nLab The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences

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Mathematics

Physics

physics, mathematical physics, philosophy of physics

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theory (physics), model (physics)

experiment, measurement, computable physics

This page collects resources related to

  • Eugene Wigner


    The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences


    Richard Courant lecture in mathematical sciences delivered at New York University, May 11, 1959.

    Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics. 13 (1960) 1–14

    doi:10.1002/cpa.3160130102

    Wikipedia entry

  • Galileo Galilei (quote):

    Philosophy[[i.e. physics ]] is written in this grand book — I mean the universe — which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering around in a dark labyrinth. (Galilei, Il Saggiatore, 1623).

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category: reference

Last revised on November 2, 2024 at 07:33:59. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.