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> In my mind STEM topics exist on a scale that has math at one end, then there's a slight pause/discontinuity (as in point 2 in the underpants gnome business pl
by shmageggy 5y ago
> In my mind STEM topics exist on a scale that has math at one end, then there's a slight pause/discontinuity (as in point 2 in the underpants gnome business plan) before it continues with physics, chemistry, biology and onwards to god knows what.
https://xkcd.com/435/ https://xkcd.com/435/
- HPsquared 5y agoAnd mathematics is just applied philosophy, philosophy is just applied language, and language is again one of those "social studies"...
- bborud 5y agoHoly crap! :)
- LanceH 5y agoAnd the joke is way, way older than that.
- bborud 5y agoWhether or not it is a joke probably depends on how you label the axis along which you distribute these topics. :) Observe that as you move from one side to the other (math to biology and onwards), you are essentially dragging along a good portion of the stuff as prerequisites you have to know a bit about. By the time you reach something like immunobiology you can pretty much build a house out of the textbooks and go live in it. :)
- LanceH 5y agoThe joke as I heard it in the 80's -- and I have no reason to think it was new then -- went something like: Physics is just applied math, chemistry is applied physics, etc... I've always liked the view that Physics is just experimental discovery of the axioms "chosen" for our universe. Physics without experimentation just being a specific subset of math.