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Joseph William Mellor
(9 Jul 1869 - 24 May 1938)
English chemist, ceramicist and author.
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Science Quotes by Joseph William Mellor (6 quotes)
By no process of sound reasoning can a conclusion drawn from limited data have more than a limited application.
— Joseph William Mellor
In Higher Mathematics for Students of Chemistry and Physics (1902), 2.
Higher Mathematics is the art of reasoning about numerical relations between natural phenomena; and the several sections of Higher Mathematics are different modes of viewing these relations.
— Joseph William Mellor
In Higher Mathematics for Students of Chemistry and Physics (1902), Prologue, xvii.
Inductive reasoning is, of course, good guessing, not sound reasoning, but the finest results in science have been obtained in this way. Calling the guess a “working hypothesis,” its consequences are tested by experiment in every conceivable way.
— Joseph William Mellor
In Higher Mathematics for Students of Chemistry and Physics (1902), 2.
It has been said that no science is established on a firm basis unless its generalisations can be expressed in terms of number, and it is the special province of mathematics to assist the investigator in finding numerical relations between phenomena. After experiment, then mathematics. While a science is in the experimental or observational stage, there is little scope for discerning numerical relations. It is only after the different workers have “collected data” that the mathematician is able to deduce the required generalisation. Thus a Maxwell followed Faraday and a Newton completed Kepler.
— Joseph William Mellor
In Higher Mathematics for Students of Chemistry and Physics (1902), 3.
No process of sound reasoning can establish a result not contained in the premises.
— Joseph William Mellor
In Higher Mathematics for Students of Chemistry and Physics (1902), 2.
The experimental verification of a theory concerning any natural phenomenon generally rests on the result of an integration.
— Joseph William Mellor
Epigraph in Higher Mathematics for Students of Chemistry and Physics: With Special Reference to Practical Work (1902), Chap 4, 150.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
