Why Does Mathematics Explain The World So Perfect?
It is called by some the language of the universe. The real question is why does mathematics describe the world around us so well. Is it only something humans made up or is it truly the language of the universe?
What is mathematics?
Mathematics is the abstract science of number, quantity, and space, either as abstract concepts (pure mathematics), or as applied to other disciplines such as physics and engineering (applied mathematics) according to Oxford dictionaries. Mathematics is more than addition and subtraction. This is why Mathematics have such a huge field of applications.
But why does it explain the universe perfectly?
Well the universe is full of patterns and ever changing. A good example of this statement is by looking at how the Earth is orbiting around the Sun. It is moving thus the rates of change can be studied. It is also repeating its positions around the sun every x days, Thus we can study patterns. We can see these types of behavior when looking at objects falling at earth. We can see there is a rate at which the objects is falling thus we can study it. There is also a connection between how much a objects weigh and how much energy transfers when hitting the ground. Thus we can see ore patterns.
We can conclude that mathematics is great for explaining this phenomena because it is the study of patterns and rate of change. But what about the other more unnatural things math explains in pure mathematics like number theory? Does that descriptions exist or is it more of a logical fiction?
Well number theory is the study of well numbers, it explains what prime numbers are made of and generally what happens to numbers whilst doing arithmetic. Number theory can be seen when looking at an objects like apples. We can add another apple to our apple and then we have two apples. We can see by adding another apple in our apple collection would increase our collection by on. based on those types of observations we made axioms (Axioms is like a set of rules before a proof). We used this axioms to discover (or make) new axioms and rules that still obeys the rules of the older axioms.
In a way we can conclude through basic experiments (like the apple one) that Number theory is not as abstract and really true. But what about the parts we can see with our eyes, like imaginary numbers? Well at first most mathematicians thought that some of the new discoveries was purely logic and has no real world applications, but yet humans find a way to use it! Imaginary numbers was use to describe phenomena in Quantum Physics. It is clear that our most abstract mathematics can describe hidden patterns in our universe.
Imaginary numbers. Image Credit
But it makes sense if you think about how our math knowledge tower is build. Each new discovery is made upon an axiom which we can generally see as a type of truth. It means that the new discovery must be true. We can see that our original axiom was based on a basic observation in our universe (or maybe multiverse if the multiverse theory is true) thus their must be some sort of pattern in our universe (and or perhaps multiverse) that can be explained by our new discovery.
Here is another example of where our mathematical discoveries was used for a real world application. We used some of Number theory to encrypt information across the internet. It is not really a natural, natural application but we used and manipulated natural phenomena to create machines to send messages. This type of things in the real world (the computers and the information transportation) could have been in a (abstract sense) a type of hidden pattern.
We can conclude that mathematics is a human invention or language which we use to describe the natural events in a more simple logical way. This is probably why it describes the universe so well.
What do you think? Why does Mathematics Explain the universe so well? Share your thoughts down below!
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The usual spoken language is loose, prone to perspective. But maths and science is universal, and that's how people are able to work together around the world. I think maths can explain the constructs of the universe because everything starts from a seed, and all the maths involved are just expanded from the root.. ;)
@kevinwong! thank you for the reply, I did not even think of how mathematics helped people to work together around the world! That is something nice to think about!
In my opinion, mathematics is the tool and does not aim to explain how the universe works. That's the goal of physics.
Sometimes, it is also funny to see how physics triggered some developments in math.
Yes, that is very true, thanks for the reply!
Hi @stormblaze
To me it sounds to complicated, thanks for sharing.
That is excellent, thanks very much. I would say though that , perhaps, "Perfect" is a little generous, no? That is to say, if mathematics was an actually, "perfect" representation of the world (universe). It would mean that there would be nothing that it did not fully explain, i.e. dark matter, quantum gravity, the big bang, what is actually going on at black hole events horizons, etc. Know what I mean? Not that it won't, eventually, attain these mysteries, merely that "perfection" implies complete understanding currently. If that makes any sense...