this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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Science

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General discussions about "science" itself

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[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 9 points 5 months ago (4 children)

You can prove a lot of things with math. Doesn't mean they're real.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

“And math’s just physics unconstrained by precepts of reality ”

Source: xkcd, every major’s terrible, square 2

[–] ogmios@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Very first thing my statistics professor taught us was that numbers will tell you anything you want them to, if you torture them enough.

The renowned physicist Richard Feynman is reputed to have once said that “physics is to math what sex is to masturbation”. Exactly what comparison he was making, he didn’t clarify – but if the orgasm gap is anything to go by, he presumably meant that math is often more fun, more effective, and better at getting the desired result in the face of adverse real-world conditions.

I had to tap out after one paragraph to save whatever brain cells haven't committed suicide yet.

[–] BB84@mander.xyz 1 points 5 months ago

Here's a better media coverage of the same paper https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00030-5

[–] UniversalMonk@mander.xyz 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Fair point. And another poster voiced his frustration with the headline. And I guess I am not smart enough to realize that this was a poor article.

I'm not being smarmy, I honestly didn't realize it was a bad science article.

[–] Fermion@feddit.nl 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

As a rule of thumb, you can usually assume anything from iflscience is trash tier.

[–] UniversalMonk@mander.xyz -1 points 5 months ago

Understood. I'll note that moving forward. Thanks!

[–] azi@mander.xyz 1 points 5 months ago

When you predict a new phenomenon from a current model, either you've opened the door to the discovery of this new phenomenon or you've demonstrated a shortcoming in the model. Both are useful to science.