Everyone is welcome. This conference is in-person and livestreamed online.

Error is often framed as a limitation in physics, yet it plays a central role in how physical knowledge is produced, validated and refined.

This conference will explore the dual nature of error: as both a practical challenge in measurement and experimentation, and as a productive force in the development of theory. It will discuss the establishment of the theory of error and consider examples of famous errors in physics across the centuries.

The conference will conclude with a philosophical perspective on the role of error.

Date: Saturday 6th June 2026

Time: 10:30 – 17:00 GMT

Location: Mathematical Institute, Oxford and Online

Registration to attend this conference is free but booking is required to attend the conference either in person or online as below.

The programme for the day is below:

MORNING CHAIR:

10.30 am WELCOME

10.40 am Dr Barbara Zipser (Royal Holloway, University of London) – Error of Judgement in Ancient Theories of the Cosmos and Atmosphere

11.30 am Louise Wright (National Physical Laboratory) – Errors in Measurement: From Rubens to Mars

12.20 pm Professor Thomas Körner (University of Cambridge) – New Ways of Looking at Error: Gauss, Least Squares and the Error Function

1.15 pm LUNCH BREAK

AFTERNOON CHAIR:

2.15 pm Professor Stephen Blundell (University of Oxford) – Instructive Mistakes: How Errors have Shaped and Mis-shaped Modern Physics

3.05 pm Professor Jason McKenzie Alexander (LSE) – Better Wrong than Vague: The Role of Error in Science

4 pm TEA/COFFEE BREAK

4.30 pm SUMMARY OF THE DAY’S PROCEEDINGS – Professor Myungshik Kim (Imperial College London)

There will be a special conference dinner at St Cross College in the evening following the end of the conference with an after-dinner talk by Nick Hutchinson (Director at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre) on how Shakespeare drives the plot through errors in The Comedy of Errors. Booking to attend the conference dinner can be made here.