Mathematics and Physics

Study a language or study a culture and you find there are many ways that humans describe their experience, ways they describe the infinite. Today in the NY Times, I read that Bill Gates has purchased the video rights for Richard Feynman's 1964 Series of Cornell Physics Lectures. It's called Project Tuva and is online now.

I started watching the 55 minute segment titled The Relationship between Mathematics and Physics. In it Feynman says, (12 :20) and (14:05)
"It is impossible to answer really, honestly in the way a person can feel, to explain the beauties of the laws of nature without having a deep understanding of mathematics."

"Mathematics is not just a language. Mathematics is a language plus reasoning. Mathematics is a tool for reasoning. It is in fact a big collection of the results of some persons careful thought and reasoning. By mathematics it is possible to connect one statement with another."

Knowing that the Universe operates with specific and repeating laws, mathematics is a way to describe that operation, to understand the laws of nature. And the linking of that reasoning helps us predict with greater understanding how things work. It is a way to describe the the unknown, the infinite. When I was a student, we were proud that our discipline was one of the few that had theoretical footing for that predicted how things worked and at the same time, included teams of experiments designed to check the theory. Each aspect pushing the other to greater understanding.

Feynman is eloquent and animated in his explanations. Gates explained that if he had seen these lectures as a college student he might have been a physicist rather then leaving Harvard and becoming a software entrepreneur. And best of all you don't need a science background or PhD to appreciate Feynman's arguments describing nature.