# Was Newton wrong or just incomplete?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-newton-wrong-or-just-incomplete/171064>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 25, 2003, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-newton-wrong-or-just-incomplete/171064 "2003-04-25T07:20:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Dave\_D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@Dave\_D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_D)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-newton-wrong-or-just-incomplete/171064/21 "2003-04-26T06:16:45Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Priceguy \*  
> \*\*I’ve heard it said many times on this board (most recently [today](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=179237&perpage=50&pagenumber=2#post3329825)) that Einstein didn’t prove Newton wrong, just incomplete. I have in the past argued against this view, and I’d like to settle it once and for all. This is possibly more suited to Great Debates, but it feels like this question should have a factual answer.  
> \*\*

The way I understand “science” as a whole, Newton is incomplete. The whole point is that physics, chemistry, and the like are tools we use to model and predict reality. However in the end it is a tool and no tool I’ve seen is perfect so we should not expect it to always work everywhere all the time. For example I’m sure there are situations where my watch won’t keep accurate time, that doesn’t mean it’ll never keep accurate time. The whole point is Newton’s work is a good model for things on our scale and makes accurate predictions on our scale. But if you try to use it where it doesn’t belong you won’t get accurate results. Like anything else in science you should not assume that it says “Reality MUST function like this”, instead you should think “Under these conditions reality appears to function like this.”(Don’t blame your tools if you don’t use them right.)

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**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-newton-wrong-or-just-incomplete/171064/22 "2003-04-26T06:18:29Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by FranticMad \*  
> **If I exaggerate the point made by others, isn’t it true that everything is a tiny, tiny, tiny bit wrong? What statement is guaranteed to be absolutely right in all circumstances?**

“Gravity works”? “Electrons carry a negative charge”? “Beyonce Knowles is hot”?

> [@](#):
>
> \*\*Hence, Newton was wrong, and Einstein was probably wrong too. However, I don’t know what benefit is to be had by classifying their work that way, unless you have new evidence or a new theory to propose. \*\*

No benefit. This is entirely an issue of semantics. But I’ve gotten my answer, and it’s basically what I thought: While Newton was in fact wrong by an extremely tiny amount, he was close enough to right for all reasonable purposes.

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