Is Mathematics a Science?

yer_averagejoe · 3 Mar 2006 at 00:49

HangTime said:
31*12 = 372 is a fact.

someone (cant recall who) once said that maths is the only thing that is true, since and individual's senses can be decieving and differ slightly from another indivdual, 2+2 = 4, FACT.

I find it amazing how much can be explained by maths, how much in this universe makes perfect sense and can be explained through the union of maths and science.

Is it possible there might actually be an answer to "the big questions"?

VeNT · 3 Mar 2006 at 00:50

its a mystic art for some people I know.

The_TailGunner · 3 Mar 2006 at 01:16

HangTime said:
31*12 = 372 is a fact.

actually, its an abstract concept....high level maths requires an enormous amount of creativity because it is totally abstract- in fact the whole concept of "numbers" is abstract.

Maths is a language which is often used to describe the relationships between events/things/data/stuff/etc

TG

BrenOS · 3 Mar 2006 at 02:19

Maths is the same everywhere.

/Mean Girls.

VeNT · 3 Mar 2006 at 02:21

maybe high level maths can become "theoretical" but most its still a science from my point of view

kaz_allen · 3 Mar 2006 at 04:54

i think maths is on the same level as science.

ie we have science which breaks down into different areas; biology, physics etc
and we have maths which breaks down into different areas; algebra, differentiation etc

they are related and often necessary for each other, but neither is a part of the other. has that gotten too philosophical???

woodsy2k · 3 Mar 2006 at 11:02

It depends how you look at it tbh. Take physics for example, Physics is applied maths. If it wasnt for maths, our world as we know it wouldnt exist. No cars, planes, trains, electronics, anything like that is all ultimately maths in its applied form.

I beleive that art is something that is interpreted completely differently depending on the individual. Hence i think maths is a science.

However it might help if we have a definition of the word science...

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=science

See if that helps

VeNT · 3 Mar 2006 at 11:06

wasn't this thread like 4 pages long last night?

Borris · 3 Mar 2006 at 11:12

There are various branches of philosophy that can be applied to maths, which suggest that it is anything buta science.

(Although science tends to be ablance of probabilities, based upon axioms and assumptions.)

People were starting to discuss this in the 0.9r thread, until it became a pig-headed slanginf match, with one side trying to explain that there are different schools of thought relating to mathematics, and the other intransigently sticking to their guns that their answers were immutably correct.

One (trite) example of what I'm talking about - E=mc² as being a "sexed equation".

Mr Jack · 3 Mar 2006 at 11:38

Mathematics is not a science. It does not use the scientific method; it is deductive, not inductive.

Jenjey · 3 Mar 2006 at 11:39

I'd say so. It's regarded by medical schools as a science iirc. Meh, iumno actually. Certainly isn't an art, so I'm going for the science option!

Mr Jack · 3 Mar 2006 at 11:54

Jenjey said:
I'd say so. It's regarded by medical schools as a science iirc. Meh, iumno actually. Certainly isn't an art, so I'm going for the science option!

At Warwick University you can decide whether you want a BA or a BSc when you do a maths degree.

Personally, I think the whole art/science thing is a false dichotomy, a bit like saying "a cabbage isn't a owl so it must be a frog!"

If you allow Maths as a science then you are removing the only real distinguishing factor between science and pseudoscience - the scientific method - as a defining quality of science.

barnettgs · 3 Mar 2006 at 12:12

It's maths that applies to everything. Without Maths, science would be unworkable so I guess maths is scientific tool!

I was in electronics at university, we had to write down few pages of pure maths worked out just for one simple transformer with a voltage applied to it!

There is no way that science/technology will develop without maths.

Amleto · 3 Mar 2006 at 12:43

barnettgs said:
It's maths that applies to everything. Without Maths, science would be unworkable so I guess maths is scientific tool!

I was in electronics at university, we had to write down few pages of pure maths worked out just for one simple transformer with a voltage applied to it!

There is no way that science/technology will develop without maths.

If you're talking about transformers and voltages, you probably weren't using pure maths

Also, pure maths for the most part exists as its own entity and has nothing to do with other sciences so it can't be restricted to being a 'tool', anymore than physics is a scientific tool

Walliam · 3 Mar 2006 at 12:52

Let's talk about algebra.

Fusion · 3 Mar 2006 at 13:58

Pumpkinstew said:
When maths is applied to a physical problem it is regarded as physics.

woodsy2k said:
Physics is applied maths.

Wrong

What about information theory, probability and statistics, cryptography, graphs & networks, linear programming, et cetera? I kmow what you're getting at, but to state that Physics and applied mathematics are one and the same, is a big misconception.