[TRUNKS]

Can anyone give an example of a paradigm change and explain why it is important?
If anyone could.. just saying Thank You ahed.. that would be really helpful

[rwinterton]

Before the invention of standardized parts, rifles had to be made one at a time. Each part was hand-crafted to fit the rifle. If a part failed, you had to remanufacture one part for that rifle.

After the invention of standardized parts, parts were mass-produced and then assembled to make the rifle.

Before the invention, people didn't even think that you could manufacture parts accurately enough to make interchangeable parts. Afterwards, everyone though, "Why of course!" Hence, a paradigm shift.

[rwinterton]

No. The change of the thought process. Before the invention, people only thought in one way. After the invention, they thought in another way. That's the paradigm shift.

People assumed that it could only be done one way. Afterwards, then changed and all realized that the new way was better.

[asking]

People used to believe that the sun went around the Earth. Copernicus persuasively argued that the Earth went around the sun and later scientists showed that all the planets went around the sun. That was a major paradigm shift. It not only affected the way scientists thought, but everybody's sense of where we stand in the universe.

There are lots of less consequential examples. But the theory that all life is descended from one or a few common ancestors (evolution) was another major paradigm shift.


PS. If you read the entry at Wikipedia under Paradigm Shift, you'll see a section with examples.