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How Math barged into Science
The generation of researchers that began to tackle questions of science more systematically in the second
half of the 17th Century (Huygens, Hooke, Newton, Leibniz) inevitably veered in the direction of Mathematics
following the tradition of the Greeks and the Arabs, and of more recent ones such as Copernicus, Galileo
and Kepler. It was taken for granted that equations held the magical clues and secrets to understanding the
workings of the Universe.
However, Math is a language. Math can only describe. And then only quantitatively. It has no power to
explain. We can describe with an equation how fast a pen falls to the floor. We cannot explain with an
equation why it doesn't fall to the ceiling. If Physics is about explaining a theory rationally, Mathematics
plays no role in Science. We have no alternative but to use everyday language.
How Mother Nature does her tricks
In Physics, we neither calibrate clocks like a watchmaker nor measure clothing like a tailor. We are not
interested how fast a magnet is attracted to another. This is not Science! Science is explaining how a
magnet attracts another.
As an analogy, imagine going to a show. The magician saws the lady in half. The curtains close. The curtains
open. The magician and the lady standing next to him both bow to the crowd. Science is not describing how
fast the saw cut up the lady or how many strokes the magician took to do it in (description). Science is about
explaining how he did the trick.
Similarly, the job of a physicist is to discover how Mother Nature does her invisible tricks: light, magnetism,
gravity, atomic behavior, galactic integrity, etc. For this there is only one language and it isn't Mathematics.
The language of Physics is ILLUSTRATION. If you cannot make a movie of your theory, it has nothing to do
with Physics! Physics first and foremost requires an object. An object is that which has shape. A physicist
has no excuse not to draw an object.
A theory of Physics is a movie. Each frame in the film must have an image of an object. Only then can the
crowd follow the presentation without missing a beat. The skeptic can inspect any frame in the film and
ask questions in order to satisfy himself that he understood what the presenter presented. The point of
Science is to understand, not to do calculations and fancy Math to describe without comprehending how
the phenomenon occurred.
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