RandomPoster
Platinum Member
- May 22, 2017
- 2,584
- 1,793
- 970
I was sitting in a chair, deep in thought, and I accidently dropped some beans out of my hand. I counted them and there were three beans on the floor in a neat, tidy pile. Out of nowhere, an idea leapt into my mind. I counted out another three beans and put them in a different pile. Afterwards, I carefully re-counted each of the piles several times to verify that each pile contained exactly three beans and studied the piles for quite some time.
I then combined the two piles together and finally counted the number of beans in the combined pile. The combined pile contained 6 beans, exactly as mathematicians had predicted it would! I frantically scrambled to find a math book to verify that 6 was indeed the answer mathematicians had predicted. I repeated the experiment the next day to test the reproducibility of its results. Again, the combined pile could be verified to contain exactly 6 beans! I repeated the experiment the following day at a different time and location to test whether or not the environment had biased the results. The results were still consistent with those of the earlier experiments.
I then designed experiments with different numbers using entirely different methodology. I made a fist with my left hand and help up 1 finger. I repeated the process with my right hand. I visually inspected each hand to recount. Next, I pushed my hands together and counted the number of fingers being held up. Two fingers!
Contrary to what I had been led to believe throughout my education, mathematics does not appear to be the non-verifiable pseudo-intellectual BS I was told it is and is actually turning out to be surprisingly verifiable with consistently reproducible results. After I do more work verifying basic addition, I plan on moving on to subtraction, multiplication, and eventually division. Another idea I have been toying with is constructing various geometric shapes of different sizes and testing how much water it takes to fill them. Imagine the implications if a cube and a sphere predicted to hold the same amount of water actually do hold the same amount of water and the process scales to whatever size it is tested at. Imagine if others could take this verification principle even further. It's conceivable that different fields of study could eventually utilize mathematics. Mathematics may yet prove to be useful to individuals in fields such as science, engineering, and accounting simply to name a few. The only thing holding it back is its current lack of verifiability.
This is all obviously speculation at this point, except the potential to transform mathematics from a purely hypothetical thought experiment with no practical applications outside of its own realm into a verifiable field of study with practical applications to other fields holds far too much promise in my opinion. Am I being naively positivistic in my approach?
I then combined the two piles together and finally counted the number of beans in the combined pile. The combined pile contained 6 beans, exactly as mathematicians had predicted it would! I frantically scrambled to find a math book to verify that 6 was indeed the answer mathematicians had predicted. I repeated the experiment the next day to test the reproducibility of its results. Again, the combined pile could be verified to contain exactly 6 beans! I repeated the experiment the following day at a different time and location to test whether or not the environment had biased the results. The results were still consistent with those of the earlier experiments.
I then designed experiments with different numbers using entirely different methodology. I made a fist with my left hand and help up 1 finger. I repeated the process with my right hand. I visually inspected each hand to recount. Next, I pushed my hands together and counted the number of fingers being held up. Two fingers!
Contrary to what I had been led to believe throughout my education, mathematics does not appear to be the non-verifiable pseudo-intellectual BS I was told it is and is actually turning out to be surprisingly verifiable with consistently reproducible results. After I do more work verifying basic addition, I plan on moving on to subtraction, multiplication, and eventually division. Another idea I have been toying with is constructing various geometric shapes of different sizes and testing how much water it takes to fill them. Imagine the implications if a cube and a sphere predicted to hold the same amount of water actually do hold the same amount of water and the process scales to whatever size it is tested at. Imagine if others could take this verification principle even further. It's conceivable that different fields of study could eventually utilize mathematics. Mathematics may yet prove to be useful to individuals in fields such as science, engineering, and accounting simply to name a few. The only thing holding it back is its current lack of verifiability.
This is all obviously speculation at this point, except the potential to transform mathematics from a purely hypothetical thought experiment with no practical applications outside of its own realm into a verifiable field of study with practical applications to other fields holds far too much promise in my opinion. Am I being naively positivistic in my approach?
