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What is the difference between law and theory?

law | theory |

In context|mathematics|lang=en terms the difference between law and theory

is that law is (mathematics) a statement that is true under specified conditions while theory is (mathematics) a field of study attempting to exhaustively describe a particular class of constructs.

In context|obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between law and theory

is that law is (obsolete) a tumulus of stones while theory is (obsolete) mental conception; reflection, consideration.

As nouns the difference between law and theory

is that law is (uncountable) the body of rules and standards issued by a government, or to be applied by courts and similar authorities or law can be (obsolete) a tumulus of stones while theory is (obsolete) mental conception; reflection, consideration.

As a interjection law

is (dated) an exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.

law

English

(wikipedia law)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) lawe, and gesetnes. More at (l).

Noun

  • (lb) The body of rules and standards issued by a government, or to be applied by courts and similar authorities.
  • :
  • *, chapter=22
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.
  • A particular such rule.
  • :
  • *
  • *:As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
  • (lb) A written or understood rule that concerns behaviours and their consequences. Laws are usually associated with mores.
  • :
  • A well-established, observed physical characteristic or behavior of nature. The word is used to simply identify "what happens," without implying any explanatory mechanism or causation. Compare to theory.
  • :
  • (lb) A statement that is true under specified conditions.
  • A category of English "common law" petitions that request monetary relief, as opposed to relief in forms other than a monetary judgment; compare to "equity".
  • (lb) One of the official rules of cricket as codified by the MCC.
  • The police.
  • :
  • (lb) One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to chaos.
  • An oath, as in the presence of a court. See wager of law.
  • Hyponyms
    * sharia law
    Derived terms
    * above the law * against the law * a law unto oneself * * Avogadro’s law * Beer-Lambert law * Boyle’s law * bylaw * canon law * Charles’ law * civil law * common law * contract law * corn laws * Coulomb’s law * criminal law * de Morgan’s laws * employment law * family law * Faraday’s laws * federal law * feudal law * Fourier’s law * Gauss’s law * Graham’s law * Gresham’s law * Henry’s law * Hooke’s law * Hubble’s law * international law * into law * Kepler’s laws of planetary motion * Kerchoff’s laws * law and order * lawful * lawgiver * lawlike * law lord * lawmaker, law-maker * law of cosines * law of large numbers * law of sines * law of small numbers * law of tangents * law of the land * law of the tongue * lay down the law * long arm of the law * lynch law * martial law * Moore’s law * Murphy's law * natural law * Newton’s law of cooling * Newton’s law of gravitation * Newton’s laws of motion * Ohm’s law * physical law * power law * Poiseuille’s law * possession is nine points of the law * property law * Roman law * statuate (statute)+law=statuate law (US) * state law * statute law (Commonwealth English) * Stefan-Boltzmann law * Stokes’ law * sus law * take the law into one’s own hands * the law is an ass * three laws of robotics * unwritten law * Zipf’s law

    See also

    * * *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . Also spelled low.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) a tumulus of stones
  • a hill
  • * 1892 , Robert Louis Stevenson, Across the Plains
  • You might climb the Law [...] and behold the face of many counties.

    Etymology 3

    Compare (la).

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (dated) An exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.
  • References

    Etymology] in [[:w:da:ODS, ODS]

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    theory

    English

    Noun

  • (obsolete) Mental conception; reflection, consideration.
  • * 1646 , (Thomas Browne), Pseudodoxia Epidemica , VII.19:
  • As they encrease the hatred of vice in some, so doe they enlarge the theory of wickednesse in all.
  • (sciences) A coherent statement or set of ideas that explains observed facts or phenomena, or which sets out the laws and principles of something known or observed; a hypothesis confirmed by observation, experiment etc.
  • * 2002 , Duncan Steel, The Guardian , 23 May 2002:
  • It was only when Einstein's theory' of relativity was published in 1915 that physicists could show that Mercury's "anomaly" was actually because Newton's gravitational ' theory was incomplete.
  • * 2003 , (Bill Bryson), A Short History of Nearly Everything , BCA, p. 118:
  • The world would need additional decades [...] before the Big Bang would begin to move from interesting idea to established theory .
  • * 2009 , (Richard Dawkins), The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence for Evolution , Bantam, p. 10:
  • Scientists and creationists are understanding the word "theory'" in two very different senses. Evolution is a '''theory''' in the same sense as the heliocentric '''theory'''. In neither case should the word "only" be used, as in "only a ' theory ".
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Michael Riordan , title=Tackling Infinity , volume=100, issue=1, page=86 , magazine= citation , passage=Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories', including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the ' theories .}}
  • (uncountable) The underlying principles or methods of a given technical skill, art etc., as opposed to its practice.
  • * 1990 , Tony Bennett, Outside Literature , p. 139:
  • Does this mean, then, that there can be no such thing as a theory of literature?
  • * 1998 , Elizabeth Souritz, The Great History of Russian Ballet :
  • Lopukhov wrote a number of books and articles on ballet theory , as well as his memoirs.
  • (mathematics) A field of study attempting to exhaustively describe a particular class of constructs.
  • Knot theory classifies the mappings of a circle into 3-space.
  • A hypothesis or conjecture.
  • * 1999 , Wes DeMott, Vapors :
  • It's just a theory I have, and I wonder if women would agree. But don't men say a lot about themselves when a short-skirted woman slides out of a car or chair?
  • * 2003 , Sean Coughlan, The Guardian , 21 Jun 2003:
  • The theory is that by stripping costs to the bone, they are able to offer ludicrously low fares.
  • (countable, logic) A set of axioms together with all statements derivable from them. Equivalently, a formal language plus a set of axioms (from which can then be derived theorems).
  • A theory is consistent if it has a model.

    Usage notes

    In scientific discourse, the sense “unproven conjecture” is discouraged (with hypothesis or conjecture preferred), due to unintentional ambiguity and intentional equivocation with the sense “well-developed statement or structure”.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Holonyms

    * (in logic) formal system

    Meronyms

    * (in logic) axioms

    Derived terms

    * acoustic theory * algorithmic information theory * antenna theory * atomic theory * catastrophe theory * category theory * cell theory * chaos theory * circuit theory * complexity theory * computation theory * control theory * critical theory * decision theory * domino theory * extreme value theory * game theory * giant impact theory * graph theory * group theory * in theory * information theory * kinetic theory of gases * knot theory * literary theory * music theory * number theory * opponent-process theory * phlogiston theory * probability theory * proof theory * quantum field theory * rational choice theory * set theory * signal theory * social theory * systems theory * theory of gravity * theory of relativity * theory of truth * Theory X * Theory Y * type theory * value theory * virtue theory

    See also

    * axiom * postulate * proposition Check translations