Kilogram Gets Controversial; Why Not Split the Difference?

gbrumfiel writes "As Slashdot has noted, the kilogram has a problem. The SI unit is officially defined as the weight of a 130-year-old platinum-iridium cylinder in France. But the physical object appears to be getting lighter. Scientists want to replace the cylinder with a new standard based on Planck's constant, but two experiments designed to facilitate the switch keep coming up with different results. Now one researcher is proposing a solution: just average the two diverging experiments and use that value as the official definition. Not everyone thinks that averaging the two amounts to sound research: 'Deciding to just average these two results would be perfectly proper mathematics, but it would not be science,' says Michael Hart, a physicist at the University of Manchester, UK."

Comments

Re:What? Math is not science?

[bunratty]

I see many people making this statement, but it is false. Mathematics is based upon axioms which we assume to be true. We can then prove conclusively theorems derived from those axioms and be absolutely sure of the result. Science is based on observation of the real world and making hypotheses that match our observations. We can make hypotheses that match our observations but are not entirely correct. Math uses deductive reasoning. Science uses inductive reasoning. Science does use mathematical models for its hypotheses, but it is not math.