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From an engineering perspective... Mathematics looks like an add-on to natural language designed to express precise concepts in the simplest possible way. (Simp
by ldp01 9y ago
From an engineering perspective... Mathematics looks like an add-on to natural language designed to express precise concepts in the simplest possible way. (Simple != easy, of course).
In a scientific or engineering context mathematics evolves naturally whenever the requirement for precision exceeds the capability of the available language and you have the right folks around to develop it.
- auggierose 9y agoVery nice description. This is how I feel about mathematics as well. This is also why I have no problems with infinity: In a lot of situations it describes problem and solution just in the most succinct way.
- majewsky 9y agoAs evidence, look at how math looked before we formalized notation. For example, the algebra book by al-Khwarizmi (the guy whom algorithms are named after). Wikipedia has a commented excerpt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi#Algebra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi...
- marcosdumay 9y agoI wonder if all engineers are algebrists. I also wonder what is the motivation of the other factions, since I was never able to understand them.