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a lot of it is just cultural approach. math people tend to like to rigorously define everything they're doing, and work from there. physics is more like "what c
by dilap 12y ago
a lot of it is just cultural approach. math people tend to like to rigorously define everything they're doing, and work from there. physics is more like "what can we make up and fudge and twist and bend and then get the right answer." there's a lot of people who aren't as comfortable working in that less-defined context.
some of this is maybe inherent to the aim of physics, some of it is just physics machismo culture, and could be better, imo.
(i was a physics and math major at oregon.)
- digikata 12y agoI don't think it's just cultural. Ultimately in physics you are often faced with a pile of observations from nature that you have to make sense of. Vs math, where you usually have a mass perfectly defined err.. well math that you're trying to build forward upon. I think the best advances in both math and physics are made with people with an excellent grasp of when to move forward with existing constructs, and when to start shaping new ones...
- dilap 12y agototally agree -- some of it is inherent to the endeavor of physics. but some of it is just hazing...