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Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics. |
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Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics. |
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In Reply to: Re: An attempt to explain posted by Phil Tower on November 16, 2002 at 06:29:55:
Proof in science is not quite as simple as people seem to think. There are rules and standards which have to be satisfied.One rule is that no amount of observation can demonstrate that something definitely does not exist. So, the fact that there is no evidence that anyone has seen a unicorn in the last few centuries does not prove that unicorns don't exist or that they are now extinct. It does, however, make it extremely likely that they don't exist and even a normally rash person would be unlikely to bet on finding a unicorn.
On the other hand, it only requires the production of 1 unicorn (to allow for verifiable observation) to show that unicorns do exist. Of course, if they couldn't find any other unicorns the researchers would probably kill and mount the one they had so that they could really prove the point. Pity we can't do that with audible differences :-)
So proof really requires only one substantiated ovservation here, though we would normally require other researchers to duplicate those observations elsewhere if we were talking about hearing a difference in cables rather than sighting a unicorn, but no amount of testing which fails to demonstrate a difference can conclusively prove that differences don't exist.
In practice, however, if you can't demonstrate the existence of a difference, researchers examine the test conditions looking for things that may have masked the demonstration of a difference, try constructing some other test designs that might work better and give that a go, and if it still can't be shown after a reasonable number of genuine attempts, they stop testing. At that stage they probably definitely BELIEVE rather than KNOW that there is no difference but improvements in knowledge elsewhere and/or better test instruments may cause them to revisit things at a later stage.
Non confirmatory results do have a different standing than confirmatory results.
David Aiken
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