Q&A: An explanation of the universe's correspondence to mathematics
An explanation of the universe's correspondence to mathematics
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I would be glad if the Rabbi could explain what people mean when they say it is amazing that mathematics corresponds to the universe. I didn’t really understand. Do they mean that natural physical reality can be calculated in numbers and computations? After all, that seems to be a necessary logic that arose from the way the universe itself operates and from human beings’ observation of it.
Answer
It seems to me that the main point is that mathematical theories developed as an abstract theoretical subject were later found to fit various scientific fields. For example, calculus, Hilbert spaces, group theory, tensor calculus— all of these were developed as abstract mathematical fields, and only later were found to be very well suited to describing various areas of physics.