Science

[Stephen Birkett]

B. Hopf said:
> There is another requirement of the "scientific method" which is
> apparently not being met: the >isolation of variables<. This means,
> "Measure one thing while everything else remains unchanged," and is,
> perhaps, the most fundamental principle of the scientific method.
>
This is too simplistic a view of science, especially as it has
evolved recently. Synergistic effects cannot be observed by isolating
variables like this. Neither can the behaviour of non-linear
components be determined by isolating the variables and summing the
individual responses.

> Some reflection on this point will indicate that science presents a
> very skewed view of the universe; there   are many things (perhaps
> including piano actions) which simply have too many variables to
> isolate and measure them. Thus, the scientific method is more useful
> for some things than for others.  Attempts to employ the scientific
> method improperly result in descriptions of >special cases< with
> little or no general application.  It may be that every piano
> ever made is its own special case. Solving action problems to the
> extent of producing consistent and predictable results may
> require seeing through the mounds of data to a deeper level of
> understanding.
>
Piano actions, as for many other complex systems, require advanced
techniques for analysis of their behaviour. It is quite feasible,
though, to develop observational techniques (such as D. Stanwood's
metrology), which can be used to compare their different
characteristics, without necessarily achieving a full scientific
`understanding' of the underlying phenomena. Even scientific
`understanding' may rely so much on numerical methods for solution
that the link to intuition is tenuous...but this doesn't invalidate
the results. We will need much more than freshman mechanics to
explain the behaviour of a piano action.


Stephen Birkett (Fortepianos)
Authentic Reproductions of 18th and 19th Century Pianos
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
tel: 519-885-2228
fax: 519-763-4686