If you convince yourself that "math" is just whatever the current fallible mathematicians persuade each other it is, and there's nothing deeper, you have to explain why rockets care what mathematicians think.
-
Is integration that isn't proven correct integration? Even if they don't know what it is and lack the tools to know why it converges?
A child doesn't have to know what "weight" *is* — that it's a function (and measure) of gravity — in order to put it to use deciding whether they'll be able to pick something up. It's useful because of facts about the world unknown to the child. The map is not the territory.
-
-
Useful != true. It'll also be the case that most of the things they drop will appear to fall at a constant rate, and that air has no resistance, and so on.
-
As soon as they try to do anything where the reality of whether or not air creates resistance bears on the outcome, their predictions will start failing. Right up until then, "air has no resistance" will work fine. Maps can be accurate enough for some purposes and not others
- 12 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.