4 ms·

because math doesn't do experiments.

by mjfl 5y ago

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
This seems the obvious answer. The replication crisis isn't about published material being wrong, it's about the inability to reproduce the results of experiments or studies in a repeatable fashion. It's not like you make a hypothesis in math and then need to go away and interview a sample of 1,000 circles and report back that, controlling for ellipses that may be misreporting as circles, the ratio of the circumference to the diameter is 3.2 +/- 0.1 (p<0.05).
medstrom 5y ago
Exactly. A math study is not a "study" in the sense of "hey i saw a funny pattern in some data maybe it's a sign of my pet theory" - it's literally already proven when published. There's nothing more to do.
- morelisp 5y ago
  There are a lot of math papers / work that are "hey I saw a funny equation/morphism/shape/etc, what does it 'do'?" that present a lot of conjectures / constructions but are weak on any conventionally called a theorem. https://erich-friedman.github.io/packing/ https://erich-friedman.github.io/packing/ is probably one of the best known on HN.
Jtsummers 5y ago
Or as noted in the article: > But one of the distinctive things about math is that our papers aren’t just records of experiments we did elsewhere. In experimental sciences, the experiment is the “real work” and the paper is just a description of it. But in math, the paper, itself, is the “real work”. And > And that means that you can replicate a math paper by reading it.
- horsawlarway 5y ago
  I think that means that the word "experiment" isn't the right term for what most mathematicians do. I'd say most times it's "modeling", not "experimenting"
nimih 5y ago
https://www.experimentalmath.info/ https://www.experimentalmath.info/ would beg to differ, I think.
bunje 5y ago
"Mathematics is the part of physics where experiments are cheap." - V.I. Arnold
- pixl97 5y ago
  Until you start multiplying infinities on your auto scaling AWS cluster
horsawlarway 5y ago
This is my take. Science attempts to describe reality. Math attempts to create rules/axioms. They're not the same pursuit, although they can often be useful together.
Koshkin 5y ago
It does (especially using computers), it's just that experiment is not the sole criterion of truth as it is in, say, physics.

because math doesn't do experiments.

by mjfl 5y ago

because math doesn't do experiments.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

NovemberWhiskey 5y ago

This seems the obvious answer. The replication crisis isn't about published material being wrong, it's about the inability to reproduce the results of experiments or studies in a repeatable fashion. It's not like you make a hypothesis in math and then need to go away and interview a sample of 1,000 circles and report back that, controlling for ellipses that may be misreporting as circles, the ratio of the circumference to the diameter is 3.2 +/- 0.1 (p<0.05).

medstrom 5y ago

Exactly. A math study is not a "study" in the sense of "hey i saw a funny pattern in some data maybe it's a sign of my pet theory" - it's literally already proven when published. There's nothing more to do.

morelisp 5y ago
There are a lot of math papers / work that are "hey I saw a funny equation/morphism/shape/etc, what does it 'do'?" that present a lot of conjectures / constructions but are weak on any conventionally called a theorem. https://erich-friedman.github.io/packing/ https://erich-friedman.github.io/packing/ is probably one of the best known on HN.

Jtsummers 5y ago

Or as noted in the article: > But one of the distinctive things about math is that our papers aren’t just records of experiments we did elsewhere. In experimental sciences, the experiment is the “real work” and the paper is just a description of it. But in math, the paper, itself, is the “real work”. And > And that means that you can replicate a math paper by reading it.

horsawlarway 5y ago
I think that means that the word "experiment" isn't the right term for what most mathematicians do. I'd say most times it's "modeling", not "experimenting"

nimih 5y ago

https://www.experimentalmath.info/ https://www.experimentalmath.info/ would beg to differ, I think.

bunje 5y ago

"Mathematics is the part of physics where experiments are cheap." - V.I. Arnold

pixl97 5y ago
Until you start multiplying infinities on your auto scaling AWS cluster

horsawlarway 5y ago

This is my take. Science attempts to describe reality. Math attempts to create rules/axioms. They're not the same pursuit, although they can often be useful together.

Koshkin 5y ago

It does (especially using computers), it's just that experiment is not the sole criterion of truth as it is in, say, physics.