>>14115045And that, anons, is why China stagnated for so long. They believed it was fundamentally impossible to model something completely (due in part to a lack of spirit that resided in the thing) so there was no use trying. It wasn't until it imported Western scientific approaches (all models are wrong but some are useful) that it was able to make progress.
For example, you drop a rock from a given height. Mathematically, you would estimate the acceleration as 9.81 m/s^2 and calculate the time until it hits the ground with some algebra. However, this doesn't account for wind resistance, possible lateral motion, and other sources of error. However, the result you get is close enough to reality that it can be used in some cases.
