starship-design: THE PHYSICISTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

["L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>]

THE PHYSICISTS' BILL OF RIGHTS (Concise Edition)


We hold these postulates to be intuitively obvious, that all physicists are
born equal, to a first approximation, and are endowed by their creator with
certain discrete privileges, among them a mean rest life, n degrees of 
freedom, and the following rights, which are invariant under all linear 
transformations:

I. To approximate all problems to ideal cases.

II. To use order of magnitude calculations whenever deemed necessary (i.e., 
whenever one can get away with it).

III. To use the rigorous method of "hand waving" for solving problems more 
complex than the additions of positive real integers.

IV. To dismiss all functions that diverge as "nasty" and "unphysical."

V. To invoke the uncertainty principle whenever confronted by confused 
mathematicians, chemists, engineers, psychologists, and dramatists.

VI. To justify shaky reasoning on the basis that it gives the right answer.

VII. To choose convenient initial conditions, using the principle of general 
triviality.

VIII. To use plausible arguments in place of proofs, and thenceforth refer 
to those arguments as proofs.

IX. To take on faith any principle which seems right but cannot be proved.

X. To ignore data that don't fit the curve.