Wednesday, August 22, 2007
JSH: My recent posting purpose
Some may wonder, why now? Why am I back with sci.physics and talking like a physics student again, as my B.Sc. is in physics as I've mentioned before, versus just arguing with the math people on math newsgroups?
Well, I'm brainstorming connections between "pure math" and physics that have puzzled me, where I have stated positions while I'd like to be sure, so I'm trying to trigger discussions in key areas, as I've linked primes to real world behavior already—my discrete oscillator—and now am considering how "random" in our world may be a prime phenomena.
Specifically with this question of p mod 3, there is the issue of underlying disorder—random residues modulo primes—beneath absolute structure, like in the 1,2,0, repeat of the residues modulo 3 of the counting numbers.
So chaos is connected to order, or is it not?
If p mod 3 is an example of an ordered system then prediction is not just a random thing or a matter of experiment but of LAWS that govern that underlying order.
Physics is about prediction, but prediction by laws, which I think is a distinction few people understand.
Past "philosophers" might notice leaves falling and come up with predictions based on what they saw, and compare to a brick to make some other prediction. But Galileo in finding underlying laws could figure out that a brick and a feather would fall at the same rate without air (that was Galileo, wasn't it?).
Appeals to statistics with p mod 3 are against the scientific method.
Without a reason there is no law, and prediction for its own sake is not science, nor I suggest to you, is it mathematics.
Well, I'm brainstorming connections between "pure math" and physics that have puzzled me, where I have stated positions while I'd like to be sure, so I'm trying to trigger discussions in key areas, as I've linked primes to real world behavior already—my discrete oscillator—and now am considering how "random" in our world may be a prime phenomena.
Specifically with this question of p mod 3, there is the issue of underlying disorder—random residues modulo primes—beneath absolute structure, like in the 1,2,0, repeat of the residues modulo 3 of the counting numbers.
So chaos is connected to order, or is it not?
If p mod 3 is an example of an ordered system then prediction is not just a random thing or a matter of experiment but of LAWS that govern that underlying order.
Physics is about prediction, but prediction by laws, which I think is a distinction few people understand.
Past "philosophers" might notice leaves falling and come up with predictions based on what they saw, and compare to a brick to make some other prediction. But Galileo in finding underlying laws could figure out that a brick and a feather would fall at the same rate without air (that was Galileo, wasn't it?).
Appeals to statistics with p mod 3 are against the scientific method.
Without a reason there is no law, and prediction for its own sake is not science, nor I suggest to you, is it mathematics.
# posted by James Harris @ 19:24 
