Experiment, Right or Wrong [Paperback]

In Experiment, Right or Wrong, Allan Franklin continues his investigation of the history and philosophy of experiment.In Experiment, Right or Wrong, Allan Franklin continues his investigation of the history and philosophy of experiment presented in his previous book, The Neglect of Experiment.In Experiment, Right or Wrong, Allan Franklin continues his investigation of the history and philosophy of experiment presented in his previous book, The Neglect of Experiment.In Experiment, Right or Wrong, Allan Franklin continues his investigation of the history and philosophy of experiment presented in his previous book, The Neglect of Experiment. In this new study, Franklin considers the fallibility and corrigibility of experimental results and presents detailed histories of two such episodes: 1) the experiment and the development of the theory of weak interactions from Fermi's theory in 1934 to the V-A theory of 1957 and 2) atomic parity violation experiments and the Weinberg-Salam unified theory of electroweak interactions of the 1970s and 1980s. In these episodes Franklin demonstrates not only that experimental results can be wrong, but also that theoretical calculations and the comparison between experiment and theory can also be incorrect. In the second episode, Franklin contrasts his view of an evidence model of science in which questions of theory choice, confirmation, and refutation are decided on the basis of reliable experimental evidence, with that proposed by the social constructivists.Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part I. Experiment and the Development of the Theory of Weak Interactions: From Fermi to V-A: 1. Fermi's theory; 2. Toward a universal Fermi interaction; muons and pions; 3. Beta-decay theory following World War II; 4. The discovery of parity nonconversation; 5. The V-A theory of weak interactions and its acceptance; Part II. Toward a Philosophy of Experiment: 6. Experimental results; 7. The roles of experiment; 8. Do mutants have to bel³r