Feynman: Mathematicians versus Physicists
TehPhysicalist2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2014–2022
interview · general · evergreen · 2014–2022 on HN
A ten-minute clip of Richard Feynman describing how mathematicians and physicists differ in their interests and customs. He argues physics rests on visualizing and applying math rather than pure abstraction.
The reference people reach for when debating how math differs from physics.
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5 comments from Hacker News
There's a lot of physics that isn't maths - more visualising how stuff works. Feynman's quite interesting talking about it here ▶ this video
I had to laugh when I saw my response next to @getsat's. Both are valid viewpoints. In other words, not everyone who uses tools has to know how to make tools. Tool makers have more insight into the assumptions behind the tools they create -- they might know how a tool was meant to be used and what its limits are. That being said, there are times when using a screwdriver as a hammer is expedient and does no harm. Of course, there are other times where using Black-Scholes to model a high-volatility market outside of the 'smoothly differentiable' market assumptions it was built on can crash a large part of the economy. It can be a dangerous game to use someone else's tools without knowing their assumptions. As for applied math suggestions: 1) Watch Feynman's take on applied math in physics: ▶ this video 2) Read this essay "A Mathematician's Lament" which points out the math learned in school is likely not really mathematics and that surprisingly math is not practical but aesthetic -- mathematics is closer to art than we are taught: link
Feynman said the same: ▶ this video I’ll take him and Sabine, and my 24 yo masters in elastic structures, over your entitled screed any day.
> In modern physics of this type, where experimentation is not practical, the math is the physics I think Feynmann would disagree with you. ▶ this video
This gentleman needs to watch Feynman talking about the difference between maths and physics. Science is all about gathering evidence and the scientific method focuses very heavily on observation and testing . Basically, it is impossible to conduct science without data. Maths is data independent. More data or less data doesn't influence what maths is. Maths links the axiom and the result - once a result has been prooven to follow from an axiom, the data is irrelevant. No amount of observation or testing will change the value of Pi. ▶ this video