Q.E.D.

AN INDUCTION DIALOGUE
(or, how Sneha was initiated into an appreciation of Physics )

Teacher

Yes, what is the matter?

RajasriSir, something seems to be niggling Sneha since the day she picked up Halliday and Resnick. Speak your mind out
now, dear daughter!

SnehaSir, why cant we simply learn Physics by just giving the basic laws on page one & then showing how they work in
all possible circumstances as we do in Euclidean geometry, where we state the axioms and then make all sorts of deductions?

Teacher

Sneha -

So, you want to learn Physics in 4 minutes, & not in 4 years.

I am sorry, sir. I didnt mean that...

Teacher It is okay, my dear student. In fact, we cannot do it in this way for two reasons. First, we do not yet know all the
basic laws : there is an expanding frontier of ignorance. Second, the correct statement of all laws of Physics involves some very
unfamiliar ideas, which require advanced mathematical tools for their description. Therefore, one needs a considerable
amount of preparatory training even to learn what the words mean. No, my dear student, it is not possible to do it that way. We
can only do it piece by piece.

Rajasri And I do remember, you had said once each piece, or part of the whole of nature is always merely an
approximation to the complete truth

Teacher - Or the complete truth so far as we know it. In fact, everything we know is only some kind of approximation,
because we know that we do not know all the laws as yet.

Rajasri -

Thus, things must be learnt today only to be unlearnt tomorrow.

Teacher Or, more likely, to be corrected tomorrow. ( A brief pause ) Well, my dear student, there is another facet which
needs to be addressed. I mean the world of experience, the world open to scientific inquiry, cannot be ultimately selfsufficient or self-explanatory, but must, in its totality be assumed to stand in some relation of dependency, which, accordingly
must be transcendent.

Sneha -

Sir, what is transcendent?

Teacher Well, the word is used particularly in the sense of being beyond the limits of the world of experience. See, one
line of argument is : certain conditions have to be met in order that the expressions we use in our language make sense. These
conditions are not satisfied by assertions that something transcendent exists. Therefore, such assertions do not make any
sense. Since they do not make sense, they cannot be true. So you see, our understanding of the so- called truth is contorted,
thanks to the limitation of words.

Sneha -

Wow, it is pretty heavy stuff, but I think I have understood a bit.

Rajasri -

I am not sure. And I do not think this bit of information is useful to Sneha at this stage of learning.

Teacher

Should we cease the discussion here?

Sneha Certainly not, sir. ( A bit hesitatingly ) Sir, you had commented once that the test of all knowledge is experiment,
and that experiment is the sole judge of scientific truth. But sir, what is the source of knowledge? Where do the laws that are
to be tested come from?

Teacher A very moot question indeed. Experiment itself, quite paradoxically, helps to produce these laws, in the sense
that it gives us hints. But also needed is imagination to create from these hints the great generalisation to guess at the
wonderful, simple, but very strange patterns beneath them all, and then to experiment to check again whether we have made
the right guess. This imagining process is so difficult that there is a division of labour in Physics : there are theoretical physicists
who imagine, deduce and guess at laws, but do not experiment; and then there are experimental physicists, who experiment,
imagine, deduce and guess.

Sneha -

And based on these aspects, they formulate laws involving mathematical tools as well.

Teacher Precisely. If you become a physicist, you must be prepared to investigate, to observe and to carry out
experiments, and then record your results. You must be prepared to adapt in the rapidly changing world of technology and you
must have sufficient mathematical ability to express your results and ideas in precise terms rather than broad generalisations.

Rajasri -

Teacher

Sneha -

Thus we need to precisely state the things that might explain.

Rajasri , things that might explain are the ones which are seldom precisely told!

Sir, are you two adults playing with words?

Teacher Well, I am trying to sum up this lively discussion. The beauty of Physics lies in the simplicity of its fundamental
theories and in the way just a small number of basic concepts, equations and assumptions can dramatically alter and expand
our view of the world. I do not think that study of Physics should ever be separated from a study of the real world around us.