Jevons, Stanley

Jevons, W. Stanley. The Principles of Science. Macmillan and Co., London. 1887. 

Although a physical law may never admit of a perfectly abrupt change, there is no limit to the approach which it may make to abruptness. —W. Stanley Jevons. 

In abstract mathematical theorems, the approximation to truth is perfect. In physical science, on the contrary, we treat of the least quantities which are perceptible. —W. Stanley Jevons. 

The simplest as well as the most complex measurements are invariably accompanied by these fortuitous errors. Absolute agreement is itself an accidental coincidence. Stanley Jevons says, it is one of the most embarrassing things we can meet when experimental results agree too closely . Such agreement should at once excite a feeling of distrust. 

York, R., 2006. Ecological paradoxes William Stanley Jevons and the paperless office. Human Ecology Review 13 (2), 143—147. 

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