Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Even physicists are 'afraid' of mathematics
ScienceDaily ^ | November 11, 2016 | University of Exeter

Posted on 11/13/2016 7:25:21 AM PST by LouieFisk

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last
To: Moonman62

Actually its a myth he had difficulties in math.


21 posted on 11/13/2016 7:46:06 AM PST by Reily
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: TexasGator

I was already punning there!


22 posted on 11/13/2016 7:46:58 AM PST by LouieFisk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: LouieFisk

“It is. That’s why it should be met head-on and tamed. You can do it!”

They used to teach kids to approach math and other difficult subjects and problems that way. No more.


23 posted on 11/13/2016 7:47:04 AM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: P.O.E.

D'ough!

24 posted on 11/13/2016 7:48:24 AM PST by Fightin Whitey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: LouieFisk

The ordinal structure of existence is one of the greatest arguments for God.


25 posted on 11/13/2016 7:48:40 AM PST by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kiryandil

It wasn’t until the 40s that physicist finally admitted there had to be a place for mathematics. Schroedinger was largely responsible for this.


26 posted on 11/13/2016 7:49:42 AM PST by RinaseaofDs (Truth, in a time of universal deceit, is courage)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: G Larry

“it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on him not understanding it”

- Upton Sinclair


27 posted on 11/13/2016 7:55:47 AM PST by thoughtomator (This election is a referendum on the Rule of Law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Salman

“[avoiding math] finally corrupting the hard sciences.”

So true. As a trained physicist myself, we are multi-majors by nature; or at least it used to be.

One can see the disconnect from highly trained rational minds that has been occurring throughout the sciences (Anthropologic Global Warming anyone).

Without relying on mathematically working theorems, proofs, and laws the scientific community has switched its allegiances over to the political sciences.

Where Fed funding forces predetermined results and consensus makes law.

These lazy minds have forgotten that now matter how BIG or how Powerful the computers they make, their program results are ONLY as good as their entered mathematical formulas.

And we KNOW those at the UN’s IPCC continue to doctor their equations/results.


28 posted on 11/13/2016 7:57:58 AM PST by apostoli ("When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination." - Sowel)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: BradyLS

“It is. That’s why it should be met head-on and tamed. You can do it!”

“They used to teach kids to approach math and other difficult subjects and problems that way. No more.”
==
Though some kids take easier to it than others and some teachers are better than others at teaching it. But in the end, it comes down to the individual learner’s motivation.


29 posted on 11/13/2016 7:58:15 AM PST by LouieFisk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Fightin Whitey

30 posted on 11/13/2016 8:05:11 AM PST by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: TexasGator

My brother was a math major who dropped out of college in his senior year because he said the math he was having to take had no practical application. He then joined the Navy for a six-year stint in radar. From there it was to Lockheed and GE Astrospace, where he supervised the launching of satellites. So the math may have been impractical, but what worked was lucrative.


31 posted on 11/13/2016 8:06:39 AM PST by sparklite2 (I'm less interested in the rights I have than the liberties I can take.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: onedoug

I agree!


32 posted on 11/13/2016 8:06:56 AM PST by Reily
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: LouieFisk

“But in the end, it comes down to the individual learner’s motivation.”

Agree totally. Especially their ‘skill set’. Wish parents/teachers would access that knowledge about their children early and ‘feed’ them along those lines.

Some minds learn best with imagination/concepts and storytelling, others are better with their hands touching/doing; some focus on detail others big pic.

Allowed to find ‘my way’ thru the maze of the ‘forced’ learning years and was fortunate to have those few superb teachers along the path that made a difference that is now inculcated into me.


33 posted on 11/13/2016 8:06:59 AM PST by apostoli ("When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination." - Sowel)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: LouieFisk
My understanding is that as physics hypotheses get more silly (e.g. string theory) the associated math gets sillier as well, e.g.

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ... = -1/12

34 posted on 11/13/2016 8:07:19 AM PST by who_would_fardels_bear
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RinaseaofDs

Math is a tool used by physicists since time immemorial. Physics, even theoretical physics, is the study of the physical world experienced by our senses. Math is abstract and tautological A math theory may be internally consistent but with nothing corresponding to the natural world we experience or can ever test by experiment and the scientific method.


35 posted on 11/13/2016 8:09:28 AM PST by RonnG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: LouieFisk

Lazy is what it is. Math is merely a tool for physicist. You don’t alway have to understand the tool to understand the work.


36 posted on 11/13/2016 8:10:06 AM PST by numberonepal (First they came for Sarah, then they came for Herman, and now they've come for Trump.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: grey_whiskers
It's not that math is hard: it's that making sure you didn't make any mistakes in your math, that is hard.

Math always burns a few hundred brain calories when working through problems. I'm not a natural but sure had great experiences with helpful tutors, teachers, math clubs and groups. As my old seventh grade Algebra 'always-a-marine' teacher used to drill in to us,"Math can be fun and you will like it." He had a sign on the clock also,"Time will pass, will you?"

37 posted on 11/13/2016 8:10:31 AM PST by Karliner (Jeremiah29:11,Romans8:28 Isa 17, Damascus has fallen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: KarlInOhio
Even Einstein had to get help from Marcel Grossmann with the math for general relativity. Just imagine what it would take to get Einstein to say “Ach! Zis ist vay too hard for me.”
==


38 posted on 11/13/2016 8:12:40 AM PST by LouieFisk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: who_would_fardels_bear

“physics hypotheses”

Yes, it would seem so. Studying imaginary/complex numbers in college certainly peeked my early skeptic, however, without them, one cannot research into the quantum world.

We are not (only) what we think we are. And as someone already mentioned on this thread, the existence of a higher being seems to be at play here!


39 posted on 11/13/2016 8:13:23 AM PST by apostoli ("When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination." - Sowel)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: numberonepal

“Math is merely a tool for physicist.”

Yes just as our ability to communicate on this thread is directly related to our ability to know a common language.

Math is the language of physics.


40 posted on 11/13/2016 8:15:56 AM PST by apostoli ("When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination." - Sowel)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson