DT24001 Mathematics or Experiments or History ? V01 010524

Difficult to believe the last digital thought recorded on this blog was on the 7^th May 2023. Have I had no worthy digital thoughts for 12 months? No I have had loads of thoughts but I have not been dedicated enough or had time enough to record them on here. So lets change that by getting this one recorded tonight.

I did a Mechanical Engineering Degree at Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom. Whereas I had envisaged it involving the use of spanners and oily bits it was essentially a mathematics course. Engineering was divided up into specific subject areas and I was lectured upon all the formulae that had been mathematically derived to support these areas of engineering. The only stimulating experiences were based upon going into the laboratory and undertaking experiments with real things to see if the formulae could be verified. The courses had been designed and structured so the experiments usually worked and verified the formulae. So much of the excitement and learning experience of repeated failure was avoided on the course. Inevitably statistical profiles of the formulae verse the experimental data evolved with the classic normal curve comparing the two and the need to account for statistical variations. But unfortunately, this somewhat mechanistic approach to study failed to excite this students imagination. What they failed to do was to reflect on any of the historical people, be they mathematicians or experimenters, who first derive these formulae or the first experiments.

So what am I going on about? The scientific approach to explain the world really fully evolved in the 1600’s replacing the previous approach which was based upon religious stories and philosophical reasoning. The scientific approach was lead by two competing strategies. One the rationalist based upon the abstraction of reason ideally mathematically. The other empiricist based upon experience based upon experimentation. In the ancient world this difference was best evidenced by the Platonists and the Aristotelians. The success of the 1600’s was that the mathematical rationalists and the experimental empiricists started to work closely together.

So Copernicus, Kepler, Galilo, Descartes sided with the rationalistic understanding of physical things whilst Francis Bacon, William Gilbert and William Harvey focussed upon the experimentation to explain these physical things. William Gilbert to take one example is acknowledged as the founder of magnetism using an experimental approach.

Now Aristotle had been a biologist with a focus on observing the natural world looking for observable and recordable facts so defining an Aristotelian approach. But it was to go further than pure observation into the realms of experimentation where conditions of the experiment were manipulated. Whilst the Platonisms upheld the philosophy of Plato with a focus on abstract objects these being both non-physical and non-mental. A mathematical formula is a perfect example of an abstract object. It is away of viewing the world through an abstraction. So a classic these days would be in Physics with the String Theory or Quantum Theory where empirical data supporting these theories is only just being established or not depending upon your own interpretation. I particularly like thinking in abstract terms so the concept of Platonism appeals to my inner consciousness. Most brilliant science fiction authors tend to think in these abstract ways.

So what is the purpose and conclusion of this blog entry for you the reader? Essentially it is to say that had my Engineering Degree been structured in a way to consider the historical context to the mathematics and experimentation philosophies of the founder fathers I am sure I would have been far more engaged in the subject. So why has it taken me until the age of 76 to grasp that my learning of a subject benefits enormously by understanding its historical evolution. With history being diluted within the United Kingdom public education curriculum aren’t we making a huge mistake? Whilst the private education system appears to be increasing their investment in this area acknowledging its significance in the learning process whatever the subject matter.