author | Richard Feynman |
|---|---|
| Source | The Character of Physical Law |
| Topic | science experiment |
| Date | 1965 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | https://www.cornell.edu/video/playlist/richard-feynman-messenger-lecture... |
Context
“We must, and we should, and we always do, extend as far as we can beyond what we already know, beyond those ideas that we have already obtained. Dangerous? Yes. Uncertain? Yes. But it is the only way to make progress. Although it is uncertain, it is necessary to make science useful. Science is only useful if it tells you about some experiment that has not been done; it is no good if it only tells you what just went on. It is necessary to extend the ideas beyond where they have been tested. For example, in the law of gravitation, which was developed to understand the motion of planets, it would have been no use if Newton had simply said, ‘I now understand the planets’, and had not felt able to try to compare it with the earth’s pull on the moon, and for later men to say ‘Maybe what holds the galaxies together is gravitation’.”
source
