Math: Did we discover or create it?

Discussion in 'Debate Corner' started by Fayth, Jan 28, 2008.

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What Do You Think?

  1. We Discovered Math

    3 vote(s)
    15.0%
  2. We Created Math

    7 vote(s)
    35.0%
  3. We Discovered and Then Improved Math

    10 vote(s)
    50.0%
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  1. Fayth Destiny Islands Resident

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    Here's something I can't understand or figure out: math.

    We all know how important math is on the world, not arguing that. However, there are people that think that we discovered the laws of math, while others say that we created them (kinda like a language). There is also debate about if it's really a science or not? So, what do you think?

    Is math something we created and improved, or something that was there just to be discovered?

    Came across this question when doing homework, and I'd like to hear others opinions on it.
     
  2. Solid Snake Kept you waiting, huh?

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    In a way i would say we interpreted math
    1) we didnt make 1 apple + 1 apple = 2 apples

    2) you could call it discovering but rly we made it understandible with numbers and equations
     
  3. Soushirei 運命の欠片

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    Created and improved in my opinion. Or rather, there are things that might've existed since the beginning, but would've otherwise been impossible to interpret without the use of mathematics, and as such, we created the means for ourselves to understand these natural occurrences.

    Math in the end is a language just as much as English is--and it's obvious that English wasn't always 'there'. Math is just a hell of a lot older and less complex when it was first conceptualized. There are advanced techniques in math that didn't exist back then--which is why many believe Fermat didn't actually know how to solve a lot of the equations he cynically threw at the public since many of them required advanced math that didn't exist around his time.

    Anyway, to me Math = language; language = man-made.

    EDIT: Just to bank off Solid Snake's comment of 1 apple + 1 apple = 2 apples.
    The presence of two individual apples would have always been there regardless of whether or not we had a means to interpret that information to the people around us. We just so happened to develop a system that communicates this idea and it became standardized.

    For all we know, 2 could've easily been represented in another way, but our understanding of it would've been the same regardless of what notation we used. Once again, all we've done is *create* a means to express something. I don't think it was 'waiting' to be found since our numerical system could've just as easily been something else. History and culture shaped the evolution of the language of math.
     
  4. Hakurei Reimu Take my hand. And then I'll fly with you right up

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    I'd say we'd discovered and then improved it. Numbers in essence is nothing more than a conceptual thought created by humans to make life a lot easier. Through numbers, people eventually came up with math: an idea or concept to manage number groupings easier. Eventually, we found it useful in our daily life and thus improved on it with theories, formulas, and such. Therefore, numbers were basically there since the beginning of time. The concept of numbers was discovered by humans and math evolved through such discovery.
     
  5. EvilMan_89 Code Master

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    tha'ts a tough one. i'd say created it? simply cuz it's like inventing a language, we officialized it and uniformed it
     
  6. Soushirei 運命の欠片

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    If numbers are a concept created by humans, how can it be a discovery if we are the creators? Your first two sentences contradict each other.

    Atoms were a discovery because we didn't create them, but found them. The same can't be said about math. We didn't find numbers, nor did they really exist beforehand until someone decided that multiple objects could be measured.
     
  7. Fayth Destiny Islands Resident

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    I completely agree. To be blunt, it's as you said. There's no way it was just "There" and waiting to be found.
     
  8. White_Rook Looser than a wizard's sleeve.

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    I'll try to limit the redundancy. Numbers are arbitrary representations for what we observe to be naturally occurring with a justified true belief. 1+1=2 could've easily been named malicu + trabbut= magidif. The number 1 is contingent, and as such could've been named anything we damned well pleased (same goes for all numbers). However, it appears that what it represents is not. Of course this could even lead into the contingency of representations, but we simply don't have the means to understand it.


    And everything else goes to Soush's earlier remarks.
     
  9. Heaxrt17 Gummi Ship Junkie

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    This is a tough question. I agree with Soushirei. I think Math is something we created and then improved. It's a language to describe aspects of our real world and it makes our lives easier. For example, Numbers didn't previously exist, the human invented them to count objects and other functions. If we see a pair of apples, we call it "two" apples. The word "two" is a term created by the human to describe that pair of apple, like we do in language, we give a name to something that express the meaning of it concept. Math describes things that already exist. It have been changing throughout history and continue to be made today. Based on previous knowledge, people could modify it, and now Maths are using for a lot of things, such as astronomy, commerce, counting, calculation, medicine, formulas and more.
     
  10. Zandyne King's Apprentice

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    Math is physical logic put into a form that can be universally understood when on paper. Math is also human understanding and predictability of the components that have been supplied. To help make this more easily understood, math is the culmination of concensus over certain things.
    IE: The rate of gravity is -9.8ft/sec squared. Sub this in to any certain physics equation and the result will most likely be true if you followed the rules. This may not mean anything to you, but if you use many of the known math equations to this day you will find that they are reasonably accurate. (From finding how long it will take for something to drop, to lauching a rocket a certain trajectory to coding our various programs.)

    Math is also what suggests some of the other concepts such as consistancy and the law of conservation on PAPER. Math also helps us represent deficeits in things such as finance. But yes math "was created" but the laws of logic and consistancy have always been there. I should also mention that math is the language of computers and computer programs. Math can also be considered the closest thing to a "universal language" we have on this planet.
    Also "math" is merely another statement for other tasks, "give" is addition, "take" is subtraction, "share" is division, etc. Just like how "cats" have always existed, but not necessarily the word for it. Visually we could see it, but if we had to pass along a message pertaining to it, it would be a bit more difficult, hence the creation of the word.
     
  11. Repliku Chaser

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    Math was created by humans. It is the way in which we can calculate things that are around us and make it easier to comprehend, expanding things. We did not create the items, environment, etc that we derived math from but we did create our number systems (1-10, binary, hexidecimal etc), equations to better understand how things work (e=mc2), and of course how to depict how many of objects there are we are speaking of. The objects, items, people, gravity, etc existed prior but math is a human thing to enable us to calculate things better, make things based on these equations and formulas and to work with in a tangible form when we cannot always 'see' what we are working with.
     
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