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Are there any mathematics for which there is absolutely no application in physics?
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Derek Abbott
University of Adelaide

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Are there any mathematics for which there is absolutely no application in physics?
It is interesting how maths is useful for describing the physical world. But are there any branches of mathematics that are totally useless for physics? Why? Could it be that we perhaps anthropocentrically chose to follow branches of math that are interesting to us (ie. could have possible application)? To prove a point, could we invent a branch of math that is totally useless? Could we come up with a sophisticated group theory for the game of chess? Is the reason no one has attempted that because it would be in fact utterly useless with an unexciting loss of generality?
Dec 8, 2012 Modified Dec 9, 2012 by the author

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Issam Sinjab 61.59 5.52 If mathematics is of no use today it will be of use tomorrow. A good example is the geometrical concepts developed by the German mathematician Bernhard Riemann. A century later, Einstein used them to develop his general theory of relativity.
Modified Dec 9, 2012 by the author 14 / 0 Dec 9, 2012 Flag

Norbert Frischauf 7.97 2.93 CERN Mathematical methodologies are the prime tool to model events that we observe in nature, thereby giving us eventually a better understanding why events take place, what parameters drive and how they develop. Although mathematic is a pure product of human thinking and cannot be derived from nature per se (just think on the imaginary unit, which is a pure imaginary thing but nonetheless is key to understand wave propagation and as such allows for RF communications, etc.) it seems that with whatever mathmatical concept humans come up with in their mind, sooner or later we will find something in nature that can be modelled best by this type of concept. If we imagine that mathematic is nothing else than a specific language than it appears to me that the "typical" mathematical process of developing a mathmatical concept without an application is as if someone "invents" the word/concept "elevator", without yet even having the technical concept in mind - and the elevator as a technical system/concept itself is invented only but decades or centuries later. Usually we decribe what we have built - in this exampl ehowever it is viceversa. Is this a sort of reverse match making or simply a process of creativity? And even more along those line: Isn't it striking that mathematics allows us to calculate n-dimensional spaces, while our brain is only able to imagine but three dimensions? So in answering the question I would tend to say that, No, I don't think that there is any mathematics for which there is absolutely no application in physics, simply because mathematics is a concept of language and creativity, therefore being bigger than natural science, which is limited by laws of nature - but then I have no "mathematical" prove for this

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Are there any mathematics for which there is absolutely no application in physics?

9 / 1 Dec 10, 2012 Flag

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Brigit Ananya 1.35 Ananya Systems, www.ananya.com I am not playing games. Please respond to my last question.
Oct 29, 2013

Arno Gorgels 17.07 Principia Naturae Dear Brigit, i believe that the answer to your question ("Is there any useful application of cardinals with higher infinities than the countable infinity?") is yes. Cantor's Universe is based upon it. The natural constants should be "hung up" between cardinal infinities following Cantor's Universe. Btw, to touch other matters that you touch, I would repeat also here what I have written elsewhere: I didn't humbly start to study math for its own sake but for the sake of understanding its position in nature which position I wanted to understand in order to be able to gather knowledge about the logical resp. individual flow of events and the logical resp. individual fate of dead material and conscious beings and all this I wanted to study for one reason: to bring order into the chaos of the world and in order to increase general knowledge referring to establishing the true basis of durable peace. Math to me is a tool that is needed for creating things and their flow of action at the time of creating these and, eventually, for describing things and their flow of action at the time of their occurrence. Math can assist to understand the metaphysical process of creational conditions (engineering, create events) and the physical process of executional conditions (enjoy life). Whilst having got close in mathematically understanding these principles, the principle of peace hasn't seemed to come any closer by all this study; today I believe that building up a moral view and insight and a deep relationship with invisibilities and with the (ineffable) Ultimate Invisible serves peace more than the beauty of math. My humbleness comes forth out of this conclusive insight. Math is imho an observer's creational tool (language) at metaphysical and at physical level as well as an descriptive tool (language) at physical level.
Modified Nov 25, 2013 by the author 1 / 0 Nov 25, 2013

Diogenes Alves 26.29 28.26 National Institute for Space Research, Brazil Arno, it is good to define math in some relation to the metaphysical level as you did.
1 / 0 Nov 25, 2013

Arno Gorgels 17.07 Principia Naturae Thank you, dear Diogenes, for expressing your kind opinion.
1 / 0 Nov 25, 2013

Ana Mara Snchez Peralta 48.89 1.31 University of Granada Like Brigit, I think singularities like infinite are maths not applicables in Physics. But what is exactly Physics? I think it can be very interesting to know other situations on Maths with no application in "Reality", if this is Physics. (Easy explain, please).
3 / 0 Nov 25, 2013

Afaq Ahmad 55.58 12.82 Sultan Qaboos University Dear Professor Derek Abbott, The role of mathematics in a subject can

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Are there any mathematics for which there is absolutely no application in physics?
be classified and categorized by observational approach, modeling approach, mathematics knowledge structure, and general knowledge structure. Further, we get inference about the subject from the mathematics. Also, mathematics has not reached the level of sophistication. Physics is an important subject and your question is Are there any mathematics for which there is absolutely no application in physics. Looking to the categorized role of mathematics and its state of sophistication; I want to say that the chance of overlook of any part of mathematics may bring back its sever application in future technological revolution.
1 / 0 Nov 25, 2013

Arno Gorgels 17.07 Principia Naturae Dear Ana, infinities can be grasped. They exist in nature, in fact on any drawn circle. Pi does the trick.
1 / 0 Nov 25, 2013

Ana Mara Snchez Peralta 48.89 1.31 University of Granada But does it math no applicable? All is applicable in different sets, is it?
Modified Nov 27, 2013 by the author 1 / 0 Nov 27, 2013

Vitaly Voloshin 22.65 1.8 Troy University My 2 cents to the main question: there are today, but it is impossible to predict about tomorrow and the future. Most likely, there always will be mathematical concepts without any applications anywhere. But for how long - only god knows.
1 / 0 Dec 9, 2013

Faisal Khan 5.06 3.51 Khalifa University of Science Technology & Research Historically, the study of pattern and structure that is now known as mathematics has always been motivated by physical observation or practical necessities. It is not surprising then perhaps that many seemingly extreme abstraction of such mathematics ends up having applications in physics. For instance, Euclidean Geometry, highly abstract as it is, will be ubiquitous in Physics because its axioms find motivation in physically observable phenomenon. On the other hand, it is not clear to me whether mathematics that arose through philosophical ponderings of notions of logic and knowledge, such as Set Theory, are always applicable in Physics. Set theory does allow for notions of counting and functions, so it seems to me that it has applications in Physics. However, are the axioms of set theory themselves motivated, at some level, by Physics?
1 / 0 Dec 9, 2013

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