What Does One Know?

Prompt: What kind of truth does mathematical knowledge offer?

            Humans have been using mathematics since 70,000 BC to calculate geometric forms, categorize things and investigate the world. Some people see it as the most exact science there is. However, is “exactness” measurable? How is math different than biology, chemistry, or even, Psychology or Literature? The complex way math works is used to make sense of the world, because we, as human beings try to categorize every single thing feel, see, smell, etc. We are in continuous search for knowledge and math permits us to understand the world to a certain extent.

            In the other hand humans might not be in continuous search for knowledge and then math would only be a way to understand the world. What if math is only used to build or make our life better? Even pure mathematics is working on statements that might be applied in the real world. For example, engineers don’t care if the proof is right or wrong. They work with measurements and with that, they use the applied mathematics theories to build a bridge or a house. If there is no proof, the bridge will continue to stay in the same place. In that case, math is much more experimental than theoretical.

            Mathematics is used nowadays from simply exchanging money for goods to quantum physics. Is the truth offered by math different in each case? The change someone receive in a supermarket can be much more exact than calculations of time in space continuum but it was all achieved from the same principles and the same base.  The theories can be applied and evolved but if one base theory like the Euclid’s fifth postulate (a point has exactly one line that does not intersect with another parallel line) is disproved, then the whole Euclidean geometry would have to be revised and rebuilt.

            One problem with math is that humans study it. We are never 100% sure about anything.  Like in the film “The proof”, Wiles’s theory was flawed at first. If someone had never revised and just accepted it, the theory could have served as a base for thousands of other theories and when the flaw was finally found, every single theory made with that proof would have to be discarded. In addition, many other theories that haven’t been proved serve as base to some theories we use nowadays, such as, Pythagorean theorem and angle bisector theorem.

            In my opinion, math helps us on a daily basis with our shopping and a plethora of other countable things. The truth behind this kind of math is that is only really certain because we can use other senses to identify the object and therefore count. In the other hand, the truth in something like quantum physics cannot be touched or, sometimes, even seen. Therefore, we use math to try to understand the concepts and the way universe works. Even though we will most likely never be 100% sure, math tries to make sense of the world we live in. Off course it will be wrong, but somewhere along the way there might be a little touch of truth, which will makes us answer our questions.