"Nature knows nothing of the scientific laws we cook up. Nature does its own thing."
- "Physics is always a work in progress", unattributed, Reader Weekly, 2009-08-13
Newton's gravitational theory works fine for life on earth and space travel within the solar system. It doesn't work for GPS satellites. Time is faster at the altitude of the satellites than it is on the surface of the earth. Time is probably not that much faster away from the earth to affect calculations for space travel, but it is sufficiently faster to affect calculations down to a few meters on earth. To make these calculations, GPS satellite engineers have to use Einstein's theory of relativity.
Max Planck's law of thermal radiation has been used in many applications involving heat generation and transmission. His law breaks down at the tiny distances now being used in hard-disk recording devices. The recording head heats up more than would be predicted by Planck's law.
"What we call law today eventually breaks down, new opportunities for scientific and engineering progress usually appear."
- Ibid.
