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  • Book
  • © 2015

On Meaningful Scientific Laws

  • This book gives many examples of applications
  • A "how to" book, which prepares the reader to transforming the problem of finding the scientific law relevant to a phenomenon into solving a functional equation problem
  • Closely related to, but essentially different from, dimensional analysis
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XIII
  2. Overview

    • Jean-Claude Falmagne, Christopher Doble
    Pages 1-9
  3. Extensive Measurement

    • Jean-Claude Falmagne, Christopher Doble
    Pages 11-26
  4. Functional Equations

    • Jean-Claude Falmagne, Christopher Doble
    Pages 27-46
  5. Abstract Axioms and their Representations

    • Jean-Claude Falmagne, Christopher Doble
    Pages 47-57
  6. Defining Meaningfulness

    • Jean-Claude Falmagne, Christopher Doble
    Pages 59-78
  7. Propagating Axioms via Meaningfulness

    • Jean-Claude Falmagne, Christopher Doble
    Pages 79-84
  8. Meaningful Representations of Scientific Codes

    • Jean-Claude Falmagne, Christopher Doble
    Pages 85-103
  9. Order Invariance under Transformations

    • Jean-Claude Falmagne, Christopher Doble
    Pages 105-135
  10. Dimensional Invariance and Dimensional Analysis

    • Jean-Claude Falmagne, Christopher Doble
    Pages 137-154
  11. Open Problems

    • Jean-Claude Falmagne, Christopher Doble
    Pages 155-157
  12. Back Matter

    Pages 159-170

About this book

The authors describe systematic methods for uncovering scientific laws a priori, on the basis of intuition, or “Gedanken Experiments”. Mathematical expressions of scientific laws are, by convention, constrained by the rule that their form must be invariant with changes of the units of their variables. This constraint makes it possible to narrow down the possible forms of the laws. It is closely related to, but different from, dimensional analysis. It is a mathematical book, largely based on solving functional equations. In fact, one chapter is an introduction to the theory of functional equations.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dept. Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine School of Social Sciences, Irvine, USA

    Jean-Claude Falmagne

  • MHE/ALEKS Corporation, Irvine, USA

    Christopher Doble

About the authors

Jean-Claude Falmagne is an emeritus professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests focus on the application of mathematics to educational technology, psychophysics, choice theory, and philosophy of sciences, in particular measurement theory.
Chris Doble is the Math Content Development Manager at MHE / ALEKS Corporation. Along with his focus on using technology in the teaching and learning of mathematics, he maintains academic interests and publishes in measurement theory and psychophysics.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access