Posts from Academy of Sciences of Heroesland

It wasn't obvious. It was believed that Galilean transformations applied to light.

And even earlier, it was believed that light propagated instantaneously.

And even earlier, it was believed that the Earth was flat and the sun revolved around it.

The attempts of a person to explain nature with numbers are amusing.

Here's something that isn't entirely about numbers. If we're still talking about physics, then almost every theory is based on some kind of equation. However, these are equations of a different kind, not the numerical ones we're used to from school algebra, like x^2+x=0. These so-called differential equations describe the behavior of a system in a rather general sense, and, if I may say so, characterize certain laws. These laws can manifest themselves in different ways, depending on the different conditions that are taken into account when solving the equation (in mathematics and physics, these are called boundary and initial conditions). It's clear, for example, that in a room with sound-absorbing walls, sound will propagate differently than if the walls perfectly reflected sound. The laws of sound propagation remain the same, but to obtain a particular solution, it is necessary to take into account the properties of the environment in each specific case, and the results will be different.

So, in my opinion, all this seemingly abstract mathematics helps to describe the surrounding world quite accurately and universally, and personally, I don't think it's so naive.

Yes, indeed, 300,000 – it’s some suspiciously whole, beautiful number.

Here, by the way, it’s not entirely about numbers. If we’re still talking about physics, then almost every theory is based on some kind of equation. True, these are equations of a different nature, not numbers like we’re used to from the school algebra course, like x^2+x=0. These so-called differential equations describe the behavior of a system in a rather general sense, and, if I may say so, characterize certain laws. These laws can manifest themselves in different ways, depending on the different conditions that are taken into account when solving the equation (in mathematics and physics, they are called boundary and initial conditions). It is clear, for example, that in a room with sound-absorbing walls, sound will propagate differently than if the walls perfectly reflected sound. The laws of sound propagation remain the same, but to obtain a particular solution, it is necessary to take into account the properties of the environment in each specific case, and the results will be different.

Yes, indeed, 300,000 – it’s some suspiciously round, beautiful number.

Ment, are you suggesting we discuss the theory of fields?