Home

Home
Common Compounds
Exam Guide
FAQ
Features
Glossary
Construction Kits
Companion Notes
Just Ask Antoine!
Simulations
Slide Index
Toolbox
Tutorial Index

FAQ
Introduction
Measurement
Matter
Atoms & ions
Compounds
Chemical change
The mole
Gases
Energy & change
The quantum theory
Electrons in atoms
The periodic table
Chemical bonds
Solids
Liquids
Solutions
Acids & bases
Redox reactions
Reaction rates
Organic chemistry
Everyday chemistry
Inorganic chemistry
Environmental chemistry
Laboratory
History of chemistry
Miscellaneous


Home :FAQ :IntroductionPrint | Comment
Previous Question Next Question

Are laws facts?

If a natural law summarizes data, and the data are facts, isn't a law a fact too?

No. A law is a description of the data. If new data comes to light that violates the law, it must be amended or discarded. Because laws usually are based on a vast body of data, gathered over a long period of time and reviewed by many investigators, it's very rare for a law to be discarded.

It does happen, though. For example, until 1956 all evidence indicated that processes involving elementary particles would be essentially unchanged when the directions of the particles were replaced by their mirror-image directions. This "law of conservation of parity" was disproved when an elegant experiment performed by physicists at NIST showed that the mirror-images of a process were in fact distinguishable. See The Fall of Parity at NIST's web site for an account of the experiment.

Author: Fred Senese senese@antoine.frostburg.edu



General Chemistry Online! Are laws facts?

Copyright © 1997-2010 by Fred Senese
Comments & questions to fsenese@frostburg.edu
Last Revised 02/23/18.URL: http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/intro/faq/laws-arent-facts.shtml