ABSTRACT
VARIOUS writers have drawn attention to the importance of simplicity in connexion with the laws of science. It has nothing to do, of course, with ease of understanding-some 'simple' laws are the most difficult to understand-though it bears on ease of calculation. At first it appears to be a feature of the form of a law. Thus the form of the classical law of gravitation, F = m1m2/r2, is simpler than F = m1m2/r2.000,000,016, which, Jeffreys remarks, would be discarded on sight.1 In fact the whole machinery of interpolation and extrapolation is based upon assuming the simplest curve and simplest mathematical expression to represent it.
