Erroneous theories

Summing up, we can state that work [39] is a combination of erroneous theory and incorrect processing of experimental data, which yielded a value for mean dissipative... 

Announcement This paper will discuss some of the erroneous theories about the causes of the Great... 

The molecular composition of picric acid was established in the early ninteenth century when it was the only highly-nitrated aromatic compound then known. It was evident that its oxygen content was insufficient for complete combustion (to C02 and H20). This was considered to be an adequate foundation for the erroneous theory that, because of its insufficient oxygen content, the substance has no explosive properties. It was believed that explosive properties are achieved only by mixing picric acid with oxidizing agents such as chlorates, or sodium or potassium nitrates. 

Pelabon s results appeared to show that the reaction came to a standstill before a true equilibrium state was reached, and served as the basis for an erroneous theory about false equilibria Neither the results of Pelabon Compt. rend., 1897, 124, 686. 

Another erroneous theory was that dreaming arose in response to external sensory stimuli that were strong enough to activate the... 

He also makes depend on the contractile force the rise and the depression of liquids in capillary spaces, as well as attractions and apparent repulsions of floating light bodies but, being unaware of former research, he tries to establish a theory of these phenomena, an erroneous theory, in which atmospheric pressure intervenes. Finally he admits, as a consequence of the tension, a pressure is exerted on the air which constitutes a bubble in the interior of a liquid, that is to say on that which is contained in a film sphere or a segment of a film sphere but, as I said, he comes, with regard to the... 

Gr. technetos, artificial) Element 43 was predicted on the basis of the periodic table, and was erroneously reported as having been discovered in 1925, at which time it was named masurium. The element was actually discovered by Perrier and Segre in Italy in 1937. It was found in a sample of molybdenum, which was bombarded by deuterons in the Berkeley cyclotron, and which E. Eawrence sent to these investigators. Technetium was the first element to be produced artificially. Since its discovery, searches for the element in terrestrial material have been made. Finally in 1962, technetium-99 was isolated and identified in African pitchblende (a uranium rich ore) in extremely minute quantities as a spontaneous fission product of uranium-238 by B.T. Kenna and P.K. Kuroda. If it does exist, the concentration must be very small. Technetium has been found in the spectrum of S-, M-, and N-type stars, and its presence in stellar matter is leading to new theories of the production of heavy elements in the stars. 

In 1875, a paper by Winkler awakened interest in the contact process, first patented in 1831. Winkler claimed that successfiil conversion of SO2 to SO could only be achieved with stoichiometric, undiluted ratios of SO2 and O2. Although erroneous, this beUef was widely accepted for more than 20 years and was employed by a number of firms. Meanwhile, other German firms expended a tremendous amount of time and money on research. This culminated in 1901 with Knietsch s lecture before the German Chemical Society (3) revealing some of the investigations carried out by the Badische Anilin-iind-Soda-Fahrik. This revealed the abandonment of Winkler s theory and further described principles necessary for successfiil appHcation of the contact process. 

It would be erroneous to think that present-day mathematical methods are adequate to explain or predict all that exists in the enormous volume of experimental material that physicists and engineers have accumulated. This is due partially to the fact that we possess fairly uniform theoretical approaches only in the domain of small parameters, and also because conditions in some oases are so complicated that in spite of a knowledge of the theory, one is handicapped by computational difficulties. 

In general the transitions appearing between the unperturbed states in such perturbation theories are of no physical significance they are simply a result of our attempt to express the true eigenstates of the true perturbed hamiltonian in terms of convenient but erroneous eigenstates of the unperturbed erroneous hamiltonian. If we were able to find the true eigenstates—mid this is, of course, possible in principle— no such transitions would be discovered and the apparent time-dependence would disappear. 

The latter danger is, of course, potentially present any time any data interpretation is attempted, particularly if nature is assumed always to follow Eq. (1). The only course of action is to attempt to include as much theory in the model as possible, and to confirm any substantial extrapolation by experiment. It is erroneous, however, to presume that kinetic data will always be so imprecise as to be misleading. The use of computers and statistical analyses for any linear or nonlinear reaction rate model allows rather definite statements about the amount of information obtained from a set of data. Hence, although imprecision in analyses may exist, it need not go unrecognized and perhaps become misleading. 

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