Abstract
Following the method of Galileo, Theoretical Physics uses Mathematics as natural and essential language to describe reality. But even Galileo would probably be surprised by the degree of success of the mathematical description of the world. Simple elegant laws like the Planck radiation formula agree with reality accurately over all the electromagnetic spectrum; on the other hand, the need for abstract mathematical concepts stemming from complex analysis, such as topology, Group Theory, and infinite-dimensional spaces shows that the fabric of the Universe is highly nontrivial. Is God a mathematician? is the title of an interesting book by Mario Livio. The Nobel Laureate in Physics Eugene Wigner in 1960 spoke about the unreasonable effectiveness of Mathematics in the understanding of Reality.
Salvini:
It is true that the Copernican System perturbs Aristotle’s Universe, but we are dealing with our Universe, the true, real one.
From Galileo Galilei, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
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Notes
- 1.
This opens the question as to whether the findings of mathematicians must be considered as inventions like those of an artist or rather discoveries like those of a scientist. Personally I believe they are discoveries, since there is an internal logic in the development of Mathematics, and Mathematics is the logic of Nature.
- 2.
I am using both the International Units and the Gauss Units, since both are commonly used.
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Cini, M. (2018). Theoretical Physics and Mathematics. In: Elements of Classical and Quantum Physics. UNITEXT for Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71330-4_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71330-4_1
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