Mathematics

Is mathematics a science?

Carl Friedrich Gauss referred to mathematics as the Queen of the Sciences. The mathematician-physicist Leon M. Lederman has quipped "The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God (though you may be hard pressed to find a mathematician that modest)."

Related Topics:
Carl Friedrich Gauss - Leon M. Lederman

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If one considers science to be strictly about the physical world, then mathematics itself is not a science. That is, mathematical knowledge exists separate from the physical world. Mathematics shares much in common with the sciences. Experimentation plays a large role in the formulation of reasonable conjectures, and therefore is not by any means excluded from use by research mathematicians. However, theorems are only accepted if rigorous proofs have been found for them.

Related Topics:
Science - Conjecture - Theorem - Proof

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