Easy physics questions?

Question

1) Can scientific laws be changed by a vote?

2) Can the speed of light be legislated?

* note: Laws governing limits in highways are determined by a majority vote by citizens of a state or their representatives.

Compare this democratic procedure to the way scientific laws are established with regard to these questions above. explain your reasoning (10 points for the correct answer ;) )

please respond in a scientific way

Answer 1

1.  Scientific 'Laws' can't be changed by a vote - they can be 'changed' by new information - for example, Newton's Laws of Gravity were substantially refined by Einstein's Theory of Relativity - Newton's Laws work fine for terrestrial analysis, but break down when objects are subjected to significant gravity fields.

2.  No - the speed of light can't be legislated - it can be different for different mediums (like the speed of light in water is much slower than the speed of light in a vacuum).  We can measure it more and more accurately, but it is one of the more 'fixed' natural constants.  

Scientific 'laws' are not established the same way as a legislature would establish laws - science is based on observation - the more observations and the more precision used in those observations, the better the answers - I prefer the use of the word theory rather than law - theories become refined with additional observations - a 'law' implies an absolute that may not be true given better instrumentation/observation technique.  I do realize "theory" bothers some people who want absolute 'facts' but when doing a measurement it yields a  fact with some precision (i.e. we measured the speed of light with a precision of +/- 100 miles/sec) - there is no absolute precision in a measurement.  We observe many times to conclude a theory is a valid description of the universe - sometimes as instrumentation improves, or observational techniques improve, we can radically change a theory such as Newton's Laws of Gravity...

The legal system is much different - it can be changed by either the legislature or by judicial precedence - (for English Common Law countries).  Legal 'laws' are somewhat arbitrary - prohibition (which was enacted by a constitutional amendment in the US) was subsequently 'unenacted' by a subsequent amendment - there are many examples of similar laws which were thought appropriate for a period of time, but overturned either by legislation or by the courts...