Because current theories are missing an essential concept?
Suppose, for example, that applied to the enigma in our time called dark energy, characterized as accelerating space. If current theories do not avail in accounting for dark energy (so called) then neither can efforts at insight using those theories however persistently and strenuously applied, avail. The astronomical observations were made in 1997 and 1998. A convincing theoretical account has not yet emerged in over twenty years. What is needed perhaps (I think this the case) is a bit of luck that connects something sort of known (metabolic scaling, black body radiation) to something that seems mysterious, dark energy. What is needed is noticing a pattern found terrestrially to a pattern found cosmologically. What is needed is a fortuitous event. Perhaps, 4/3 scaling?
Are there historical examples of luck in physics?
At page 88 of their book, The Evolution of Physics, by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld, published in 1938,
"The story of the convulsion of a frog's leg is told in many different ways. Regardless of the truth concerning details, there is no doubt that Galvani's accidental discovery led Volta at the end of the eighteenth century to the construction of what is known as a voltaic battery."
This story does not mean only luck could have led to the discovery, just that accident played a role.
The question posed above though is more extreme: are there phenomena where the underlying law is so subtle that the physical or mathematical model is much more likely to be found by accident than by analysis?
Dear Robert Shour ,
I would say no!
You have to have some basic knowledge in a domain, to be able to recognize and understand the implication of a certain experiment or new knowledge.
It's also a question of maturity of the acquired knowledge.
There is anyhow a strong resistance, from the establishment, to all "unorthodox" ideas. An example, in to days physics, is the media of waves!
As long as you insist to believe in the special relativity theory, you can't explain electromagnetic waves and other phenomena!
JES
Dear Preston Guynn ,
If your "theoretical physics breakthroughs" are so great then of coarse, you can answer questions like;
Why do the constants have the value they have; dielectric, light speed, gravitation,..
What is energy-mass?
What is charge-potential?
What is force-field?
Some humility would be at its place, I think.
JES
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