Rules and Rulings

There’s a debate running at the moment in RPG circles about rules vs rulings. Here’s my two penn’th:

Rules are science. Clear statements about reality hopeful established through empirical (play)testing. Sometimes theoretical and needing to be proven in reality.

Rulings are engineering. Applying the science you know to make things happen in an imperfect world, often pragmatic and working to a principle of 'that looks/feels about right' based on past experience. Sometimes they are technical expressions or extrapolations from rules.