|
The best test of a theory is to trying to build something the theory says should function some specific way and see if it works. OTOH, you can just tinker and by trial and error find working solutions, without having any theoretical basis for how or why things work.
Ancient architecture, for example, came to be structurally sound simple because unsound buildings tended to fall down after a while. So when the current batch of fresh new builders looked at existing structures for ideas or instruction, they automatically saw mostly designs that worked, simply because those were the only ones that were around. Stretch it across the centuries and you get a pretty developed set of rules for designing safe practical structures without any of the theoretical underpinnings of modern engineering.
Yet, with theoretical understanding of engineering, we can evaluate the soundness of a design BEFORE we build it... and try less practical designs with less risk.
So, theory lets you skip steps that would be required in a plain train-and-error application-only style design process... but application ultimately tells you if you skipped too many or the wrong steps.
__________________
Simple Machines in Higher Dimensions
|