Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Noonan
At last a mathematically gifted friend. So if the universe works and the mathematics is wrong then why bother using it?
Yes I realise mathematics is a language (it has got a lot of letters in it) but it one of the most long winded and boring and hard to understand, non-descriptive and unhelpful languages for the non-elite.
I guess that is why there will be no new science generated outside the ranks of the scientific community, so I will just have to accept my ideas don't count because I am not from the approved master intellectual class. I should just accept that I am inferior because my enthusiasm developed later in life.
A measure of the usefulness of a thing is the ease of access to and service provided by the vendor. If my car needs fixing I have a range of people to go to who know how to listen and will work on the problem. From the practical point of saleability and usability, now that we are focusing on the mathematics ... as it should be, I think I have finally found my zero.
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I am not mathmatically gifted. I am mathmatically
trained. The difference it that while I have little natural talent for it, I realize that it is an essential tool for doing physics. Seeing that I was 29 years old when I did start learning the math, I have to say that your whine about not being in the master class is just that, a whine. My opinion of math is pretty much exactly identical to yours. I know it cause I need it, not cause I like it.
Math is the tool that allows you to do physics just like the socket wrenches, screwdrivers and other tools are needed to be a car mechanic.
To answer your question tho. 2+2=5: can you point out where the math is wrong? Basically, all of the leading edge of physics is approximations. To try to figure out almost any problem exactly would requre more computing power than exists on the planet. All of classical physics is the low velocity, many state averages of GR and QM. In many places you make assumptions to make the math simpler. Maybe you assume that the pressure gradient is small across the area looked at. Maybe you say that the magnetic field is changing slowly. There are many others.
One thing about physics today. Many of the new 'discoveries' are really only somone adding a small, approximated term back into a calculation to see what the effect is. Physicists are people, they can make mistakes. So, if god comes down and says we have it wrong, every physicist worth his diploma will immediately ask where the math is wrong.