My girlfriend and i had an arguement about this. She said that math was created, while i argue that it has always existed, that we just discovered it.
2006-08-16 13:21:24 · 20 answers · asked by smnb213220 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
Math was discovered by a caveman.I'll call him Bones.
Bones knew that if he was dining alone, he only needed to club one baby sealasaurus.However,if bones got lucky and bagged a hott cavechick, he realized that if he wanted to get anywhere with her, she must eat too.Therefore, Bones deduced that he must club two baby sealasauruses in order to score with the hott cavechick.
2006-08-16 13:30:50 · answer #1 · answered by hott.dawg™ 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Both. The truths of math have always existed. However, we invent new kinds of math by setting the "rules of the game." After we have done this, we discover all kinds of consequences that follow from these rules.
Thus, we do have a certain freedom in inventing new kinds of math. However, once we have done this - set the rules - then only certain things are true and other things are false, within the system we have set up.
2006-08-16 13:27:20 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
No. I have to disagree with most of you. Math was invented/created, not discovered.
By definition Mathematics is a subject dealing with the logic of quantity, shape and arrangement.
There are many ways to deal with logic involving quantity, shape and arrangement. We have invented one such way that we call Mathematics. In a galaxy far, far away, some other civilization has probably invented a different subject that also deals with the same things.
Thus, Mathematics is something the Ancient Greeks set in motion. Please remember that although many ideas existed before the Greeks, their thought and logic was a quantum leap in learning. Perhaps sometime down the road, the next big quantum leap in understanding may be accomplished. I sincerely doubt the universities and learning institutions will have anything to do with it.
2006-08-16 14:32:04 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The truth is a combination of both. The rules of the game are created and the results of those rules are discovered. Think of it like the game of chess. The rules of the game were created. But, if you are given a chess problem, you can discover the solution (check in so many moves, etc). In the same way, the axioms of math are created (Euclid, or Peano, or Zormelo Fraenkl), but once those rules are agreed to, the results can be discovered. In the process we get to create certain ideas of interest and then discover the pattern of those ideas. Of course, we usually choose the rules to agree withsome type of intuition, but none-the-less, we create them.
2006-08-16 14:59:21 · answer #4 · answered by mathematician 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
discovered.
The laws of nature follow the laws of mathematics with poetic accuracy.
For instance, if you exert a force F on a mass m, you can calculate it's accelleration a with a=F/m. You can intergrate the acelleration with respect to time and get it's instantaneous velocity, and the integral of that will give you the position.
That's always existed. It's true here and it's true in galaxies 100 billion light years away where men have never gone.
2006-08-16 13:32:36 · answer #5 · answered by hyperhealer3 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Math is the invention that describes the found phenomena of quantifiable nature. The symbols and purposes may well be represented by utilising abstractions, however the reason math is so functional, is using the fact those abstractions are generally surely related to surely observable phenomena.
2016-11-04 23:29:59 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Math was created. It is based on "0" having a value between "1" and "-1". In reality this is not true. Ergo, the prove of its creation and not discovery. Something that is discovered is in a perfect state.
2006-08-16 13:28:21 · answer #7 · answered by normkeefer 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Man created math, as he created language, god and everything else we have made.. Without language first though, math would have always stayed under the rock.
Truth, on the other hand has always existed and always will, and our tools, "Math", (hopefully) will be used to express progressively more precise and more accurate descriptions of truth as we begin to apprehend it more lucidly.
P.S. Cavemen never deduced anything.
2006-08-16 16:27:12 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is a really interesting question. The patterns in nature that math explores have always existed, and man developed a language to describe it, so I guess it depends on how you define math.
2006-08-16 13:28:12 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
If everything is meaningless without mind, created. If meaning exists outside of mind, discovered. I prefer created.
2006-08-16 13:33:58 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋