ROLE OF MATHEMATICS IN SCIENCE

Role of mathematics in physics

Mathematics as Abbreviation:
A role that mathematics plays in physics not mentioned in the
text is that mathematics is a really great way to get a very
concise statement that would take a lot of words in English.
For example, Newton's Second Law can be stated as follows:
The magnitude of the acceleration of an object is directly
proportional to the net force applied to the object, and
inversely proportional to the object's mass. The direction of
the acceleration is the same as the direction of the net force.
Exactly what all of this means is not important (at the
moment) - what is important is that the statement above can
be expressed mathematically as:

The point is that to a physicist, both statements say exactly the

same thing. The symbolism of mathematics can replace a lot
of words with just a few symbols.

Mathematics as Concept Map:

Many beginning physicists get the notion that equations in
physics are just something to "plug the numbers into and get
the answer" - which is one reason that numerical calculation is
not emphasized in this physics course. Physicists think
differently - equations tell them how concepts are linked
together.
For instance, this equation arises in the study of kinematics:

The symbol on the left side of the equation represents the

concept "average velocity". Since there are two symbols
(forgetting the division sign, and the counts as one symbol)
on the right side, to a physicist, the equation says (among
other things) that the average velocity of an object depends on
two (and only two) other concepts - the object's displacement
( ), and the time it has been moving (t). Thus equations tell
scientists how concepts are related to one another.

Mathematics as Mechanized Thinking:

Once an idea is expressed in mathematical form, you can use
the rules (axioms, theorems, etc.) of mathematics to change it
into other statements. If the original statement is correct, and
you follow the rules faithfully, your final statement will also
be correct. This is what you do when you "solve" a
mathematics problem.
From a scientific point of view, however, if you start with one
statement about nature, and end up with another statement
about nature, what you have been doing is thinking about
nature. Mathematics mechanizes thinking. That's why you use
it to solve problems! You could (possibly) figure it out
without the help of mathematics, but mathematics makes it so
much easier because all you have to do is follow the rules!
As a very simple example, suppose you start with the equation
above, which is often considered to be the definition of
average velocity (in mathematical form, of course):
It is a perfectly acceptable mathematical operation to multiply
both sides of an equation by a variable, so multiply both sides
of this equation by "t". You get:

On the right side, the rules of algebra say that t/t = 1, so it

must be true that:

And the commutative property of algebra says that this is the

same as:

This is a new statement about nature (equivalent to the

familiar "distance equals speed times time") - derived using
the rules of mathematics. Using mathematics, physicists can
discover new relationships among physical quantities -
mathematics mechanizes thinking.
Mathematics as Abbreviation:
A role that mathematics plays in physics not mentioned in the
text is that mathematics is a really great way to get a very
concise statement that would take a lot of words in English.
For example, Newton's Second Law can be stated as follows:
The magnitude of the acceleration of an object is directly
proportional to the net force applied to the object, and
inversely proportional to the object's mass. The direction of
the acceleration is the same as the direction of the net force.
Exactly what all of this means is not important (at the
moment) - what is important is that the statement above can
be expressed mathematically as:

The point is that to a physicist, both statements say exactly the

same thing. The symbolism of mathematics can replace a lot
of words with just a few symbols.

Mathematics as Concept Map:

Many beginning physicists get the notion that equations in
physics are just something to "plug the numbers into and get
the answer" - which is one reason that numerical calculation is
not emphasized in this physics course. Physicists think
differently - equations tell them how concepts are linked
together.
For instance, this equation arises in the study of kinematics:

The symbol on the left side of the equation represents the

concept "average velocity". Since there are two symbols
(forgetting the division sign, and the counts as one symbol)
on the right side, to a physicist, the equation says (among
other things) that the average velocity of an object depends on
two (and only two) other concepts - the object's displacement
( ), and the time it has been moving (t). Thus equations tell
scientists how concepts are related to one another.
Mathematics as Mechanized Thinking:
Once an idea is expressed in mathematical form, you can use
the rules (axioms, theorems, etc.) of mathematics to change it
into other statements. If the original statement is correct, and
you follow the rules faithfully, your final statement will also
be correct. This is what you do when you "solve" a
mathematics problem.
From a scientific point of view, however, if you start with one
statement about nature, and end up with another statement
about nature, what you have been doing is thinking about
nature. Mathematics mechanizes thinking. That's why you use
it to solve problems! You could (possibly) figure it out
without the help of mathematics, but mathematics makes it so
much easier because all you have to do is follow the rules!
As a very simple example, suppose you start with the equation
above, which is often considered to be the definition of
average velocity (in mathematical form, of course):

It is a perfectly acceptable mathematical operation to multiply

both sides of an equation by a variable, so multiply both sides
of this equation by "t". You get:

On the right side, the rules of algebra say that t/t = 1, so it

must be true that:

And the commutative property of algebra says that this is the

same as:
This is a new statement about nature (equivalent to the
familiar "distance equals speed times time") - derived using
the rules of mathematics. Using mathematics, physicists can
discover new relationships among physical quantities -
mathematics mechanizes thinking.
 A project report on

“Role of mathematics in science”

Submitted to: Submitted by: