From: Colin Bartlett <colinb2r@...>
Date: 2009-12-24T01:32:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Trig value errors

Robert Klemme wrote:
> ... Not sure what the term "nature" means here.
> AFAIK mathematics are a human invention ...

Are you *sure* about that? I think there are differing views
even amongst mathematicians: some agree with you,
but I think the majority vote (for now) is for "Realism",
in one of its several flavours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_mathematics

Phillip Gawlowski wrote:
> Now to something no mathematician worth his or her salt
> likes to hear: Math is *not* observed in nature.
> Math is a support science for physics,
> to help *describe* actual, observeable, phenomena,
> and express theories and formulae in an unambiguous manner,
> as well as in an abstract manner to allow
> the manipulation of said formulae.

That's a bit limiting: it's also very useful in engineering,
chemistry, etc, etc! And for a "support science" it does
rather well, frequently discovering/inventing (depending
on your philosophy of maths) things several decades
before physicists realised they needed them!
But to be fair, there is a two-way traffic.

(A warning for readers: my degree is in maths,
 but I am not a mathematician!)