Poll: Is math discovered or invented?

[Martin]

 

[WinkOsmosis]

How do you define math?

 

[Gulzakar]

Algebra = Al -Heh - bra

Arabic.

 

[OulOat]

Invented to explain the world around us

 

[gopunk]

properties of mathematical models are discovered, mathematical models are invented

imo

 

[Mean MrMustard]

Math is all around us has been and always will be. It is/was discovered.

 

[dighn]

it's a way of thinking invented for understanding the natural world

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Someone had to create the concept of zero to make radix-based counting systems possible.

 

[konichiwa]

"Math" has always existed, exists and always will exist in the same way, with the same laws and the same governing rules. Our methods of understanding, interpreting and extrapolating from mathematical principles have been and will be invented over and over again.

 

[Drakkon]

dood this was our final in my "History of Mathematics" class...took that question and had to write about it for 2 hrs...
I said both....things like counting and properties of numbers were discovered while a lot of theorems were invented to play a role in developing mathematics

 

[Beau]

Is anything really "invented" or are ways of making it possible discovered?

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: Beau
Is anything really "invented" or are ways of making it possible discovered?

that's a good insight, my opinion is the latter

 

[StageLeft]

Disc

 

[konichiwa]

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: Beau
Is anything really "invented" or are ways of making it possible discovered?

that's a good insight, my opinion is the latter

Indeed. Certainly everything EXISTED a thousand years ago to make a Pentium 4 processor. Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: gopunk
properties of mathematical models are discovered, mathematical models are invented

imo

My problem with that is, if the models are truly invented, then there should be many different models to explain the same phenomena, but this doesn't seem to be true in genera (AFAIK anyway).

For example, Liebniz and Newton came up with calculus independently, yet I don't know of any other model (that is not a subset of calculus) that can solve the problems calculus can.

Of course I am no mathematician, but the above seems (to me) true in general...at least a far as my knowlege stretches