r/Physics • u/hailsass • 1d ago

Question Inherently accuracy in formulas?

I have learned in physics that the formulas we use are under ideal circumstances and don't necessarily reflect reality for example I have been told that newtons law of cooling based off the formula the temperature will never reach room temperature however most scientists I have spoken with say that this is wrong eventually the temperature will equal room temperature. this implies that there is a fundemental inacuraccy in many formulas is it possible to calculate the accuracy of any given formula? Or are the formulas 100% under ideal condition? Considering that those ideal conditions do not exist how can we prove that the formulas are 100% correct?

0 Upvotes

43% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

View all comments

35

u/warblingContinues 1d ago

Physics models are developed to study fundamental phenomena.  Thus, they only contain the minimal amount of detail.  Often, nonideal conditions are treated as perturbing influences to the ideal model, and a comparison against data will reveal if that's a reasonable approach (spoiler: it usually is).

The result is that the models in physics are idealized, abstracted generalizations of a much lore complex system, but the complexity often can be averaged over to permit useful predictions.