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Physics is unreasonably good at creating new math

nautil.us

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Re: Physics is unreasonably good at creating new math

#201

Post by trashtester »

janalsncm wrote: post #64
waterhouse wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mathematics is a part of physics. Physics is an experimental science, a part of natural science. Mathematics is the part of physics where experiments are cheap. — V.I. Arnold: "On teaching mathematics" (1997)

Physics is the subset of mathematics with physical application. However mathematics need not have physical applications in order to be valid math.

Pure Calculus is not Physics even though it has applications in Physics.

Just like English isn't Physics even if you can have describe aspects of Physics using English.

For Math and English to be Physics, it needs to specifically define what physical meaning the variables and parameters involved have.

Typically, you recognize it as Physics when it comes with units.

Re: Physics is unreasonably good at creating new math

#203

Post by albrewer »

entropicdrifter wrote: post #194
8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Write a unit test to prevent future key droppings.

(The actual unit test merely confirms that dropping the keys in one highly specific way is now impossible. The keys cannot fall from between your fingers because the code now mandates that you wear mittens)

When the regression is handed off to QA, they find that it's still possible to drop keys when: the keys weigh 100 tons, there are thousands of keys, there is no keyring, the keys are actually marbles, or the keys are covered in oil. They also find that when no keys are present initially, one blank key spontaneously appears out of thin air.

When the new anti-key-dropping code ships to users, they find they can no longer put down any singular held objects.

Re: Physics is unreasonably good at creating new math

#204

Post by kbelder »

thruway516 wrote: post #153
jjgreen wrote: post #127

A physicist, walking home at night, spots a mathematician colleague under a street lamp staring at the ground, "something wrong?" he asks; "I've dropped my keys" he replies, "whereabouts?" asks the physicist, keen to help. "Over there" says the mathematician pointing; "So why don't you look over there?" retorts the physicist, "the light is better here" says the mathematician. Disclosure, I'm a mathematician.

Software developer: It is more important to find out how the keys were dropped in the first place. And after I do that it will be more efficient to just generate new keys. Disclosure, I'm a software developer

I think the typical software solution is to make hundreds of copies of your keys and stash them everywhere you might need them in advance.

Re: Physics is unreasonably good at creating new math

#205

Post by niemandhier »

I think it’s the other way: math is unreasonable good at describing physics!

Imagine a universe where the laws are best described in iambic hexameters under the condition that the last letters of the stanzas form specific words.

The ancients held some believes like that: kabala, astrology and the like. How wonderfully absurd it must have felt to them that the answer was something even more removed from reality.

Re: Physics is unreasonably good at creating new math

#206

Post by SkiFire13 »

namaria wrote: post #172
SkiFire13 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that in the twenty-first century the distinction is even greater thanks to computer science.

I think you don't understand enough physics, maths or cs if you think there's a way to draw a neat line between any pair of them.

Saying that there's a distinction between them is different than drawing a neat line. Surely you aren't arguing that they're the same discipline instead?

Re: Physics is unreasonably good at creating new math

#207

Post by Etherlord87 »

kbelder wrote: post #204
thruway516 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software developer: It is more important to find out how the keys were dropped in the first place. And after I do that it will be more efficient to just generate new keys. Disclosure, I'm a software developer

I think the typical software solution is to make hundreds of copies of your keys and stash them everywhere you might need them in advance.

Denormalization.

Re: Physics is unreasonably good at creating new math

#208

Post by yread »

jjgreen wrote: post #127

A physicist, walking home at night, spots a mathematician colleague under a street lamp staring at the ground, "something wrong?" he asks; "I've dropped my keys" he replies, "whereabouts?" asks the physicist, keen to help. "Over there" says the mathematician pointing; "So why don't you look over there?" retorts the physicist, "the light is better here" says the mathematician. Disclosure, I'm a mathematician.

Physics faculty wants to buy a new expensive research machine. University rector is furious at all this spending and tries to talk some sense into them: "Why aren't you more like the mathematicians, they just need a paper a pencil and an eraser. Or like the philosophers, they just need a paper and pencil"

Or one more related to this article: Mathematicians waste time designing the topology of coats for people with 3 arms. Physicists find people like that.

Oh and my favorite: Mathematician's son goes to school for the first time. The teacher asks: "Who knows how much is 1+2?", the son stands up and says "I don't know how much it is but I do know that it's the same as 2+1 as addition is commutative in the monoid of natural numbers"

Re: Physics is unreasonably good at creating new math

#209

Post by bgnn »

seanhunter wrote: post #178
jjgreen wrote: post #127

A physicist, walking home at night, spots a mathematician colleague under a street lamp staring at the ground, "something wrong?" he asks; "I've dropped my keys" he replies, "whereabouts?" asks the physicist, keen to help. "Over there" says the mathematician pointing; "So why don't you look over there?" retorts the physicist, "the light is better here" says the mathematician. Disclosure, I'm a mathematician.

This is actually a variant on a very old joke from Persia originally told about Mullah Nasreddin rather than mathematicians[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin#cite_ref-32

True, but Nasreddin was not from Persia but from Asia Minor during Seljuk rule.

Re: Physics is unreasonably good at creating new math

#210

Post by [deleted] »

goatlover wrote: post #52
mrtesthah wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See Our mathematical universe : my quest for the ultimate nature of reality by Max Tegmark https://archive.org/details/ourmathematicalu0000tegm

That's metaphysics not science. I'm not against metaphysics, but philosophy is distinct from physics. And it's Tegmark's particular metaphysics. Interesting but hardly a consensus among physicists or philosophers.

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