On Monday, June 8, 2020 at 10:24:18 AM UTC-6, Alan Grayson wrote: > > > > On Monday, June 8, 2020 at 7:57:33 AM UTC-6, John Clark wrote: >> >> Alan Grayson aka Mr.Carl Sagan co-author wrote: >> >> *> you seem to deliberately ignore the fact that in physics we use >>> idealized cases to reach important insights.* >> >> >> Far from ignoring it for years I've been trying to convince Bruno that >> mathematical approximations help us understand physical phenomena but >> simulations are always simpler than the real physical thing; therefore >> physics is not an approximation of mathematics but mathematics is an >> approximation of physics. So physics is more fundamental than mathematics. >> I mean... if a mathematical model of what the path of a hurricane will do >> does not conform to what it actually does we don't say the physical >> hurricane made an error, we say the computer model made an error. >> >> John K Clark >> > > The bottom line is this; firstly, that physics DOES have POSTULATES or > PRINCIPLES as starting points for its theories; and secondly, that > mathematics is generally used to see the consequences of these postulates > or principles. What you claim is simply false, other than the obvious; > that our models are imperfect. AG >
Or take the case of classical EM theory. We have four postulates or principles, taken from experience, namely Maxwell's equations; and the results obtained by mathematics, namely the existence of wave solutions. Are the principles or postulates, or the consequences perfect? Of course not, but huge advances nevertheless. Now we have QED. Much superior to the old theory, but nevertheless likely to be subsumed in the future by a better theory. And so it goes. AG -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/dc4a22c7-dc2a-415d-8d78-db17436de185o%40googlegroups.com.
