Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Physics
Physics 8.04 Wed Oct 11 21:11:10 EDT 1995
The first step in building a theory capable of predicting the results of experiments carried out on a physical system is to develop a description of the different possible physical states of the system and a method for the prediction of the outcome of experiments carried out on a system in a given state. Only once this is done do we then go about the business of building a theory to give us the possible states of a system and to describe how a system moves from state to state as a function of external and internal influences.