TABLE OF CONTENTS Theory is not emphasized in software development, particularly in software engineering. Although many engineers pride themselves in going beyond cookbook solutions, there are practical, pressing problems to be solved and basic understanding is a secondary concern. However, difficult problems are almost never solved by blind trial and error; researchers must have some idea how they might get where they want to go.
In the model science of physics, basic understanding begins with a microscopic theory. The physicist imagines low-level details of how a phenomenon might occur, describes those details and works out how they explain the phenomenon. The kinetic theory of gases is a textbook example. By imagining the molecules of a gas in elastic collision, in principle it is possible to calculate how the observable properties of the gas arise. The theory isn t practical in the sense that anyone uses it to calculate macroscopic properties like gas pressure, but it is essential to understanding why engineering thermodynamics (the practical theory) works. Nor is the ideal gas theory correct. Attempts to validate it for real gases show that it works only under special circumstances and then only approximately. These limitations of the kinetic theory do not cause anyone to ignore its power as a wonderful mental framework for thinking about properties of gases. Similar remarks apply to Newtonian optics and mechanics and to early models of the atom, which are important steps in developing more complex and accurate explanations.
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