Is math discovered or invented?

both

the symbols and the syntax is obviously developed by humans
but the theorems and connections seem to correspond to reality

I talked to an experimental particle physicist about it
and he said that the "underlying mathematics" of particle physics has an unknown origin
the standard model describes this math

so, who knows? I just think it's fascinating that we can model reality with math, then do pure mathematics on it (like algebra) and then come up with a theorem that then is confirmed in experiments

even if mathematics turns out to NOT be the language of the universe
then it's pretty damn close
one of humanity's greatest achievements, for sure

>>8505072
Is language discovered or invented?

Is this a math thread or a philosophy thread?

>>8505112
It's semantics

>>8505091
This. You invent notation but you discover things about real life that you wouldn't have known otherwise based on how well your invented models match up to real life.

>>8505123
yeah but there isn't a one to one match up of models with reality so physical reality isnt the best yardstick to justify the discovery of maths. I would say inference is a good middle between invention and discovery. Inferring relations.

>>8505123

Only one of those, the latter, /is/ the content of mathematics, /IS/ mathematics itself. Thus math is discovered, and not invented. The human practice of "doing" mathematics consists exactly in recognizing certain truths of the world which persist indedpendently of a subjective observer.

Math is like coloring in the pages of the universe, except there are barely any lines you just have to figure out what color goes where and what shapes make the most sense

File: Mth.png (22KB, 752x760px) Image search: [Google]

22KB, 752x760px

Both.

Generalizing is discovering more about why math works. This is discovering math. IE: Number theory.

Specifying is inventing some method which uses discovery. This is inventing math. IE: Some obscure mathematical method that you never heard of from some paper you've never read because it was invented for a specific purpose and is completely useless anywhere else.

>>8505112
Same thing

We invent the rules and discover the logical consequences.

The language of math is invented but math is discovered. It exists all around us and governs the universe. We in our need to understand just created symbols to make sense of the things going on around us like languages in general