"An essential distinction exists between two stages in the process of advancing our knowledge of the laws of physical phenomena; the first stage consists in observing the relations of phenomena, whether of such as occur in the ordinary course of nature, or of such as are artificially produced in experimental investigations, and in expressing the relations so observed by propositions called formal laws. The second stage consists in reducing the formal laws of an entire class of phenomena to the form of a science; that is to say, in discovering the most simple system of principles, from which all the formal laws of the class of phenomena can be deduced as consequences."
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Mechanical engineersPeople from EdinburghInventorsPhysicists from ScotlandUniversity of Edinburgh alumni
Original Language: English
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p. 121; Lead paragraph: Section "What Constitutes A Physical Theory"
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_John_Macquorn_Rankine
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William John Macquorn Rankine
William John Macquorn Rankine (5 July 1820 – 24 December 1872) was a Scottish engineer and physicist.
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