What Makes a Good Experiment? Reasons and Roles in Science
Abstract
Classification is an arduous and sometimes controversial undertaking because of its inherent cultural particularity. One famous literary example is the fictitious nomenclature of animals found in Jorge Luis Borges’s ‘The Analytical Language of John Wilkins’. According to Borges, that taxonomy was discovered by a translator, F. Kuhn, in a Chinese source and divides all animals into fourteen categories, starting with ‘those that belong to the Emperor’ and ending with ‘those that from a long way off look like flies’. Physics of the twentieth century is a ramified full-fledged technical culture, and it should surprise no one that physics experiments can be classified in different ways, allowing certain experiments to belong to more than one category. Allan Franklin’s analysis of experiments is based on his classification, which substantially grasps the essence of the experimental enterprise. Although Franklin does not offer an explicit answer to the question posed in the title, he does include a detailed examination of several important physics and biology experiments in history
- Authors:
-
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1469285
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-PUB-17-684
Journal ID: ISSN 0003-3790; 1664529
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11359
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Annals of Science
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 75; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-3790
- Publisher:
- Taylor & Francis Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
Citation Formats
Pronskikh, Vitaly. What Makes a Good Experiment? Reasons and Roles in Science. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1080/00033790.2017.1378369.
Pronskikh, Vitaly. What Makes a Good Experiment? Reasons and Roles in Science. United States. https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2017.1378369
Pronskikh, Vitaly. Mon .
"What Makes a Good Experiment? Reasons and Roles in Science". United States. https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2017.1378369. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1469285.
@article{osti_1469285,
title = {What Makes a Good Experiment? Reasons and Roles in Science},
author = {Pronskikh, Vitaly},
abstractNote = {Classification is an arduous and sometimes controversial undertaking because of its inherent cultural particularity. One famous literary example is the fictitious nomenclature of animals found in Jorge Luis Borges’s ‘The Analytical Language of John Wilkins’. According to Borges, that taxonomy was discovered by a translator, F. Kuhn, in a Chinese source and divides all animals into fourteen categories, starting with ‘those that belong to the Emperor’ and ending with ‘those that from a long way off look like flies’. Physics of the twentieth century is a ramified full-fledged technical culture, and it should surprise no one that physics experiments can be classified in different ways, allowing certain experiments to belong to more than one category. Allan Franklin’s analysis of experiments is based on his classification, which substantially grasps the essence of the experimental enterprise. Although Franklin does not offer an explicit answer to the question posed in the title, he does include a detailed examination of several important physics and biology experiments in history},
doi = {10.1080/00033790.2017.1378369},
journal = {Annals of Science},
number = 1,
volume = 75,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Sep 25 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Mon Sep 25 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}