For All Practical Purposes
- For All Practical Purposes
For All Practical Purposes (FAPP) is a pragmatic approach towards the problem of incompleteness of every scientific theory and the usage of asymptotical approximations.
Usually, when a physicist makes an approximation - which can't be justified on rigorous grounds - he tends to justify it by saying that the results obtained are good for all practical purposes (FAPP), meaning that they agree with our experience and approximation errors cannot be detected in practical measurements (for instance, if the error is smaller than the measurement resolution).
FAPP theories are incomplete or lackly-based theories that nevertheless have very high agreement with experiments and tend to be very useful for all practical purposes.
See also
* Hand waving
* Philosophy of science
* Metaphysics
* Measurement
* Limit (mathematics)
* Phenomenalism
* Empiricism
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for (all) practical purposes — for (all) ˈpractical purposes idiom used when you are stating what the reality of a situation is • There s still another ten minutes of the game to go, but for practical purposes it s already over. Main entry: ↑practicalidiom … Useful english dictionary
for all practical purposes — adverb in every practical sense (Freq. 1) to all intents and purposes the case is closed the rest are for all practical purposes useless • Syn: ↑to all intents and purposes, ↑for all intents and purposes * * * for all practical purposes phr … Useful english dictionary
for all practical purposes — in fact: used for describing the actual effect of a situation Either method you use will, for all practical purposes, have the same result … English dictionary
for all practical purposes — Synonyms and related words: all in all, almost entirely, approximately, approximatively, by and large, chiefly, effectually, essentially, for practical purposes, generally, generally speaking, in round numbers, in the main, mainly, more or less,… … Moby Thesaurus
for practical purposes — for (all) practical purposes used to say that one thing has the same effect or result as something else His effort to hide the document was, for practical purposes [=in effect], an admission that he had made a mistake. During the blizzard, the… … Useful english dictionary
for all intents and purposes — adverb in every practical sense to all intents and purposes the case is closed the rest are for all practical purposes useless • Syn: ↑for all practical purposes, ↑to all intents and purposes * * * to all intents and ˈpurposes idiom ( … Useful english dictionary
to or for all intents and purposes — idi pho to or for all intents and purposes, for all practical purposes; practically speaking; virtually … From formal English to slang
for all intents and purposes — adverb For every functional purpose; in every practical sense; in every important respect; practically speaking. For all intents and purposes the case is closed. Syn: effectively, essentially, in essence, in effect, practically, virtually … Wiktionary
Practical — Prac ti*cal, a. [L. practicus active, Gr. ? fit for doing or performing, practical, active, fr. ? to do, work, effect: cf. F. pratique, formerly also practique. Cf. {Pragmatic}, {Practice}.] 1. Of or pertaining to practice or action. [1913… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
Practical joke — Practical Prac ti*cal, a. [L. practicus active, Gr. ? fit for doing or performing, practical, active, fr. ? to do, work, effect: cf. F. pratique, formerly also practique. Cf. {Pragmatic}, {Practice}.] 1. Of or pertaining to practice or action.… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
