He went on to say that "Arithmetic is the Queen of Mathematics". What of the Kings, though? If there is one, it is Physics, but according to one historian, "Two hundred years ago, physics and we know it did not exist". So in Gauss' mind, we may presume that Mathematics was the sole reigning monarch of the sciences, each science having its own sub-queens. Perhaps he was thinking of muses, really. The idea of all the sciences being beset with lines of nobility and the resulting warring factions is disturbing. Had that happened, we'd call it the NSF. Hilarie
From: "Adam P. Goucher" <apgoucher@gmx.com> Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2015 04:37:16 +0200 Subject: Re: [math-fun] Definition of mathematics
Gauss once said:
"Mathematics is the Queen of the Sciences"
Assuming we've defined `queen' and `science', and established uniqueness, we have a concrete definition of mathematics.
Sincerely,
Adam P. Goucher
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2015 at 2:34 AM From: "Dan Asimov" <asimov@msri.org> To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [math-fun] Definition of mathematics
As a grad student, ca. 1971, I came up with
"Mathematics is the science of patterns."
Dan
On Jun 11, 2015, at 5:13 PM, Allan Wechsler <acwacw@gmail.com> wrote:
Mathematics is the study of the formal consequences of formal rules. Even more succinctly, mathematics is the study of form.
On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 6:23 PM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, in a gathering of mathematicians throwing out candidate definitions of mathematics, I half-seriously ventured the opinion that mathematics is the subset of philosophy consisting of those philosophical questions that actually have answers, along with the answers to those questions.
But I don't think this is original. Whom am I quoting (or paraphrasing) here?
Jim Propp