Re:The Point of the Banach-Tarski Theorem – not just a curio...
by snowwrestler on Monday June 08, 2015 @11:18AM
(#9679623)
> Another perspective is that mathematics is not intended to describe the real world
Isn't that a fairly recent perspective, though? My memory is that the concept of math for its own sake (purposefully divorced from "real world" applications) is only a couple hundred years old at least. Whereas for most of its history, from the Egyptians up to Newton, mathematics was developed as a tool to understand the physical world.
So while some people today might consider that mathematics is not intended to describe the real world, they're working on top of a deep system that was.
Isn't that a fairly recent perspective, though? My memory is that the concept of math for its own sake (purposefully divorced from "real world" applications) is only a couple hundred years old at least. Whereas for most of its history, from the Egyptians up to Newton, mathematics was developed as a tool to understand the physical world.
So while some people today might consider that mathematics is not intended to describe the real world, they're working on top of a deep system that was.