Back to Home

Blackholes2 Forum Message

Forums: Atm · Astrophotography · Blackholes · Blackholes2 · CCD · Celestron · Domes · Education
Eyepieces · Meade · Misc. · God and Science · SETI · Software · UFO · XEphem
RSS Button

Home | Discussion Forums | Blackholes II | Post
Login

Be the first pioneers to continue the Astronomy Discussions at our new Astronomy meeting place...
The Space and Astronomy Agora
Re: What Is Gravity?

Forum List | Follow Ups | Post Message | Back to Thread Topics | In Response To
Posted by yelmalio/">yelmalio on January 10, 2000 14:12:08 UTC

What is a substrata of the universe? And it IS only a language. Do you know of any discoveries where someone found a "2"?

My youngest kid was thoroughly delighted when she found a 2. Really she was, it was the highlight of her day that she could count to 2 and recognise it. In a small way, she discovered what twoness was. She then went on ram whatever it was in her mouth and try to eat it.

Maths is more than a Language, I agree with Zephram on that one. Being a tad fascetious, I call a tree a tree, others use different languages and use other sounds to describe that tree. The word "tree" is a language construct unique to English but does not detract from the tree being a tree. If I use maths to say,

E(gamma) = M(gamma)c^2

That is a specific mathematical statement of a physical process. Its a language describing something in the real world that that has meaning in the same way you understand what a tree is.

Too many Physical Laws can be expressed so well in maths. Even the most hardened realist, sceptic and/or scientist must face the problem that physical laws can appear to be contrived. The universe looks to be designed by a Mathematician in so many ways. This is what led to the Strong Anthropic Principle being espoused and the famous "God does play dice" statement.

The trick is express a physical process through mathematics and see what results you get. Once you trust that the maths is giving sensible answers you trust the line of logic and maths that gave the answer. It's only a short step forward to think that Maths is the underpinnings of the Universe.

I can see why the likes of Human I. Scientist is skeptical of science. It's hard to appreciate that the abstract symbology and meaning of Maths has a real physical meaning in the same way as "tree".

Dave "Dialectics be damned" Barlow

Follow Ups:

Login to Post
Additional Information
Google
 
Web www.astronomy.net
DayNightLine
About Astronomy Net | Advertise on Astronomy Net | Contact & Comments | Privacy Policy
Unless otherwise specified, web site content Copyright 1994-2025 John Huggins All Rights Reserved
Forum posts are Copyright their authors as specified in the heading above the post.
"dbHTML," "AstroGuide," "ASTRONOMY.NET" & "VA.NET"
are trademarks of John Huggins