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10.5.3 WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
By looking at Figure 10.5, it is obvious the measurement does not agree with the
prediction. What do we do now? Basically, we start to scratch our heads and think
of possible explanations. You might think the rst thing a physicist would conclude
is that the prediction (theory) is wrong. But physicists, like most people, are fairly
conservative and do not like to throw out well “loved” theories such as conservation
of energy and momentum. Before going down that path, let us see what else could
be wrong.
Well, if we want to keep the theory, then the experiment must be wrong. In fact,
when doing any exper ...