Comment by dragonwriter
2 months ago
Laws (in science, not government) are just a relationship that is consistently observed, so Newton's laws remain laws until contradictions were observed, regardless of the existence of or more alternative models which would predict them to hold.
The kind of Occam’s Razor-ish rule you seem to be trying to query about is basically a rule of thumb for selecting among formulations of equal observed predictive power that are not strictly equivalent (that is, if they predict exactly the same actually observed phenomenon instead of different subsets of subjectively equal importance, they still differ in predictions which have not been testable), whereas Newtonian and Lagrangian mechanics are different formulations that are strictly equivalent, which means you may choose between them for pedagogy or practical computation, but you can't choose between them for truth because the truth of one implies the truth of the other, in either direction; they are the exactly the same in sibstance, differing only in presentation.
(And even where it applies, its just a rule of thumb to reject complications until they are observed to be necessary.)
Newtownian and Lagrangian mechanics are equivalent only in their predictions, not in their complexity - one requires three assumptions, the other just one. Now you say the fact that they have the same predictions makes them equivalent, and I agree. But it's clearly not compatible with what the other poster said about looking for the simplest possible way to explain a phenomenon. If you believe that that's how science should work, you'd need to discard theories as soon as simpler ones that make the same predictions are found (as in the case of Newtownian mechanics). It's a valid philosophical standpoint imho, but it's in opposition to how scientists generally approach Occam's razor, as evidenced eg by common physics curricula. That's what I was pointing out. Having to exclude Newtownian mechanics from what can be considered science is just one prominent consequence of the other poster's philosophical stance, one that could warrant reconsidering whether that's how you want to define it.