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In an inertial frame, a circular orbit at radius $R$ has radial acceleration $-R\Omega (R{)}^2{\mathbf{e}}_R$. Neglecting fluid and magnetic forces givesIn a local rotating frame with ${\Omega }_0=\Omega (R_0)$, the fluid is instantaneously at rest at the reference radius $R_0$. The radial centrifugal force $+\rho R_0{\Omega }_0^2$ then balances the inward gravitational force. Away from $R_0$, the fluid's nonzero rotating-frame velocity must also be retained; the entire differentially rotating disk is not at rest in that one frame.

Explicit reference to laws is not necessary for every good scientific explanation. Laws remain indispensable in many explanations, but their occurrence alone is not sufficient either. The issue turns partly on whether a law means a contingent regularity of nature, any supporting generalization, or even a mathematical necessity.

The deductive-nomological model offers a strong positive case. Laws and circumstances entail the phenomenon, and at least one law is essential to the derivation. For example, Newton's second law and an inverse-square gravitational force, with appropriate initial conditions, yield predictions for an idealized two-body orbit. A universal relation unifies cases that otherwise look like unrelated observations. Carl Hempel and Paul Oppenheim explicitly develop adequacy conditions for such deductive explanations; their 1948 paper should not be read as a finished treatment of every statistical explanation.^[ref]

However, derivability does not always give the right explanatory direction. In a simplified geometrical optics model, a vertical pole of height $h$ on level ground casts a shadow of length $\ell =h/\tan \theta$ at solar elevation $\theta$. Given $h$ and $\theta$, one derives $\ell$; given $\ell$ and $\theta$, one derives $h$. The same geometrical relations enter both derivations. Yet the shadow does not normally explain why the pole was built to that height. The reverse calculation is a way to measure its height. The difference concerns which features produce or constrain which others, rather than deductive validity alone.

Mechanistic explanation is another challenge to a compulsory law-based format. A clock stopped because debris blocked a particular wheel, thereby preventing the mechanism from advancing. Inspecting the obstruction, removing it and observing restored operation can answer the causal question with considerable precision. The explanation describes organization and a relevant difference-making event without stating a universal law. It is more informative about this failure than the observation that every component obeyed Newtonian mechanics.

A defender of the covering-law model can reply that the causal account relies implicitly on regularities: debris that offers no resistance would not stop the wheel. This is a fair warning against treating a bare chronology as an explanation. But it does not establish that explanatory understanding requires identifying exceptionless fundamental laws, or that replacing the account with a complete microscopic derivation would improve the answer. Stable, tested relations in the actual operating regime may be sufficient.

An explanation can also turn on a mathematical constraint. Suppose an engineer asks why a connected network with four odd-degree junctions cannot be inspected by a route using every segment exactly once. Represent junctions as vertices and segments as edges of an undirected graph. Every intermediate visit pairs an incoming and an outgoing edge, so only the two endpoints of an open trail can have odd vertex degree. Four such vertices therefore exclude an Eulerian trail. The impossibility persists if segment lengths, construction materials or walking speeds change while the connections remain fixed. This is the obstruction in the Seven Bridges of Königsberg.^[ref]

The physical application requires that the graph represent the allowed routes correctly. Once that is granted, the explanatory necessity comes from parity, rather than a contingent physical law. Calling every mathematical constraint a law would preserve the original claim only by greatly widening its meaning. A critic may restrict “scientific” to causal explanations, but that restriction needs justification when applied mathematics answers a concrete engineering question.

Thus laws are powerful explanatory resources, and good explanations normally support relevant what-if judgements. Those judgements can be grounded in laws, mechanisms or mathematical constraints. Requiring explicit reference to laws imposes an unnecessarily narrow format; requiring some disciplined account of dependence is much more defensible.

Let $D$ be the separation of the Earth and Moon, and let $x$ be the spacecraft's distance from the Earth's centre towards the Moon. On $0<x<D$, the two gravitational forces oppose each other. Their equality, by Newton's law of universal gravitation, isTaking the positive square root givesThe centre of mass of the two bodies is at $x_G=D{M}_M/(M_E+M_M)$ from the Earth's centre. Thus the gravitational field null between two point masses lies a distancefrom their centre of mass, on the Moon's side. With $M_E/M_M=81$, $x=9D/10$ and $x_G=D/82$, soThe point is $3.84\times 10^7\mathrm{m}$ from the Moon. It is an instantaneous zero of the physical gravitational field, not a co-rotating Lagrange point: a spacecraft remaining fixed relative to the Earth-Moon line would need a nonzero centripetal acceleration. With zero net force it cannot follow that circular co-rotation.

A thin spherical shell has outward pressure force $-4\pi r^2(dP/dr)dr$ and inward gravitational force $GM(r)4\pi r^2\rho (r)dr/r^2$. Hydrostatic equilibrium requiresA uniform-density solar model gives $M(r)=M_{\odot }(r/R_{\odot }{)}^3$, $\bar{\rho }=3M_{\odot }/(4\pi R_{\odot }^3)$, and after integration from $R_{\odot }$ to zero,Thus the appropriate orders of magnitude are $10^{14}$–$10^{16}\mathrm{Pa}$ and $10^7\mathrm{K}$. The uniform-density approximation underestimates the actual central pressure because the Sun is centrally concentrated. Radiation pressure is neglected in applying the ideal gas law.

A thin spherical shell has outward pressure force $-4\pi r^2(dP/dr)dr$ and inward gravitational force $GM(r)4\pi r^2\rho (r)dr/r^2$. Hydrostatic equilibrium requiresA uniform-density solar model gives $M(r)=M_{\odot }(r/R_{\odot }{)}^3$, $\bar{\rho }=3M_{\odot }/(4\pi R_{\odot }^3)$, and after integration from $R_{\odot }$ to zero,Thus the appropriate orders of magnitude are $10^{14}$–$10^{16}\mathrm{Pa}$ and $10^7\mathrm{K}$. The uniform-density approximation underestimates the actual central pressure because the Sun is centrally concentrated. Radiation pressure is neglected in applying the ideal gas law.