Well, Newtonian mechanics and General Relativity are tangible frameworks formulated to be both descriptive of directly observed phenomena, and to make practical, falsifiable predictions which can be tested in controlled settings and/or checked against future observations.

Newtonian mechanics, for example, remains the basic foundation of physics today and has been proven to be essentially consistently accurate time and time again over the last 200 years.

General Relativity's predictions have not only been proven accurate in the last 100 years or so, but it has been put to use in practical applications like GPS.

Newton's three laws of motion will *always* be fundamentally true because they are factually descriptive of the universe, even if they are refined and improved over time. Likewise, the equivalence of mass and energy in special relativity will *always* be fundamentally true.

Think of them as nothing more than accurate descriptions of observed phenomena that are as precise as our current tools (mathematics and our technology) allow.
The real issue is that this knowledge is just the tip of the iceberg.

I'm sure every generation has believed that they had a grasp on the nature of the Universe. Not long ago, it was believed that we knew everything there was to know about physics - this was back about 1900 before the theory of relativity and quantum physics. I feel that in 300 years, people will look back at us as being very blind to the true nature of reality.

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Steve Pomeroy
Master of math magic and math tricks.