"The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote. Nevertheless, it has been found that there are apparent exceptions to most of these laws, and this is particularly true when the observations are pushed to a limit, i.e., whenever the circumstances of experiment are such that extreme cases can be examined. Such examination almost surely leads, not to the overthrow of the law, but to the discovery of other facts and laws whose action produces the apparent exceptions."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Albert Abraham Michelson, Light waves and their uses, University of Chicago Press, 1903. The first sentence is often quoted out of context, completely misrepresenting his intent.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Incorrect_predictions
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Incorrect predictions
24 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Incorrect predictions →
Related Quotes
"The coming of the wireless era will make war impossible, because it will make war ridiculous."
"After the rocket quits our air and really starts on its longer journey, its flight would be neither accelerated nor m…"
"To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the…"
"What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives traveling twice as fast as stagecoaches?"
"Hence, if it requires, say, a thousand years to fit for easy flight a bird which started with rudimentary wings, or t…"
"That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the pas…"
"They'll never build them any bigger!"
"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share."
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."
"I do not myself think that any civilized nation will torpedo unarmed and defenceless merchant ships."