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Re: Simple expanations. was what are the labs for

Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 15:30:22 -0700
From: "Dewey Dykstra, Jr." <dykstrad@bsumail.idbsu.edu>
Subject: Re: Simple explanations. Was: what are the labs for?

.... In what sense is a mathematical explanation really an explanation?

Here is what Michael Faraday (in letter to Ampere, 1822) wrote about
physics without advanced math.

I am unfortunate in [that I lack] mathematical knowledge, and the powers
of entering with facility in abstract reasoning ... [this] chains me down,
and I cannot help now and then comparing myself to a timid navigator who,
though he might boldly and safely steer across the bay or an ocean by the
aid of a compass ... is afraid to leave sight of the shore because he
understands not the power of instrument that is to guide him.

But...
Was Faraday suggesting mathematics as explanation or tool with which to
navigate the unknown?

Dewey

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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@bsumail.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938.
"Every [person's] world picture is and always remains a construct
of [their] mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence."
--E. Schrodinger in Mind and Matter, 1958.
"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe." --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
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