Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Science versus mathematics

Is mathematics one of the sciences?  If not, how do we distinguish one from the other?  I must admit that I usually think of mathematics as a science.  As a trained physicist I find mathematics to be as much like physics as, say, biology is.

But if I were to look for a distinction between science and math then it might be that scientists (or should I say physicists) look for patterns that are present in the world whereas mathematicians look at patterns that may (or may not) occur in the physical world.

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