[From Bruce Gregory (980914.0627 EDT)]
Bill Powers (980913.2117 MDT)
In particular, we are trying to devise a model that will account for the
behavior of the house's temperature over time, given that the furnace is
going on and off, people are walking in and out of doors and opening and
closing windows, and winds of varying temperatures and sun and cloud
phenomena are changing the heat losses and gains through the walls of the
house. What we observe is that the net effect of all the heat losses and
gains through doors, windows, and walls just happens to be offset by
variations in the on-time of the furnace, so that the temperature near a
small box on the wall stays remarkably close to 70 degrees F. And we also
observe that after a person goes to the box and fiddles with it, all the
same relationships go on happening, but the temperature is now constant at
65 degrees F.This is the phenomenon for which we need a model.
I agree. It just doesn't happen to be the phenomena I was modeling. In my
example, no such stability was observed so none needed to be accounted for.
I think the issue is semantic, not substantive. You would only discover the
existence of the thermostat in the winter because in the summer the
temperature would behave in exactly the same way whether or not the
thermostat and heater were present.
>I realize that this must make me a PCT pariah but Occam's razor is too
>important a tool to put aside for reasons of theological purity.And it is too sharp for us to encourage its use by the unskilled.
Is this a gratuitous remark or a sage observation? I'll consider it to be
the latter.
Bruce Gregory