
Xkcd: Popper - prossercj
https://xkcd.com/2078/
======
bryanrasmussen
double negatives means that someone has proved he grew up in Vienna?

~~~
gus_massa
With a lot of simplifications, the main idea of Popper epistemology is that
even if you drop 100 stones you can not prove that the acceleration of gravity
is 9.8m/s^2 (32ft/s^2) because you will never be sure that the next stone will
follow the same physics law.

You can only refute "all" the alternatives: That g=10m/s^2. That g=7m/s^2.
That g=-1m/s^2. That the stone falls with a constant vertical velocity of
2m/s. That the fall is a cubic with h=7.3 m/s^3 * t^3. That ... Well, there
are too many alternatives and you never can refute "all" of them, you can only
refute many of them.

So, there are laws of physics are not "proven", it's just that the main
alternatives are "refuted". You can find the details and a correct explanation
in
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper)
[1]

The joke is that while technically true, it's too difficult to talk in this
way, so most people just talk as if the laws of physics were "proven".

As a general rule, you can get a good explanation of the xkcd comics in the
explainxkcd site. In this case
[https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2078](https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2078)
But I don't like the current version of the explanation there too much, it
will get better in a few days.

[1] No one has proven that you can't find the details and a correct
explanation in
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper)

~~~
bryanrasmussen
Yes, I understand that but
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative#Two_negatives_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative#Two_negatives_resolving_to_a_positive)
means that the joke is further complicated by, depending on various things,
the double negative construction may not actually be saying exactly what is
wanted.

