10.2 Qualitative and Quantitative Reproducibility
As is discussed in the preceding Chapters treating experimental data sets on the cold fusion phenomenon, we have noticed there is a reproducibility of a kind somewhat different from the conventional one we are familiar in daily life and in science of simple systems. It is advisable to discuss here about the nature of reproducibility.
In such a phenomenon occurring in a complex system with many degrees of freedom and nonlinear interactions among its components as the typhoon\index{typhoon}, a tropical depression in the pacific ocean, the occurrence of the phenomenon is recognized by everyone as sure but it is impossible to predict the time and the place of its occurrence.
A phenomenon of this nature could be called a phenomenon with the qualitative reproducibility because there remain always undetermined factors even if we set the boundary condition for the system as precisely as possible. In contrast to this, a phenomenon with few degrees of freedom and linear interactions among its components has the quantitative reproducibility. One of the simplest examples is the law of a falling body in vacuum on the earth, the reproducibility of this phenomenon is very accurate and we can surely replicate it.