Why does mathematics works?

[Swammerdami]

I hardly think an education in the humanities is complete unless one knows Johnny von Neumann's definition of ordinal number:
. . . . . . . An ordinal number is The well-ordered set of all smaller ordinals.

 

[Elixir]

Math need not “work”. It only needs to be internally consistent to be useful in predicting the behavior of material stuff.

 

[Swammerdami]

Work done is equal to force * distance. And, energy is equal to work done in unit time, which is equal to force*diatance/time, which is equal to force * velocity.

e=Fv

I believe your formulae for energy are instead the formulae for power.

 

[bilby]

Work done is equal to force * distance. And, energy is equal to work done in unit time, which is equal to force*diatance/time, which is equal to force * velocity.

e=Fv

I believe your formulae for energy are instead the formulae for power.

As any trade union member can tell you, power is work overtime.

 

[steve_bank]

Energy = Work = Heat = Joules = kg*(m/s)^2, or mass * velocity^2.

Power = Watts = Joules/Second = kg*m*2/s^3

e is related to physical reality. Exponential growth and decay.

 

[steve_bank]

To answer the question Id have to say first logic. Then being tied to physical reality.

At the bottom of math is counting.

nItegation of a function reduces to counting a number of sub areas ndder a curve.

In the end math is as empirical as physical science.

Nath is a set of rules and definitions that together are logically consistent. That means reagrdess of how you frame a problem you will always get the same answer.

 

[steve_bank]

The difficulty is in using abstract concepts o describe other abstract concepts.

 

[Jarhyn]

Math is just... It works because reality is a function of cause and effect, of selection of subsets from sets on the basis of process or constraint.

Math is just the language that captures this in the most general possible way.

As long as reality is "stuff, amid rules, will lead to different but specific arrangements of stuff", that's math.

Essentially, math works because the universe has observably deterministic elements.

The things math cannot describe are in the bucket of "truly random outcomes". It is unclear whether any thing is truly capable of randomness or merely things so chaotic they cannot be predicted.

To elaborate, "which direction the photon spits off the electron shell" cannot be predicted as far as we know. It is apparently "random". Math cannot speak to what that direction shall be*. At best math can speak that "it will probably happen from this locus".

As such, math apparently cannot describe the future of a quantum event. It is "random".

Math starts where randomness ends, and the more we look, the more we discover that the things we think of as "random" are merely chaotic, but ultimately describable by math.

*Unless the release is a stimulated amplification.

 

[Tigers!]

All I know is if I add 1 and 1 on my calculator I get 2. What else is there to know?

Is that decimal or binary?

 

[Tigers!]

Math need not “work”. It only needs to be internally consistent to be useful in predicting the behavior of material stuff.

What exactly do you mean by "work"? If maths predicts the behaivour of material stuff then by our usual definition of working it has achieved its purpose i.e. done something.

 

[bilby]

Math need not “work”. It only needs to be internally consistent to be useful in predicting the behavior of material stuff.

What exactly do you mean by "work"? If maths predicts the behaivour of material stuff then by our usual definition of working it has achieved its purpose i.e. done something.

If maths predicts the behaviour of material stuff then by mathematician's usual definition of maths, it is insufficiently pure.

Applied mathematics is distinctly inferior, and is the preserve, not of such luminaries as mathematicians, but of lowly physicists and engineers.

 

[steve_bank]

All I know is if I add 1 and 1 on my calculator I get 2. What else is there to know?

Is that decimal or binary?

If you want to discuss binary arithmetic I put posts on the progromming thread and the math forum.

 

[steve_bank]

Math need not “work”. It only needs to be internally consistent to be useful in predicting the behavior of material stuff.

What exactly do you mean by "work"? If maths predicts the behaivour of material stuff then by our usual definition of working it has achieved its purpose i.e. done something.

Ahhh...Jedi mind tricks? They work on the weak minded.

 

[Elixir]

Good short article …

Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Good short article …

Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered?

Math is both invented and discovered, actually. Its invention is often followed by discovery. For example, people invented circles and named their parts "chords," "diameters," "radii,' and "circumferences." Later on mathematicians discovered that the ratio of the circumference to the diameter is an irrational number that's about 3.14. They call that number "π." So the discoveries in mathematics are what logically follow the inventions but were, at least momentarily, unforeseen.