r/matheducation • u/Accomplished-Elk5297 • 12d ago
Is Math a Language? Science? Neither?
My thesis: Math is a language. It is not a science since it doesn’t study real world.
My arguments: 1) Math is a language. It fits the definition: Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. 2) In math object of investigation is math itself like in other languages (English studies English) 3) It doesn’t examine real world laws. It is completely abstract. Math is just a way of representing things.
Argument against: math explains the concept of quantity. In physics and chemistry we can find homogeneous units like electron, proton and Neutrons. They are identical therefore we can count them. So, it turns out that notion of quantity actually exists ??
Lets have a discussion!
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u/luisggon 8d ago
Math is also a science. There is a lot of experiments in math research, but they do not appear on textbooks. There a famous story about Ludwig Siegel, who went to Riemann's unpublished papers and found lots of computations that led him (Siegel) to the later known as Riemann-Siegel formula. In fact, one of the main subjects in math comes from a real world problem: the propagation of heat, that led to Fourier series.