From: Phillip Gawlowski <pg@...>
Date: 2009-12-24T02:14:38+09:00
Subject: Re: Trig value errors

On 23.12.2009 17:32, Colin Bartlett wrote:

> 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.

Well, if me and my professors had a choice, we wouldn't bother with 
maths (I'm in college to get an engineering degree), so I'm quiet 
oviously jsut a little biased. :P

And while maths, unlike other support sciences *does* have decent, and 
interesting research all of its own, if it weren't for sciences that 
need maths, nobody would need it, and it would find itself in the same 
thankless corner as philosophy: Undervalued as well as underappreciated.

For example, I like the beauty of maths in music, and the visualization 
of Mandelbrot fractals, and feel that maths can stand on its own very, 
very well. :)

Mind, I'm not putting down maths as a field of science, at all! It has 
established itself firmly in the science community, otherwise there 
wouldn't be dedicated math degrees. :)

And it is indeed true that maths makes life easier, for quite near everyone.

--
Phillip Gawlowski