[FRIAM] Can empirical discoveries be mathematical?

[Pieter Steenekamp]

It could be both.

If you just describe it in terms of t-shirts then it is an empirical
scientific law. You can claim to have discovered an empirical scientific law
If you now express it in mathematical terms, and the mathematical community
accepts it as true, then it is then a mathematical axiom. Now  (and nobody
else has previously discovered it)  you can claim to have discovered a
mathematical axiom.

Then, as I mentioned earlier, if you prove your mathematical axiom, using
formal mathematics, then only have you made a mathematical discovery.

Example
Bertram Russel started with the axiom 1+1=2 and then used 300 pages of
formal mathematics to prove it,


On Fri, 3 Sept 2021 at 19:07, <thompnickson2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> OK fine.  Is it an empirical thingamabob or a mathematical one.
>
>
>
> Nick Thompson
>
> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>
>
>
> *From:* Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Eric Charles
> *Sent:* Friday, September 3, 2021 11:38 AM
> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <
> friam at redfish.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Can empirical discoveries be mathematical?
>
>
>
> I mean... I feel like "discovery" if the first challenge for your
> classification system to justify... ;- )
>
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 3, 2021, 11:24 AM <thompnickson2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>
>
>
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