How is it that math explains the physical world?

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The Einstein black hole equation got me thinking. In a universe where so many things seem random, unexplained, and misunderstood, how can numbers on a paper explain and predict how the universe works?

It blows my mind that this concept (math) is so young relative to the universe and can be used to explain how and why things happen. Where’s the connection?

In: Mathematics

15 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Imagine that you know a box weighs exactly 1 pound. But then you weigh the box and it weighs 6 pounds. There is something in the box. Until you open it, you won’t know exactly what that something is, but using math you know that there is something that weighs 5 pounds in the box.

Similarly, physicists have encountered situations where observable results are not quite matching the predictions they’ve made. For example, light may not follow the trajectory that our math predicted, indicating that some other force has acted upon the light, such as the gravity of a black hole. The math tells us that something with that gravity exists, even before we are able to observe it with our own senses like sight.

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