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> For one thing, what has physics ever come up with but equations, and improved equations to replace those, and so on? Observations of nature and rational expl
by effie 11y ago
> For one thing, what has physics ever come up with but equations, and improved equations to replace those, and so on?
Observations of nature and rational explanation of those in terms of old but also new concepts. Equations are just one of technical artifacts to help us think in a precise way. If we had computers sooner, there might have been physics without differential equations.
- kazinator 11y agoWhat observations are made in physics experiments which don't end up expressed as a cluster of floating-point numbers?
- n4r9 11y agoI think the previous comment was getting at concepts like "the laws of physics are the same in all inertial reference frames". It doesn't directly refer to any mathematics, although of course it can only be tested via the quantitative predictions that follow from it.
- kazinator 11y agoI understand the statement "the laws of physics are the same in all inertial reference frames" as referring to correspondences and invariances among some math under a coordinate transformation.
- effie 11y agoI think you're missing my point. Physics did not give us merely equations, it is also gave us concepts such as force, temperature, energy and physical principles such as principle of conservation of energy, principle of relativity etc. (Floating-point number is a concept referring to implementation of rational numbers in computer engineering. I do not think it is relevant here.)