Theory and Reality

With an interest in the philosophy of science, it is fascinating to me how my electronic theory interfaces -- or not -- with reality. I developed a circuit this week which detected a hand at 10+ cm -- and it did so stably, which is not to be taken for granted. But I was unable to exceed this range. Intuitively, my circuit should have done many times better. What was going on? It was not the theory. It came down to the mechanism of a miniature multi-turn potentiometer (an example shown). This worked haltingly -- though not to the eye. OBSERVATION: So the reality was imperfect, if reality ever is. More than that, the theory was imperfect. It had to be, or it would have covered the reality. But what theory exactly? The theory of halting potentiometers? That surely doesn't exist. Anyway, one needs another potentiometer to overcome the halting potentiometer. And once one uses one, the circuit's sensitivity multiplies by four, and its range by two. Ah, but one could add yet another potentiometer! And then, what else could be at fault? And so on.