Does math exist?

[missingnocchi]

Fine, that's a little bit better expressed than your previous post.

I'm overjoyed at your approval.

Math doesn't describe anything in the real world. It is an abstraction based on the identity law and the law of substitution. Instead of saying, "there's a sheep there, and a sheep next to it", I can substitute, "there are two sheep over there". It's the same reality, just a different description.  

If those laws are as true in reality as they are on paper, then there must be a reason for it. An existence in our universe that causes them to be true. If it's only in between the lines, a coincidence of literally universal proportions, so be it. I would contend that that's unlikely, though.

I'm a university professor, teaching physics for the last 25 years, and I'm very demanding. Don't ever get into my class. You have no chance of passing.

Bold words to say to a stranger from another country on the Internet. I don't know how you sleep at night.

[Seabear]

I'm a university professor, teaching physics for the last 25 years, and I'm very demanding. Don't ever get into my class. You have no chance of passing.

[aitm]

I'm a university professor, teaching physics for the last 25 years, and I'm very demanding. Don't ever get into my class. You have no chance of passing.

[ Image ]

while I love the touche' your siggy line makes it rather moot.

[Seabear]

I'm a university professor, teaching physics for the last 25 years, and I'm very demanding. Don't ever get into my class. You have no chance of passing.

[ Image ]

while I love the touche' your siggy line makes it rather moot.

Sure, whatever.

[josephpalazzo]

Fine, that's a little bit better expressed than your previous post.

I'm overjoyed at your approval.

You should be. My students pay a lot of money to get it (in tuition fees).

Math doesn't describe anything in the real world. It is an abstraction based on the identity law and the law of substitution. Instead of saying, "there's a sheep there, and a sheep next to it", I can substitute, "there are two sheep over there". It's the same reality, just a different description.  

If those laws are as true in reality as they are on paper, then there must be a reason for it. An existence in our universe that causes them to be true. If it's only in between the lines, a coincidence of literally universal proportions, so be it. I would contend that that's unlikely, though.

Our models get better because we continuously refined them with new discoveries and new theories. Take for instance Bequerel's discovery that uranium gave off radiation. Until then, no one suspected that a rock could give off energy on its own. And all the prevailing theories about matter at the time could not explain that phenomenon. It took the works of the Curies, Einstein, Rutherford, Bohr, Schroedinger and Heisenberg before we had a theory that could describe it with Quantum Mechanics.

But at the end of the day, we only have a model that describes more or less the reality out there. Never confuse the model with reality. The model is what we create in our minds.

I'm a university professor, teaching physics for the last 25 years, and I'm very demanding. Don't ever get into my class. You have no chance of passing.

Bold words to say to a stranger from another country on the Internet. I don't know how you sleep at night.

I sleep very well, thank you, and when I don't, I blog.

[Plu]

It seems my topic is devolving into some kind of dick-measuring context. It's a good thing math allows us to objectively compare such things, I guess?

[josephpalazzo]

It seems my topic is devolving into some kind of dick-measuring context. It's a good thing math allows us to objectively compare such things, I guess?

Indeed, math is one of the greatest invention, along with the alphabet, and it took us from cave-dwelling to landing on the moon.

[WitchSabrina]

It seems my topic is devolving into some kind of dick-measuring context. It's a good thing math allows us to objectively compare such things, I guess?

I have a yard stick  (no pressure boys)

*hands on hips*  Now.............  *ahem* Who's dick am I measuring?   Line em up!


 :rollin:  :rollin:  :rollin:

Yard stick? Whut?
I'm so bad at math
 :rollin:

[aitm]

:-#









 

[WitchSabrina]

:-#









 

gotta have a little bit of fun - eh?

[robbcayman]

It seems my topic is devolving into some kind of dick-measuring context. It's a good thing math allows us to objectively compare such things, I guess?

Indeed, math is one of the greatest invention, along with the alphabet, and it took us from cave-dwelling to landing on the moon.

So, it took us from rocks to more rocks. I kid, I kid.  :)

[SixNein]

An interesting video on the topic of whether or not math is even a real thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... bNymweHW4E

I'd like to hear your opinions. I'm still trying to figure out my own :P

Short answer, no.

Suppose you have a monitor with a length x and a width x giving you an area of x^2. You know the area of a monitor is c, and you want to find the distance x. So you build the equation x^2=c and solve it. This will create 2 equations. x = sqrt(c) and x=-sqrt(c). One of them make sense in reality, the other is tossed.

Mathematics doesn't have the limitation of our reality.

[Colanth]

An interesting video on the topic of whether or not math is even a real thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... bNymweHW4E

I'd like to hear your opinions. I'm still trying to figure out my own :P

Short answer, no.

Suppose you have a monitor with a length x and a width x giving you an area of x^2. You know the area of a monitor is c, and you want to find the distance x. So you build the equation x^2=c and solve it. This will create 2 equations. x = sqrt(c) and x=-sqrt(c). One of them make sense in reality, the other is tossed.

Mathematics doesn't have the limitation of our reality.

Sure it does.  The first answer is sometimes called the real root.

[Brian37]

An interesting video on the topic of whether or not math is even a real thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... bNymweHW4E

I'd like to hear your opinions. I'm still trying to figure out my own :P

No controversy just mental masturbation woo garbage.

YES math exists. PERIOD.

This is as stupid as saying speed doesn't exist.

[Jason78]

It seems my topic is devolving into some kind of dick-measuring context. It's a good thing math allows us to objectively compare such things, I guess?

I have a yard stick  (no pressure boys)

*hands on hips*  Now.............  *ahem* Who's dick am I measuring?   Line em up!
 :rollin:

You are measuring from the base right?  And girth?  And are you taking the angle of the erection into account?