What is Math?: How humans speak in math, and what that means for the world by Cady Field

Author:Cady, Field [Cady, Field]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2014-07-19T16:00:00+00:00

The first equation captures laws 1 and 2. For an object called A, if you add up all the forces that other objects are exerting on it and divide by A’s mass, you will get its acceleration. If it turns out that there are no forces, then the acceleration will be zero and the object will continue moving (or staying still) just as it is, i.e. the law of inertia. The second equation says that two objects will push each other equally hard but in opposite directions. That “push” could be attraction from gravity, blunt force from running into each other, electromagnetic repulsion, or anything else. This law just says that, no matter what the force, every object gives as good as it gets .

Physics was the first of the sciences to be reduced completely to math, and because of this they became closely intertwined. Calculus was developed mostly as a tool for manipulating the equations above and applying them to new situations, and ever since then math and physics have had a symbiotic relationship. Physics poses problems that can’t be solved with existing math, so new methods are invented. Mathematical discoveries are made, which cast light on existing theories of physics.

Several years ago I visited Westminster Abbey in London, where Newton is buried. For a few brief moments in time I was, out of all the people in the world, the closest one to Newton’s earthly remains, and I was surprised to find that it was almost a religious experience. I’ve devoted much of my life, personally as well as professionally, to mathematical science, and I was in the presence of its founder. Out of all the stars in the universe of science, Newton’s shines the brightest.

There were a lot of surprising things about Newton, both good and bad. He was a mediocre student, but ended up being a world-class genius. He was paranoid and held deep grudges. He probably died a virgin. But the most surprising thing may be that, in his own mind, Newton’s most important work wasn’t science at all. It was religious scholarship.

Newton was a devout Christian, and he studied religion with the same dogged obsession that yielded such fruits in physics. He actually wrote more on religion than he ever did on the natural sciences. However, the details of his beliefs were extremely unorthodox in a time when heresy could be a capital offense in England. For that reason scholars are still debating the details of his views, since he couldn’t exactly say them publicly. Most of his work focused on Bible translations (he found a number of small errors) and historical dating. He estimated that Jesus was born in 33 C.E., which jives with the best estimates available today, and he even tried his hand at predicting the end of the world. According to his calculations the world will last at least until the year 2060, and he concluded by sayin g

"This I mention not to assert when the time of the end

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