[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-601595-en":3,"doc-seo-601595-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":97},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},601595,962090883568,"anakgang17","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd",8,"Research & Report","Wrong...but right enough - Reflection","Reflection argues that in technology and learning, accuracy and truth are not the only standards; models and even incorrect scientific ideas can remain useful. It contrasts scientific truth-testing with technological usefulness-testing, using examples such as interpreting vacuum and centrifugal effects through approximations. The text further reframes education from “knowledge states” to “knowing as a growth process,” emphasizing how design tasks require learners to act with provisional, half-known information.","Wrong...but right enough  \nProf Richard Kimbell, Goldsmiths, University of London  \nREFLECTION  \nIn recent weeks I have been forced to think a bit about right and wrong…not in the sense of good and bad but rather in the sense of accurate and inaccurate. When I was at school, my metal-work teacher very proudly boasted that– in his workshop – we worked to an accuracy of 1/1000 of an inch (it was a long time ago) . By contrast, my woodwork teacher– never one to be out-done – insisted that in his workshop we had much higher standards than that since we worked till it was right. I was never quite sure which of them was the more demanding.  \nI was reminded of that experience in my recent trip to Sweden. Every year I spend some weeks working in the university of Stockholm – and I have been partly responsible for supervising a research student– Per– preparing a very interesting PhD about the role of the many different kinds of knowledge that have relevance tous in technology. His latest tutorial paper included a fascinating account of some examples of‘knowing’ that are technically ‘wrong’(in the sense of mistaken or confused) but that still remain useful.  \nIn the 1990’s, I worked in the computerised automation and industrial robotics business. We often used vacuum grippers on the robots and pick-and-place units. When I and my colleagues discussed the vacuum, we talked about it almost as if it was a substance. The so-called vacuum (which of course was not a proper vacuum, but the pressure was low) was created in an ejector where compressed air blew out of a nozzle, the vacuum was then transported through pipes and hoses to the suction cup in the robot’s hand where its sucking abilities fixated the object it was to grip.  \nThe view of vacuum as a sucking substance has no support in science, though. A true vacuum is literally nothing, and can therefore not produce forces. It is the pressure of the air outside that pushes the object toward the suction cup. Nevertheless, talking of vacuum as a sucking substance makes sense in many situations. It is perfectly possible to design grippers for robots and handling automata using this model, as long as the machine is used in contexts with approximately normal air pressure.  \n(Norström P. Tutorial paper. Oct 2010)  \nIn the paper, Per provided all sorts of other interesting examples where incorrect science is used perfectly successfully in technology.  \n…centrifugal force, the force that pushes a body moving following a circular path away from the centre, has been experienced by everyone who ever visited an amusement park or travelled in a car through a narrow curve at high speed. It has been experienced eventhough it is not a real force, but a fictitious force caused by a moving frame of reference. That it is only fictitious does not stop engineers from using it; reasoning as if centrifugal forces exist leads to useful predictions in many contexts.  \nAt the heart of his paper is the idea that to interpret‘reality’ we create all kinds of models that are more-or-less approximations ofthat reality, and being only approximations, they are liable to error or misrepresentation. He cites the well known case of electrical circuits being represented as water flowing in a pipe. And he instantly falsifies the analogy by pointing out that a cuthose-pipe leaks water, whereas a cut wire in a circuit does not ‘leak’ electricity…or at least not in the same way. I suppose one might see a spark to earth – from a cut wire – as some kind of‘leak’.  \nAnyhow his point that technological knowledge is different from scientific knowledge seems to me to be sound. The truth test for scientific knowledge is literally to do with truth. Is it really true that…? But the truth test for technological knowledge is NOT about its truth but about its usefulness. If it’s useful to hold a half-truth (or even a falsehood) so as to arrive at an effective working solution then that is justification enough. The ‘truth’ test is simply eff","cbCaicz3ICsOCY8J","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicz3ICsOCY8J","pdf",38721,4,1,2,"English","en",105,"# Reflection\n## Accuracy vs usefulness\n## Models, analogy, and error\n## Knowing as a learning process","[{\"question\":\"How does the reflection distinguish scientific knowledge from technological knowledge?\",\"answer\":\"Scientific knowledge is judged by truth (“Is it really true that…?”), while technological knowledge is judged by usefulness and effective outcomes (“truth test” becomes efficaciousness).\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the text claim that incorrect ideas can still work in technology?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that technological models are approximations; even when an explanation is wrong in a literal scientific sense, it can still support useful design and prediction in normal operating contexts.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the reflection say about learning and the concept of “knowing”?\",\"answer\":\"It suggests education should not treat knowledge as a static state of being; instead, learning is a process of growth, where students act with provisional knowledge and refine it through design tasks.\"}]","Wrong...but right enough - Reflection | PDF",1792092927,5,{"code":4,"msg":32,"data":33},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":34,"title":13,"keywords":35,"description":14,"schema_data":36,"social_meta":91,"head_meta":93,"extra_data":95,"updated_unix":96},"wrongbut-right-enough-reflection","",{"@graph":37,"@context":90},[38,53,73],{"@type":39,"itemListElement":40},"BreadcrumbList",[41,45,48,51],{"item":42,"name":43,"@type":44,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":46,"name":47,"@type":44,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":44,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":44,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/wrongbut-right-enough-reflection/601595/",{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":54,"image":55,"author":60,"headline":13,"publisher":62,"fileFormat":65,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":66,"datePublished":67,"encodingFormat":65,"isAccessibleForFree":68,"interactionStatistic":69},"DigitalDocument",{"url":56,"@type":57,"width":58,"height":59},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/wrongbut-right-enough-reflection/601595.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":9,"@type":61},"Person",{"url":42,"name":63,"@type":64},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":70,"interactionType":71,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":72},"ViewAction",{"@type":74,"mainEntity":75},"FAQPage",[76,82,86],{"name":77,"@type":78,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the reflection distinguish scientific knowledge from technological knowledge?","Question",{"text":80,"@type":81},"Scientific knowledge is judged by truth (“Is it really true that…?”), while technological knowledge is judged by usefulness and effective outcomes (“truth test” becomes efficaciousness).","Answer",{"name":83,"@type":78,"acceptedAnswer":84},"Why does the text claim that incorrect ideas can still work in technology?",{"text":85,"@type":81},"It argues that technological models are approximations; 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