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'Conservation' (the conservation law) means this ... that there is a number, which you can calculate, at one moment-and as nature undergoes its multitude of changes, this number doesn't change. That is, if you calculate again, this quantity, it'll be the same as it was before. An example is the conservation of energy: there's a quantity that you can calculate according to a certain rule, and it comes out the same answer after, no matter what happens, happens.
Richard P. Feynman
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The conservation law states that certain quantities remain constant despite changes in the system.

Richard P. Feynman's quote explains the principle of conservation, particularly in relation to energy. It emphasizes that despite the various transformations and processes occurring in nature, some critical quantities remain unchanged, allowing for consistent calculations and predictions in scientific studies.

Themes

ConservationEnergyScienceNatureLaw

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a science classroom to explain the principles of energy conservation.

More from Richard P. Feynman

The philosophical question before us is, when we make an observation of our track in the past, does the result of our observation become real in the same sense that the final state would be defined if an outside observer were to make the observation?
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It has not yet become obvious to me that there's no real problem. I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there's no real problem, but I'm not sure there's no real problem.
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For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?
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Science is a way to teach how something gets to be known, what is not known, to what extent things are known (for nothing is known absolutely), how to handle doubt and uncertainty, what the rules of evidence are, how to think about things so that judgments can be made, how to distinguish truth from fraud, and from show.
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