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Is mathematics a science?

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Author Topic:   Is mathematics a science?
Dr Jack
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From: Immigrant in the land of Deutsch
Joined: 07-14-2003
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Message 7 of 48 (238509)
08-30-2005 6:01 AM 		Reply to: Message 4 by Nuggin
08-29-2005 11:00 PM

Re: Math as a language
I would suggest, as I did in the other thread, that Math is more like a language than a science.
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Maths is not a language. Language has no problem solving capability; maths does.
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It's rigidly structured. It has it's own characters. It can be used to describe other things.
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Granted.
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You can exchange ideas using math as your only means of communication.
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Unless those ideas are specifically about maths; no, you can't and even then you will struggle.
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Dr Jack
Member
Posts: 3514
From: Immigrant in the land of Deutsch
Joined: 07-14-2003
Member Rating: 8.3

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Message 8 of 48 (238510)
08-30-2005 6:03 AM 		Reply to: Message 3 by Maxwell's Demon
08-29-2005 10:33 PM

You know, I wonder whether maths has changed from being a science to something else. While the modern mathematically synthesis is derived from axiomatic routes; it has it route fairly and squarely in an emprical description of the world.
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Consider the row over negative and imaginary numbers (but what do they mean?) and even zero in long distant times.
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Dr Jack
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Posts: 3514
From: Immigrant in the land of Deutsch
Joined: 07-14-2003
Member Rating: 8.3

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Message 13 of 48 (239398)
09-01-2005 6:02 AM 		Reply to: Message 11 by crashfrog
08-31-2005 5:42 PM

Re: Math as a language
Computers do not operate by doing maths. Believe me, I know - I have a masters in mathematics and am a computer programmer by trade; I'm intimately familiar with both.
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What computers acheive is done through boolean logical operations, not mathematics. The meaning you perceive is there, not because it is communicated by mathematics but because it is constructed as a visual image that you understand; whether through visual or textual means. And is these that communicate the meaning not the underlying logic.
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