Mathematics
Now they say great ideas pop up in heads in the bathroom. This I believe is true. So this is what happened there in my head this morning. Not a great idea but just the kind of stuff I like debating about.
Is mathematics a science by itself, or is it a tool which has been developed by engineers to be used with their work. And secondly It is a language that has been developed purely based on our convenience. I would only give 2 examples here to show what I mean.
To show an example of the second point first. Why does our counting system (the decimal system) have 10 digits. What I mean is it could have had 4 and the counting could have gone 1 2 3 10 11 12 13 20 21 22 23 30 ......... Why not? But I think 10 was chosen because we have 10 fingers (which were used for counting) in our hands. So isn't it just convenience. Now why was binary developed. To be used with computers. Why binary? Because computers architecture is based on flip-flops which basically have 2 modes. If we had three way flip-flops, we would have used 'trinary' instead. Now this also serves as an example of mathematics developed by engineers to suit their purpose.
These are just simple examples, I am sure people can give much stronger examples for and against my point. But this is what I think!!
Is mathematics a science by itself, or is it a tool which has been developed by engineers to be used with their work. And secondly It is a language that has been developed purely based on our convenience. I would only give 2 examples here to show what I mean.
To show an example of the second point first. Why does our counting system (the decimal system) have 10 digits. What I mean is it could have had 4 and the counting could have gone 1 2 3 10 11 12 13 20 21 22 23 30 ......... Why not? But I think 10 was chosen because we have 10 fingers (which were used for counting) in our hands. So isn't it just convenience. Now why was binary developed. To be used with computers. Why binary? Because computers architecture is based on flip-flops which basically have 2 modes. If we had three way flip-flops, we would have used 'trinary' instead. Now this also serves as an example of mathematics developed by engineers to suit their purpose.
These are just simple examples, I am sure people can give much stronger examples for and against my point. But this is what I think!!
posted by jumpstart_life at 11:04 AM
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