Re:Do you need to know math for doing great science?
by sprash on Wednesday January 20, 2016 @05:11AM
(#10937067)
Not only that but the purpose of science is also to make quantifiable predictions.
If you treat math as a blackbox the best case scientific contribution you can make will be reduced to measuring numbers. New numbers might lead to some new major insight, however this new insight will most certainly not be delivered by you but by someone who uses your numbers to actually "do the math" hence develops a mathematical theory capable of delivering quantifiable predictions for a more general case including the new data.
If you treat math as a blackbox the best case scientific contribution you can make will be reduced to measuring numbers. New numbers might lead to some new major insight, however this new insight will most certainly not be delivered by you but by someone who uses your numbers to actually "do the math" hence develops a mathematical theory capable of delivering quantifiable predictions for a more general case including the new data.