Friends are Electric

To those who are not familiar with the ultraviolet catastrophe, it was a problem with using classical physics to describe how a blackbody radiates energy. As the wavelength of the light emitted approaches the ultraviolet region, classical physics has the amount of energy released rapidly approaching infinity.

Since we exist, this is obviously a flaw in the theory. (People who adhere to certain philosophies would disagree that we exist, or at least with my certainty, but their ideology is akin to multiplying an equation by zero to solve it.) The solution eventually became what is now known as Quantum Mechanics, and science progressed.

The real lesson from this is that no matter how much we think our theories describe reality, if reality disagrees, it is the theories which need to be changed. Reality is. Theory just describes reality. The physicists of the day knew and understood this, and actively searched for a solution. They even eventually called the problem the ultraviolet catastrophe, acknowledging their error and its extreme nature.

All those applying theory ought to be wary of this. When theory and reality diverge, it is not reality which needs to be fixed.