[FRIAM] Can empirical discoveries be mathematical?

[thompnickson2 at gmail.com]

Colleagues,

 

Years ago, my daughter, who knows I hate to shop, bought me a bunch of plain
T-shirts.  The label's on the shirts were printed, rather than attached, and
so have faded.  Each morning, this leaves me with the problem of decerning
which is the front and which the back of the shirt, and even, which the
inside and which the out-.  After years of fussing with these shirts I
decerned a pattern.  Up/down, inside-in/inside-out, left/right, front/back,
crossed arms/uncrossed arms, you can't do one transformation without doing
at least one other.  

 

Is this an empirical discovery or a mathematical one? 

 

I guess it boils down to whether "front/back" entails in its meaning another
transformation.   Should we call empirical discoveries "discoveries" and
mathematical discoveries "revelations"?

 

Nick 

 

Nick Thompson

ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com <mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com> 

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

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