Mathematical Experience V: Physics

"The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them."(Albert Einstein, "Principles of Research", 1918)

"The scene of action of reality is not a three-dimensional Euclidean space but rather a four-dimensional world, in which space and time are linked together indissolubly. However deep the chasm may be that separates the intuitive nature of space from that of time in our experience, nothing of this qualitative difference enters into the objective world which physics endeavors to crystallize out of direct experience. It is a four-dimensional continuum, which is neither 'time' nor 'space'. Only the consciousness that passes on in one portion of this world experiences the detached piece which comes to meet it and passes behind it as history, that is, as a process that is going forward in time and takes place in space." (Hermann Weyl, "Space, Time, Matter", 1922)

"It is not surprising that our language should be incapable of describing the processes occurring within the atoms, for, as has been remarked, it was invented to describe the experiences of daily life, and these consist only of processes involving exceedingly large numbers of atoms. Furthermore, it is very difficult to modify our language so that it will be able to describe these atomic processes, for words can only describe things of which we can form mental pictures, and this ability, too, is a result of daily experience. Fortunately, mathematics is not subject to this limitation, and it has been possible to invent a mathematical scheme - the quantum theory - which seems entirely adequate for the treatment of atomic processes; for visualisation, however, we must content ourselves with two incomplete analogies - the wave picture and the corpuscular picture." (Werner Heisenberg, "On Quantum Physics", 1930)

"But, despite their remoteness from sense experience, we do have something like a perception of the objects of set theory, as is seen from the fact that the axioms force themselves upon us as being true. I don't see any reason why we should have less confidence in this kind of perception, i.e., in mathematical intuition, than in sense perception, which induces us to build up physical theories and to expect that future sense perception will agree with them and, moreover, to believe that a question not decidable now has meaning and may be decided in future." (Kurt Gödel, "What is Cantor’s Continuum problem?", American Mathematical Monthly 54, 1947)

"Physics too deals with mathematical concepts; however, these concepts attain physical content only by the clear determination of their relation to the objects of experience." (Albert Einstein, "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

"We have thus assigned to pure reason and experience their places in a theoretical system of physics. The structure of the system is the work of reason: the empirical contents and their mutual relations must find their representation in the conclusions of the theory. In the possibility of such a representation lie the sole value and justification of the whole system, and especially of the concepts and fundamental principles which underlie it. Apart from that, these latter are free inventions of human intellect, which cannot be justified either by the nature of that intellect or in any other fashion a priori." (Albert Einstein, "Ideas and Opinions", 1954)

"The hardest problems we have to face do not come from philosophical questions about whether brains are machines or not. There is not the slightest reason to doubt that brains are anything other than machines with enormous numbers of parts that work in perfect accord with physical laws. As far as anyone can tell, our minds are merely complex processes. The serious problems come from our having had so little experience with machines of such complexity that we are not yet prepared to think effectively about them." (Marvin Minsky, 1986)

"What appear to be the most valuable aspects of the theoretical physics we have are the mathematical descriptions which enable us to predict events. These equations are, we would argue, the only realities we can be certain of in physics; any other ways we have of thinking about the situation are visual aids or mnemonics which make it easier for beings with our sort of macroscopic experience to use and remember the equations." (Celia Green, "The Lost Cause", 2003)

Geometrical Figures XVI: Spirals

"The individuation process, as the way of development and maturation of the psyche, does not follow a straight line, nor does it always lead onwards and upwards. The course it follows is rather 'stadial', consisting of progress and regress, flux and stagnation in alternating sequence. Only when we glance back over a long stretch of the way can we notice the development. If we wish to mark out the way somehow or other, it can equally well be considered a' spiral', the same problems and motifs occurring again and again on different levels." (C West Churchman, "Theory of Experimental Inference", 1948) 

"Mathematics is more than doing calculations, more than solving equations, more than proving theorems, more than doing algebra, geometry or calculus, more than a way of thinking. Mathematics is the design of a snowflake, the curve of a palm frond, the shape of a building, the joy of a game, the frustration of a puzzle, the crest of a wave, the spiral of a spider's web. It is ancient and yet new. Mathematics is linked to so many ideas and aspects of the universe." (Theoni Pappas, "More Joy of Mathematics: Exploring Mathematics All Around You", 1986)

"One reason nature pleases us is its endless use of a few simple principles: the cube-square law; fractals; spirals; the way that waves, wheels, trig functions, and harmonic oscillators are alike; the importance of ratios between small primes; bilateral symmetry; Fibonacci series, golden sections, quantization, strange attractors, path-dependency, all the things that show up in places where you don’t expect them [...] these rules work with and against each other ceaselessly at all levels, so that out of their intrinsic simplicity comes the rich complexity of the world around us. That tension - between the simple rules that describe the world and the complex world we see - is itself both simple in execution and immensely complex in effect. Thus exactly the levels, mixtures, and relations of complexity that seem to be hardwired into the pleasure centers of the human brain - or are they, perhaps, intrinsic to intelligence and perception, pleasant to anything that can see, think, create? - are the ones found in the world around us." (John Barnes, "Mother of Storms", 1994)

"[…] the symmetry group of the infinite logarithmic spiral is an infinite group, with one element for each real number . Two such transformations compose by adding the corresponding angles, so this group is isomorphic to the real numbers under addition." (Ian Stewart, "Symmetry: A Very Short Introduction", 2013)

"A limit cycle is an isolated closed trajectory. Isolated means that neighboring trajectories are not closed; they spiral either toward or away from the limit cycle. If all neighboring trajectories approach the limit cycle, we say the limit cycle is stable or attracting. Otherwise the limit cycle is unstable, or in exceptional cases, half-stable. Stable limit cycles are very important scientifically - they model systems that exhibit self-sustained oscillations. In other words, these systems oscillate even in the absence of external periodic forcing." (Steven H Strogatz, "Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Applications to Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Engineering", 2015)

"Infinity is a Loch Ness Monster, capturing the imagination with its awe-inspiring size but elusive nature. Infinity is a dream, a vast fantasy world of endless time and space. Infinity is a dark forest with unexpected creatures, tangled thickets and sudden rays of light breaking through. Infinity is a loop that springs open to reveal an endless spiral." (Eugenia Cheng, "Beyond Infinity: An Expedition to the Outer Limits of Mathematics", 2017)

Geometrical Figures XV: Waves

"It is told that those who first brought out the irrationals from concealment into the open perished in a shipwreck, to a man. For the unutterable and the formless must needs be concealed. And those who uncovered and touched this image of life were instantaneously destroyed and shall remain forever exposed to the play of the eternal waves." (Proclus Lycaeus, cca 5th century)

"To Nature nothing can be added; from Nature nothing can be taken away; the sum of her energies is constant, and the utmost man can do in the pursuit of physical truth, or in the applications of physical knowledge, is to shift the constituents of the never-varying total. The law of conservation rigidly excludes both creation and annihilation. Waves may change to ripples, and ripples to waves; magnitude may be substituted for number, and number for magnitude; asteroids may aggregate to suns, suns may resolve themselves into florae and faunae, and floras and faunas melt in air: the flux of power is eternally the same. It rolls in music through the ages, and all terrestrial energy - the manifestations of life as well as the display of phenomena - are but the modulations of its rhythm." (John Tyndall, "Conclusion of Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion: Being a Course of Twelve Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in the Season of 1862", 1863)

"I hold: 1) that small portions of space are, in fact, of a nature analogous to little hills on a surface that is on the average fiat; namely, that the ordinary laws of geometry are not valid in them; 2) that this property of being curved or distorted is constantly being passed on from one portion of space to another after the manner of a wave; 3) that this variation of the curvature of space is what really happens in the phenomenon that we call the motion of matter, whether ponderable or ethereal; 4) that in the physical world nothing else takes place but this variation, subject (possibly) to the law of continuity." (William K Clifford, "On the Space Theory of Matter", [paper delivered before the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1870)

"You cannot crown the edifice by this abstraction. The scientific imagination, which is here authoritative, demands as the origin and cause of a series of ether waves a particle of vibrating matter quite as definite, though it may be excessively minute, as that which gives origin to a musical sound. Such a particle we name an atom or a molecule. I think the imagination when focused so as to give definition without penumbral haze, is sure to realise this image at last." (John Tyndall, "The Scientific Use of the Imagination", 1870) 

"Ask your imagination if it will accept a vibrating multiple proportion - a numerical ratio in a state of oscillation? I do not think it will. You cannot crown the edifice with this abstraction. The scientific imagination, which is here authoritative, demands, as the origin and cause of a series of ether-waves, a particle of vibrating matter quite as definite, though it may be excessively minute, as that which gives origin to a musical sound. Such a particle we name an atom or a molecule. I think the intellect, when focused so as to give definition without penumbral haze, is sure to realize this image at the last." (John Tyndall, "Fragments of Science for Unscientific People", 1871)

"For thought raised on specialization the most potent objection to the possibility of a universal organizational science is precisely its universality. Is it ever possible that the same laws be applicable to the combination of astronomic worlds and those of biological cells, of living people and the waves of the ether, of scientific ideas and quanta of energy? [...] Mathematics provide a resolute and irrefutable answer: yes, it is undoubtedly possible, for such is indeed the case. Two and two homogenous separate elements amount to four such elements, be they astronomic systems or mental images, electrons or workers; numerical structures are indifferent to any element, there is no place here for specificity." (Alexander Bogdanov, "Tektology: The Universal Organizational Science" Vol. I, 1913)

"Meantime, there is no doubt a certain crudeness in the use of a complex wave function. If it were unavoidable in principle, and not merely a facilitation of the calculation, this would mean that there are in principle two wave functions, which must be used together in order to obtain information on the state of the system. [...] Our inability to give more accurate information about this is intimately connected with the fact that, in the pair of equations [considered], we have before us only the substitute - extraordinarily convenient for the calculation, to be sure - for a real wave equation of probably the fourth order, which, however, I have not succeeded in forming for the non-conservative case."(Edwin Schrödinger, "Quantisation as a Problem of Proper Values" , Annalen der Physik Vol. 81 (4), 1926)

"The solution of the difficulty is that the two mental pictures which experiment lead us to form - the one of the particles, the other of the waves - are both incomplete and have only the validity of analogies which are accurate only in limiting cases." (Werner Heisenberg,"On Quantum Mechanics", 1930)

"In his desire to consider at any cost the propagation phenomenon of the waves ψ as something real in the classical sense of the word, the author had refused to acknowledge that the whole development of the theory increasingly tended to highlight the essential complex nature of the wave function." (Edwin Schrödinger. "Mémoires sur la mécanique ondulatoire", 1933) [author‘s comment in the French translation] 

"Every object that we perceive appears in innumerable aspects. The concept of the object is the invariant of all these aspects. From this point of view, the present universally used system of concepts in which particles and waves appear simultaneously, can be completely justified. The latest research on nuclei and elementary particles has led us, however, to limits beyond which this system of concepts itself does not appear to suffice. The lesson to be learned from what I have told of the origin of quantum mechanics is that probable refinements of mathematical methods will not suffice to produce a satisfactory theory, but that somewhere in our doctrine is hidden a concept, unjustified by experience, which we must eliminate to open up the road." (Max Born, "The Statistical Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics", [Nobel lecture] 1954)

"The ultimate origin of the difficulty lies in the fact (or philosophical principle) that we are compelled to use the words of common language when we wish to describe a phenomenon, not by logical or mathematical analysis, but by a picture appealing to the imagination. Common language has grown by everyday experience and can never surpass these limits. Classical physics has restricted itself to the use of concepts of this kind; by analysing visible motions it has developed two ways of representing them by elementary processes; moving particles and waves. There is no other way of giving a pictorial description of motions - we have to apply it even in the region of atomic processes, where classical physics breaks down." (Max Born, "Atomic Physics", 1957)

"The mathematicians and physics men Have their mythology; they work alongside the truth, Never touching it; their equations are false But the things work. Or, when gross error appears, They invent new ones; they drop the theory of waves In universal ether and imagine curved space." (Robinson Jeffers," The Beginning and the End and Other Poems, The Great Wound", 1963)

"So much of science consists of things we can never see: light ‘waves’ and charged ‘particles’; magnetic ‘fields’ and gravitational ‘forces’; quantum ‘jumps’ and electron ‘orbits’. In fact, none of these phenomena is literally what we say it is. Light waves do not undulate through empty space in the same way that water waves ripple over a still pond; a field is only a mathematical description of the strength and direction of a force; an atom does not literally jump from one quantum state to another, and electrons do not really travel around the atomic nucleus in orbits. The words we use are merely metaphors." (K C Cole, "On Imagining the Unseeable", Discover Magazine, 1982)

"Mathematics is more than doing calculations, more than solving equations, more than proving theorems, more than doing algebra, geometry or calculus, more than a way of thinking. Mathematics is the design of a snowflake, the curve of a palm frond, the shape of a building, the joy of a game, the frustration of a puzzle, the crest of a wave, the spiral of a spider's web. It is ancient and yet new. Mathematics is linked to so many ideas and aspects of the universe." (Theoni Pappas, "More Joy of Mathematics: Exploring Mathematics All Around You", 1986)

"One reason nature pleases us is its endless use of a few simple principles: the cube-square law; fractals; spirals; the way that waves, wheels, trig functions, and harmonic oscillators are alike; the importance of ratios between small primes; bilateral symmetry; Fibonacci series, golden sections, quantization, strange attractors, path-dependency, all the things that show up in places where you don’t expect them [...] these rules work with and against each other ceaselessly at all levels, so that out of their intrinsic simplicity comes the rich complexity of the world around us. That tension - between the simple rules that describe the world and the complex world we see - is itself both simple in execution and immensely complex in effect. Thus exactly the levels, mixtures, and relations of complexity that seem to be hardwired into the pleasure centers of the human brain - or are they, perhaps, intrinsic to intelligence and perception, pleasant to anything that can see, think, create? - are the ones found in the world around us." (John Barnes, "Mother of Storms", 1994)

"So the ground state, or lowest energy state, of a pendulum does not have zero energy, as one might expect. Instead, even in its ground state a pendulum or any oscillating system must have a certain minimum amount of what are called zero point fluctuations. These mean that the pendulum won't necessarily be pointing straight down but will also have a probability of being found at a small angle to the vertical. Similarly, even in the vacuum or lowest energy state, the waves in the Maxwell field won't be exactly zero but can have small sizes. The higher the frequency (the number of swings per minute) of the pendulum or wave, the higher the energy of the ground state." (Stephen W Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell", 2001)

"In string theory one studies strings moving in a fixed classical spacetime. […] what we call a background-dependent approach. […] One of the fundamental discoveries of Einstein is that there is no fixed background. The very geometry of space and time is a dynamical system that evolves in time. The experimental observations that energy leaks from binary pulsars in the form of gravitational waves - at the rate predicted by general relativity to the […] accuracy of eleven decimal place - tell us that there is no more a fixed background of spacetime geometry than there are fixed crystal spheres holding the planets up." (Lee Smolin, "Loop Quantum Gravity", The New Humanists: Science at the Edge, 2003)

"Basis real and imaginary numbers have eternal and necessary reality. Complex numbers do not. They are temporal and contingent in the sense that for complex numbers to exist, we first have to carry out an operation: adding basis real and imaginary numbers together. Complex numbers therefore do not exist in their own right. They are constructed. They are derived. Symmetry breaking is exactly where constructed numbers come into existence. The very act of adding a sine wave to a cosine wave is the sufficient condition to create a broken symmetry: a complex number. The 'Big Bang', mathematically, is simply where a perfect array of basis sine and cosine waves start entering into linear combinations, creating a chain reaction, an 'explosion', of complex numbers - which corresponds to the “physical” universe." (Thomas Stark, "God Is Mathematics: The Proofs of the Eternal Existence of Mathematics", 2018)

"It is in fact mathematics itself that is simplest in hypothesis and also richest in phenomena (i.e. the simple source of all complexity). In ontological mathematics, all of existence comprises sinusoidal waves arranged into autonomous units called monads, and these are all that are required to explain everything." (Thomas Stark, "God Is Mathematics: The Proofs of the Eternal Existence of Mathematics", 2018)

"Because of the geometry of a circle, there’s always a quarter-cycle off set between any sine wave and the wave derived from it as its derivative, its rate of change. In this analogy, the point’s direction of travel is like its rate of change. It determines where the point will go next and hence how it changes its location. Moreover, this compass heading of the arrow itself rotates in a circular fashion at a constant speed as the point goes around the circle, so the compass heading of the arrow follows a sine-wave pattern in time. And since the compass heading is like the rate of change, voilà! The rate of change follows a sine-wave pattern too." (Steven H Strogatz, "Infinite Powers: The Story of Calculus - The Most Important Discovery in Mathematics", 2019)

On Limitations in Mathematics III

"Most scientific theories, however, are ephemeral. Exceptions will likely be found that invalidate a theory in one or more of its tenets. These can then stimulate a new round of research leading either to a more comprehensive theory or perhaps to a more restrictive (i.e., more precisely defined) theory. Nothing is ever completely finished in science; the search for better theories is endless. The interpretation of a scientific experiment should not be extended beyond the limits of the available data. In the building of theories, however, scientists propose general principles by extrapolation beyond available data. When former theories have been shown to be inadequate, scientists should be prepared to relinquish the old and embrace the new in their never-ending search for better solutions. It is unscientific, therefore, to claim to have 'proof of the truth' when all that scientific methodology can provide is evidence in support of a theory." (William D Stansfield, "The Science of Evolution", 1977)

"Needless to say that once the universal approach exists we can go from one field to another and use the results of one field to promote another field. However, we should never forget limitations of 'universal approaches'. It is hiqhly dangerous to apply such an approach, if it has worked in a certain domain, to other domains as a dogma. Using any universal approach you must again and again check whether the prepositions made are fulfilled by the objects to which these approaches are applied. Going to more and more abstractions where we must heavily rely on mathematics which, after all, is the Queen of science." (Hermann Haken, 1979)

"Probability does pervade the universe, and in this sense, the old chestnut about baseball imitating life really has validity. The statistics of streaks and slumps, properly understood, do teach an important lesson about epistemology, and life in general. The history of a species, or any natural phenomenon, that requires unbroken continuity in a world of trouble, works like a batting streak. All are games of a gambler playing with a limited stake against a house with infinite resources. The gambler must eventually go bust. His aim can only be to stick around as long as possible, to have some fun while he's at it, and, if he happens to be a moral agent as well, to worry about staying the course with honor!" (Stephen J Gould, 1991)

"To look at the development of physics since Newton is to observe a struggle to define the limits of science. Part of this process has been the intrusion of scientific methods and ideas into domains that have traditionally been the province of metaphysics or religion. In this conflict, Hawking’s phrase ‘to know the Mind of God’ is just one example of a border infringement. But by playing the God card, Hawking has cleverly fanned the flames of his own publicity, appealing directly to the popular allure of the scientist-as-priest."  (Peter Coles, "Hawking and the Mind of God", 2000)

"Why was progress in computing technology so fast compared with the lack of progress in space travel? The reason is very simple: computing technology is only now approaching scientific limits such as quantum uncertainty and the speed of light, while space technology has already run into its limits that derive from the basic principles of physics and chemistry." (Mordechai Ben-Ari, "Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science", 2005)

"In mathematics, it’s the limitations of a reasoned argument with the tools you have available, and with magic it’s to use your tools and sleight of hand to bring about a certain effect without the audience knowing what you’re doing. [...] When you’re inventing a trick, it’s always possible to have an elephant walk on stage, and while the elephant is in front of you, sneak something under your coat, but that’s not a good trick. Similarly with mathematical proof, it is always possible to bring out the big guns, but then you lose elegance, or your conclusions aren’t very different from your hypotheses, and it’s not a very interesting theorem." (Persi Diaconis, 2008)

"[…] the usefulness of mathematics is by no means limited to finite objects or to those that can be represented with a computer. Mathematical concepts depending on the idea of infinity, like real numbers and differential calculus, are useful models for certain aspects of physical reality." (Alfred S Posamentier & Bernd Thaller, "Numbers: Their tales, types, and treasures", 2015) 

"The trig functions’ input consists of the sizes of angles inside right triangles. Their output consists of the ratios of the lengths of the triangles’ sides. Thus, they act as if they contained phone-directory-like groups of paired entries, one of which is an angle, and the other is a ratio of triangle-side lengths associated with the angle. That makes them very useful for figuring out the dimensions of triangles based on limited information." (David Stipp, "A Most Elegant Equation: Euler's Formula and the Beauty of Mathematics", 2017)

On Limitations in Mathematics I

"Things [...] are some of them continuous [...] which are properly and peculiarly called 'magnitudes'; others are discontinuous, in a side-by-side arrangement, and, as it were, in heaps, which are called 'multitudes,' a flock, for instance, a people, a heap, a chorus, and the like. Wisdom, then, must be considered to be the knowledge of these two forms. Since, however, all multitude and magnitude are by their own nature of necessity infinite - for multitude starts from a definite root and never ceases increasing; and magnitude, when division beginning with a limited whole is carried on, cannot bring the dividing process to an end [...] and since sciences are always sciences of limited things, and never of infinites, it is accordingly evident that a science dealing with magnitude [...] or with multitude [...] could never be formulated. […] A science, however, would arise to deal with something separated from each of them, with quantity, set off from multitude, and size, set off from magnitude." (Nicomachus, cca. 100 AD) 

"Even as the finite encloses an infinite series And in the unlimited limits appear, So the soul of immensity dwells in minutia And in narrowest limits no limit in here. What joy to discern the minute in infinity! The vast to perceive in the small, what divinity!"  (Jacques Bernoulli, "Ars Conjectandi", 1713)

"The great truths with which it [mathematics] deals, are clothed with austere grandeur, far above all purposes of immediate convenience or profit. It is in them that our limited understandings approach nearest to the conception of that   absolute and infinite, towards which in most other things they aspire in vain. In the pure mathematics we contemplate absolute truths, which existed in the divine mind before the morning stars sang together, and which will continue to exist there, when the last of their radiant host shall have fallen from heaven." (Edward Everett, "Orations and Speeches" Vol. 8, 1870)

"It is difficult to understand why statisticians commonly limit their inquiries to Averages, and do not revel in more comprehensive views. Their souls seem as dull to the charm of variety as that of the native of one of our flat English counties, whose retrospect of Switzerland was that, if its mountains could be thrown into its lakes, two nuisances would be got rid of at once. An Average is but a solitary fact, whereas if a single other fact be added to it, an entire Normal Scheme, which nearly corresponds to the observed one, starts potentially into existence." (Sir Francis Galton, "Natural Inheritance", 1889)

"Scientific facts are of little value in themselves. Their significance is their bearing upon other facts, enabling us to generalize and so to discover principles, just as the accurate measurement of the position of a star may be without value in itself, but in relation to other similar measurement of other stars may become the means of discovering their proper motions. We refine our instruments; we render more trustworthy our means of observation we extend our range of experimental inquiry, and thus lay the foundation for the future work, with the full knowledge that, although our researches can not extend beyond certain limits, the field itself is, even within those limits, inexhaustible." (Elihu Thompson, "The Field of Experimental Research", 1901)

"In the study of Nature conjecture must be entirely put aside, and vague hypothesis carefully guarded against. The study of Nature begins with facts, ascends to laws, and raises itself, as far as the limits of man’s intellect will permit, to the knowledge of causes, by the threefold means of observation, experiment and logical deduction." (Jean Baptiste-Andre Dumas)

"The mathematician is entirely free, within the limits of his imagination, to construct what worlds he pleases. What he is to imagine is a matter for his own caprice; he is not thereby discovering the fundamental principles of the universe nor becoming acquainted with the ideas of God." (John W N Sullivan)

On Limitations in Mathematics II

"The true mathematician is always a great deal of an artist, an architect, yes, of a poet. Beyond the real world, though perceptibly connected with it, mathematicians have created an ideal world which they attempt to develop into the most perfect of all worlds, and which is being explored in every direction. None has the faintest conception of this world except him who knows it; only presumptuous ignorance can assert that the mathematician moves in a narrow circle. The truth which he seeks is, to be sure, broadly considered, neither more nor less than consistency; but does not his mastership show, indeed, in this very limitation? To solve questions of this kind he passes unenviously over others." (Alfred Pringsheim, Jaresberichte der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung Vol 13, 1904)

"No one can predict how far we shall be enabled by means of our limited intelligence to penetrate into the mysteries of a universe immeasurably vast and wonderful; nevertheless, each step in advance is certain to bring new blessings to humanity and new inspiration to greater endeavor." (Theodore W Richards, "The Fundamental Properties of the Elements", [Faraday lecture] 1911)

"Mathematics alone make us feel the limits of our intelligence. For we can always suppose in the case of an experiment that it is inexplicable because we don’t happen to have all the data. In mathematics we have all the data […] and yet we don’t understand. We always come back to the contemplation of our human wretchedness. What force is in relation to our will, the impenetrable opacity of mathematics is in relation to our intelligence." (Simone Weil, "The Notebooks of Simone Weil" Vol. 2, 1935)

"It is to be hoped that in the future more and more theoretical physicists will command a deep knowledge of mathematical principles; and also that mathematicians will no longer limit themselves so exclusively to the aesthetic development of mathematical abstractions." (George D Birkhoff, "Mathematical Nature of Physical Theories" American Scientific Vol. 31 (4), 1943)

"The ultimate origin of the difficulty lies in the fact (or philosophical principle) that we are compelled to use the words of common language when we wish to describe a phenomenon, not by logical or mathematical analysis, but by a picture appealing to the imagination. Common language has grown by everyday experience and can never surpass these limits. Classical physics has restricted itself to the use of concepts of this kind; by analysing visible motions it has developed two ways of representing them by elementary processes; moving particles and waves. There is no other way of giving a pictorial description of motions - we have to apply it even in the region of atomic processes, where classical physics breaks down." (Max Born, "Atomic Physics", 1957)

"We are terribly clever people, we moderns: we bend Nature to our will in countless ways. We move mountains, we make caves, fly at speeds no other organism can achieve and tap the power of the atom. We are terribly clever. The essentially religious feeling of subserviency to a power greater than ourselves comes hard to us clever people. But by our intelligence we are now beginning to make out the limits of our cleverness, the impotence principles that say what can and cannot be. In an operational sense, we are experiencing a return to a religious orientation toward the world." (Garrett Hardin, "Nature and Man’s Fate", 1959)

"The future offers very little hope for those who expect that our new mechanical slaves will offer us a world in which we may rest from thinking. Help us they may, but at the cost of supreme demands upon our honesty and intelligence. The world of the future will be an ever more demanding struggle against the limitations of our intelligence, not a comfortable hammock in which we can lay down to be waited upon by our robot slaves." (Norbert Wiener, "God and Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion", 1964)

"Our epoch is the epoch of increasing consciousness; in this field Mathematics has done its bit. It has made us conscious of the limits of its own capabilities." (Rózsa Péter, "Playing with Infinity: Mathematical Explorations and Excursions", 1976)

On Invariance (2010 - )

"In dynamical systems, a bifurcation occurs when a small smooth change made to the parameter values (the bifurcation parameters) of a system causes a sudden 'qualitative' or topological change in its behaviour. Generally, at a bifurcation, the local stability properties of equilibria, periodic orbits or other invariant sets changes." (Gregory Faye, "An introduction to bifurcation theory", 2011)

"One of the most important skills you will need to acquire in order to use manifold theory effectively is an ability to switch back and forth easily between invariant descriptions and their coordinate counterparts." (John M Lee, "Introduction to Smooth Manifolds" 2nd Ed., 2013)

"The fact that manifolds do not come with any predetermined choice of coordinates is both a blessing and a curse. The flexibility to choose coordinates more or less arbitrarily can be a big advantage in approaching problems in manifold theory, because the coordinates can often be chosen to simplify some aspect of the problem at hand. But we pay for this flexibility by being obliged to ensure that any objects we wish to define globally on a manifold are not dependent on a particular choice of coordinates. There are generally two ways of doing this: either by writing down a coordinate-dependent definition and then proving that the definition gives the same results in any coordinate chart, or by writing down a definition that is manifestly coordinate-independent (often called an invariant definition)." (John M Lee, "Introduction to Smooth Manifolds" 2nd Ed., 2013)

"Intersections of lines, for example, remain intersections, and the hole in a torus (doughnut) cannot be transformed away. Thus a doughnut may be transformed topologically into a coffee cup (the hole turning into a handle) but never into a pancake. Topology, then, is really a mathematics of relationships, of unchangeable, or 'invariant', patterns." (Fritjof Capra, "The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision", 2014)

"The invariance principle states that the result of counting a set does not depend on the order imposed on its elements during the counting process. Indeed, a mathematical set is just a collection without any implied ordering. A set is the collection of its elements - nothing more." (Alfred S Posamentier & Bernd Thaller, "Numbers: Their tales, types, and treasures", 2015)

"[…] the role that symmetry plays is not confined to material objects. Symmetries can also refer to theories and, in particular, to quantum theory. For if the laws of physics are to be invariant under changes of reference frames, the set of all such transformations will form a group. Which transformations and which groups depends on the systems under consideration." (William H Klink & Sujeev Wickramasekara, "Relativity, Symmetry and the Structure of Quantum Theory I: Galilean quantum theory", 2015)

"Data analysis and data mining are concerned with unsupervised pattern finding and structure determination in data sets. The data sets themselves are explicitly linked as a form of representation to an observational or otherwise empirical domain of interest. 'Structure' has long been understood as symmetry which can take many forms with respect to any transformation, including point, translational, rotational, and many others. Symmetries directly point to invariants, which pinpoint intrinsic properties of the data and of the background empirical domain of interest. As our data models change, so too do our perspectives on analysing data." (Fionn Murtagh, "Data Science Foundations: Geometry and Topology of Complex Hierarchic Systems and Big Data Analytics", 2018)

On Coordinates II

"Differentiability of a function can be established by examining the behavior of the function in the immediate neighborhood of a single point a in its domain. Thus, all we need is coordinates in the vicinity of the point a. From this point of view, one might say that local coordinates have more essential qualities. However, if are not looking at individual surfaces, we cannot find a more general and universal notion than smoothness." (Kenji Ueno & Toshikazu Sunada, "A Mathematical Gift, III: The Interplay Between Topology, Functions, Geometry, and Algebra", Mathematical World Vol. 23, 1996)

"[...] if we consider a topological space instead of a plane, then the question of whether the coordinates axes in that space are curved or straight becomes meaningless. The way we choose coordinate systems is related to the way we observe the property of smoothness in a topological space." (Kenji Ueno & Toshikazu Sunada, "A Mathematical Gift, III: The Interplay Between Topology, Functions, Geometry, and Algebra", Mathematical World Vol. 23, 1996)

"To consider differentiable functions, we must introduce a coordinate system on the plane and thereby to concentrate on the world of numbers.[...] a continuous function defined on a plane can be differentiable or nondifferentiable depending on the choice of coordinates. [...] the choice of coordinates on the plane determines which functions among the continuous functions should be selected as differentiable functions." (Kenji Ueno & Toshikazu Sunada, "A Mathematical Gift, III: The Interplay Between Topology, Functions, Geometry, and Algebra", Mathematical World Vol. 23, 1996)

"To describe the property of smoothness, differentiable functions should be specified first. To do so, coordinates need to be introduced on the topological space. Those coordinates can be local coordinates such as the ones used by Gauss. Once coordinates are introduced around a point a in a topological space, differentiable functions near the point a are distinguished from the continuous functions in the region near a. If different coordinates are chosen, then a different set of differentiable functions is distinguished. In other words, the choice of local coordinates determines the notion of smoothness in a topological space." (Kenji Ueno & Toshikazu Sunada, "A Mathematical Gift, III: The Interplay Between Topology, Functions, Geometry, and Algebra", Mathematical World Vol. 23, 1996)

"Roughly speaking, a manifold is essentially a space that is locally similar to the Euclidean space. This resemblance permits differentiation to be defined. On a manifold, we do not distinguish between two different local coordinate systems. Thus, the concepts considered are just those independent of the coordinates chosen. This makes more sense if we consider the situation from the physics point of view. In this interpretation, the systems of coordinates are systems of reference." (Ovidiu Calin & Der-Chen Chang,  "Geometric Mechanics on Riemannian Manifolds : Applications to partial differential equations", 2005)

"When real numbers are used as coordinates, the number of coordinates is the dimension of the geometry. This is why we call the plane two-dimensional and space three-dimensional. However, one can also expect complex numbers to be useful, knowing their geometric properties […] What is remarkable is that complex numbers are if anything more appropriate for spherical and hyperbolic geometry than for Euclidean geometry. With hindsight, it is even possible to see hyperbolic geometry in properties of complex numbers that were studied as early as 1800, long before hyperbolic geometry was discussed by anyone." (John Stillwell, "Yearning for the Impossible: The Surprising Truths of Mathematics", 2006)

"The concept of symmetry is used widely in physics. If the laws that determine relations between physical magnitudes and a change of these magnitudes in the course of time do not vary at the definite operations (transformations), they say, that these laws have symmetry (or they are invariant) with respect to the given transformations. For example, the law of gravitation is valid for any points of space, that is, this law is in variant with respect to the system of coordinates." (Alexey Stakhov et al, "The Mathematics of Harmony", 2009)

"One of the most important skills you will need to acquire in order to use manifold theory effectively is an ability to switch back and forth easily between invariant descriptions and their coordinate counterparts." (John M Lee, "Introduction to Smooth Manifolds" 2nd Ed., 2013)

"The fact that manifolds do not come with any predetermined choice of coordinates is both a blessing and a curse. The flexibility to choose coordinates more or less arbitrarily can be a big advantage in approaching problems in manifold theory, because the coordinates can often be chosen to simplify some aspect of the problem at hand. But we pay for this flexibility by being obliged to ensure that any objects we wish to define globally on a manifold are not dependent on a particular choice of coordinates. There are generally two ways of doing this: either by writing down a coordinate-dependent definition and then proving that the definition gives the same results in any coordinate chart, or by writing down a definition that is manifestly coordinate-independent (often called an invariant definition)." (John M Lee, "Introduction to Smooth Manifolds" 2nd Ed., 2013)

"The primary aspects of the theory of complex manifolds are the geometric structure itself, its topological structure, coordinate systems, etc., and holomorphic functions and mappings and their properties. Algebraic geometry over the complex number field uses polynomial and rational functions of complex variables as the primary tools, but the underlying topological structures are similar to those that appear in complex manifold theory, and the nature of singularities in both the analytic and algebraic settings is also structurally very similar." (Raymond O Wells Jr, "Differential and Complex Geometry: Origins, Abstractions and Embeddings", 2017)

On Coordinates I

"Everyone knows what a curve is, until he has studied enough mathematics to become confused through the countless number of possible exceptions. […] A curve is the totality of points, whose coordinates are functions of a parameter which may be differentiated as often as may be required." (Felix Klein, "Elementar Mathematik vom hoheren Standpunkte aus" Vol. 2, 1909)

"The power of differential calculus is that it linearizes all problems by going back to the 'infinitesimally small', but this process can be used only on smooth manifolds. Thus our distinction between the two senses of rotation on a smooth manifold rests on the fact that a continuously differentiable coordinate transformation leaving the origin fixed can be approximated by a linear transformation at О and one separates the (nondegenerate) homogeneous linear transformations into positive and negative according to the sign of their determinants. Also the invariance of the dimension for a smooth manifold follows simply from the fact that a linear substitution which has an inverse preserves the number of variables." (Hermann Weyl, "The Concept of a Riemann Surface", 1913)

"From a pessimistic viewpoint, it can be stated that there is no good general way of structuring a system. However, from an optimistic point of view one can say that a number of good ways of structuring systems exist and that some are better than others for any particular system. In this and the following sections, there will be a presentation of a number of structuring approaches that have merit and have been employed successfully, including functional structuring, equipment structuring, and use of various coordinate systems." (Harold Chestnut, "Systems Engineering Tools", 1965)

"A manifold can be given by specifying the coordinate ranges of an atlas, the images in those coordinate ranges of the overlapping parts of the coordinate domains, and the coordinate transformations for each of those overlapping domains. When a manifold is specified in this way, a rather tricky condition on the specifications is needed to give the Hausdorff property, but otherwise the topology can be defined completely by simply requiring the coordinate maps to be homeomorphisms." (Richard L Bishop & Samuel I Goldberg, "Tensor Analysis on Manifolds", 1968)

"A manifold, roughly, is a topological space in which some neighborhood of each point admits a coordinate system, consisting of real coordinate functions on the points of the neighborhood, which determine the position of points and the topology of that neighborhood; that is, the space is locally cartesian. Moreover, the passage from one coordinate system to another is smooth in the overlapping region, so that the meaning of 'differentiable' curve, function, or map is consistent when referred to either system." (Richard L Bishop & Samuel I Goldberg, "Tensor Analysis on Manifolds", 1968)

"A system may be specified in either of two ways. In the first, which we shall call a state description, sets of abstract inputs, outputs and states are given, together with the action of the inputs on the states and the assignments of outputs to states. In the second, which we shall call a coordinate description, certain input, output and state variables are given, together with a system of dynamical equations describing the relations among the variables as functions of time. Modern mathematical system theory is formulated in terms of state descriptions, whereas the classical formulation is typically a coordinate description, for example a system of differential equations." (E S Bainbridge, "The Fundamental Duality of System Theory", 1975)

"Determination of transition functions makes it possible to restore the whole manifold if individual charts and coordinate maps are already given. Glueing functions may belong to different functional classes,which makes it possible to specify within a certain class of topological manifolds more narrow classes of smooth, analytic, etc. manifolds." (Anatolij Fomenko, "Visual Geometry and Topology", 1994)

"Geometry and topology most often deal with geometrical figures, objects realized as a set of points in a Euclidean space (maybe of many dimensions). It is useful to view these objects not as rigid (solid) bodies, but as figures that admit continuous deformation preserving some qualitative properties of the object. Recall that the mapping of one object onto another is called continuous if it can be determined by means of continuous functions in a Cartesian coordinate system in space. The mapping of one figure onto another is called homeomorphism if it is continuous and one-to-one, i.e. establishes a one-to-one correspondence between points of both figures." (Anatolij Fomenko, "Visual Geometry and Topology", 1994)

"The acceptance of complex numbers into the realm of algebra had an impact on analysis as well. The great success of the differential and integral calculus raised the possibility of extending it to functions of complex variables. Formally, we can extend Euler's definition of a function to complex variables without changing a single word; we merely allow the constants and variables to assume complex values. But from a geometric point of view, such a function cannot be plotted as a graph in a two-dimensional coordinate system because each of the variables now requires for its representation a two-dimensional coordinate system, that is, a plane. To interpret such a function geometrically, we must think of it as a mapping, or transformation, from one plane to another." (Eli Maor, "e: The Story of a Number", 1994) 

On Neighborhoods III

"A surface is a topological space in which each point has a neighbourhood homeomorphic to the plane, ad for which any two distinct points possess disjoint neighbourhoods. […] The requirement that each point of the space should have a neighbourhood which is homeomorphic to the plane fits exactly our intuitive idea of what a surface should be. If we stand in it at some point (imagining a giant version of the surface in question) and look at the points very close to our feet we should be able to imagine that we are standing on a plane. The surface of the earth is a good example. Unless you belong to the Flat Earth Society you believe it to,be (topologically) a sphere, yet locally it looks distinctly planar. Think more carefully about this requirement: we ask that some neighbourhood of each point of our space be homeomorphic to the plane. We have then to treat this neighbourhood as a topological space in its own right. But this presents no difficulty; the neighbourhood is after all a subset of the given space and we can therefore supply it with the subspace topology." (Mark A Armstrong, "Basic Topology", 1979)

"This notion of each point in a space having a collection of 'neighbourhoods', the neighbourhoods leading in turn to a good definition of continuous function, is the crucial one. Notice that in defining neighbourhoods in a euclidean space we used very strongly the euclidean distance between points. In constructing an abstract space we would like to retain the concept of neighbourhood but rid ourselves of any dependence on a distance function. (A topological equivalence does not preserve distances.)" (Mark A Armstrong, "Basic Topology", 1979)

"Analytic functions are those that can be represented by a power series, convergent within a certain region bounded by the so-called circle of convergence. Outside of this region the analytic function is not regarded as given a priori ; its continuation into wider regions remains a matter of special investigation and may give very different results, according to the particular case considered." (Felix Klein, "Sophus Lie", [lecture] 1893)

"Subjectivists should feel obligated to recognize that any opinion (so much more the initial one) is only vaguely acceptable [...] So it is important not only to know the exact answer for an exactly specified initial problem, but what happens changing in a reasonable neighborhood the assumed initial opinion." (Bruno de Finetti, "Prevision: Ses Lois Logiques, ses Sources Subjectives", Annales de l’Institute Henri Poincaré, 1937)

"A continuous function preserves closeness of points. A discontinuous function maps arbitrarily close points to points that are not close. The precise definition of continuity involves the relation of distance between pairs of points. […] continuity, a property of functions that allows stretching, shrinking, and folding, but preserves the closeness relation among points." (Robert Messer & Philip Straffin, "Topology Now!", 2006)

"[…] topologies are determined by the way the neighborhoods are defined. Neighborhoods, not individual points, are what matter. They determine the topological structure of the parent set. In fact, in topology, the word point conveys very little information at all." (John Tabak, "Beyond Geometry: A new mathematics of space and form", 2011)

"[...] the Game of Life, in which a few simple rules executed repeatedly can generate a surprising degree of complexity. Recall that the game treats squares, or pixels, as simply on or off (filled or blank) and the update rules are given in terms of the state of the nearest neighbours. The theory of networks is closely analogous. An electrical network, for example, consists of a collection of switches with wires connecting them. Switches can be on or off, and simple rules determine whether a given switch is flipped, according to the signals coming down the wires from the neighbouring switches. The whole network, which is easy to model on a computer, can be put in a specific starting state and then updated step by step, just like a cellular automaton. The ensuing patterns of activity depend both on the wiring diagram (the topology of the network) and the starting state. The theory of networks can be developed quite generally as a mathematical exercise: the switches are called ‘nodes’ and the wires are called ‘edges’. From very simple network rules, rich and complex activity can follow." (Paul Davies, "The Demon in the Machine: How Hidden Webs of Information Are Solving the Mystery of Life", 2019)

Mark A Armstrong - Collected Quotes

"A surface is a topological space in which each point has a neighbourhood homeomorphic to the plane, ad for which any two distinct points possess disjoint neighbourhoods. […] The requirement that each point of the space should have a neighbourhood which is homeomorphic to the plane fits exactly our intuitive idea of what a surface should be. If we stand in it at some point (imagining a giant version of the surface in question) and look at the points very close to our feet we should be able to imagine that we are standing on a plane. The surface of the earth is a good example. Unless you belong to the Flat Earth Society you believe it to,be (topologically) a sphere, yet locally it looks distinctly planar. Think more carefully about this requirement: we ask that some neighbourhood of each point of our space be homeomorphic to the plane. We have then to treat this neighbourhood as a topological space in its own right. But this presents no difficulty; the neighbourhood is after all a subset of the given space and we can therefore supply it with the subspace topology." (Mark A Armstrong, "Basic Topology", 1979)

"If our intuition can be led astray by pictures […], this suggests very strongly that we need some way of considering our spaces abstractly rather than relying on particular representatives of them in euclidean space." (Mark A Armstrong, "Basic Topology", 1979)

"[…] in trying to prove a concrete geometrical result such as the classification theorem for surfaces, the purely topological structure of the surface (that it be locally euclidean) does not give us much leverage from which to start. On the other hand, although we can define algebraic invariants, such as the fundamental group, for topological spaces in general, they are not a great deal of use to us unless we can calculate them for a reasonably large collection of spaces. Both of these problems may be dealt with effectively by working with spaces that can be broken up into pieces which we can recognize, and which fit together nicely, the so called triangulable spaces." (Mark A Armstrong, "Basic Topology", 1979)

"Results which allow one to classify completely a collection of objects are among the most important and aesthetically-pleasing in mathematics. The fact that they are also rather rare adds even more to their appeal." (Mark A Armstrong, "Basic Topology", 1979)

"Showing that two spaces are homeomorphic is a geometrical problem, involving the construction of a specific homeomorphism between them. The techniques used vary with the problem. […] Attempting to prove that two spaces are not homeomorphic to one another is a problem of an entirely different nature. We cannot possibly examine each function between the two spaces individually and check that it is not a homeomorphism. Instead we look for 'topological invariants' of spaces: an invariant may be a geometrical property of the space, a number like the Euler number defined for the space, or an algebraic system such as a group or a ring constructed from the space. The important thing is that the invariant be preserved by a homeomorphism- hence its name. If we suspect that two spaces are not homeomorphic, we may be able to confirm our suspicion by computing some suitable invariant and showing that we obtain different answers." (Mark A Armstrong, "Basic Topology", 1979)

"This notion of each point in a space having a collection of 'neighbourhoods', the neighbourhoods leading in turn to a good definition of continuous function, is the crucial one. Notice that in defining neighbourhoods in a euclidean space we used very strongly the euclidean distance between points. In constructing an abstract space we would like to retain the concept of neighbourhood but rid ourselves of any dependence on a distance function. (A topological equivalence does not preserve distances.)" (Mark A Armstrong, "Basic Topology", 1979)

"Topology has to do with those properties of a space which are left unchanged by the kind of transformation that we have called a topological equivalence or homeomorphism. But what sort of spaces interest us and what exactly do we mean by a 'space? The idea of a homeomorphism involves very strongly the notion of continuity [...]"  (Mark A Armstrong, "Basic Topology", 1979)

On Classification III: Mathematics

"One expects a mathematical theorem or a mathematical theory not only to describe and to classify in a simple and elegant way numerous and a priori disparate special cases. One also expects ‘elegance’ in its ‘architectural’ structural makeup." (John von Neumann, "The Mathematician" [in "Works of the Mind" Vol. I (1), 1947])

"[…] in trying to prove a concrete geometrical result such as the classification theorem for surfaces, the purely topological structure of the surface (that it be locally euclidean) does not give us much leverage from which to start. On the other hand, although we can define algebraic invariants, such as the fundamental group, for topological spaces in general, they are not a great deal of use to us unless we can calculate them for a reasonably large collection of spaces. Both of these problems may be dealt with effectively by working with spaces that can be broken up into pieces which we can recognize, and which fit together nicely, the so called triangulable spaces." (Mark A Armstrong, "Basic Topology", 1979)

"Results which allow one to classify completely a collection of objects are among the most important and aesthetically-pleasing in mathematics. The fact that they are also rather rare adds even more to their appeal." (Mark A Armstrong, "Basic Topology", 1979)

"Human mind and culture have developed a formal system of thought for recognizing, classifying, and exploiting patterns. We call it mathematics. By using mathematics to organize and systematize our ideas about patterns, we have discovered a great secret: nature's patterns are not just there to be admired, they are vital clues to the rules that govern natural processes." (Ian Stewart, "Nature's Numbers: The unreal reality of mathematics", 1995)

"It is when unsystematic classification gives place to systematic classification that we can begin to make sense of talking of general criteria of identity not just for things that belong to kinds, but for the kinds themselves." (Peter F Strawson, "Entity and identity: And Other Essays", 1997)

"The classification theorems of mathematics are among the ultimate triumphs of human intellectual achievement. A classification theorem provides a complete list of all objects in a given category as well as a scheme for matching an unknown object from the category with exactly one of the canonical examples." (Robert Messer & Philip Straffin, "Topology Now!", 2006)

"When a mathematician faces useful notions that are too general, there is only one thing he does: classify." (Marco Manetti, "Topology", 2014)

Robert Messer - Collected Quotes

"A continuous function preserves closeness of points. A discontinuous function maps arbitrarily close points to points that are not close. The precise definition of continuity involves the relation of distance between pairs of points. […] continuity, a property of functions that allows stretching, shrinking, and folding, but preserves the closeness relation among points." (Robert Messer & Philip Straffin, "Topology Now!", 2006)

"Intuitively, two spaces that are homeomorphic have the same general shape in spite of possible deformations of distance and angle. Thus, if two spaces are not homeomorphic, they will tend to look distinctly different. Our job is to specify the difference. To do this rigorously, we need to define some property of topological spaces and show that the property is preserved under transformations by any homeomorphism. Then if one space has the property and the other one does not have the property, there is no way they can be homeomorphic." (Robert Messer & Philip Straffin, "Topology Now!", 2006)

"Numerical invariants and invariant properties enable us to distinguish certain topological spaces. We can go further and associate with a topological space a set having an algebraic structure. The fundamental group is the most basic of such possibilities. It not only provides a useful invariant for topological spaces, but the algebraic operation of multiplication defined for this group reflects the global structure of the space." (Robert Messer & Philip Straffin, "Topology Now!", 2006)

"Topology is the study of geometric objects as they are transformed by continuous deformations. To a topologist the general shape of the objects is of more importance than distance, size, or angle." (Robert Messer & Philip Straffin, "Topology Now!", 2006)

"The definition of homeomorphism was motivated by the idea of preserving the general shape or configuration of a geometric figure. Since path components are significant characteristics of a space, it is certainly reasonable that a homeomorphism will preserve the decomposition of a space into path components. […] Suppose we are given two geometric figures that we suspect are not topologically equivalent. If both of the figures are path-connected, counting components will not distinguish the spaces. However, we might be able to remove a special subset of one of the figures and count the number of components of the remainder. If no comparable set can be removed from the other space to leave the same number of components, we will then know that the two spaces are not homeomorphic." (Robert Messer & Philip Straffin, "Topology Now!", 2006)

"The classification theorems of mathematics are among the ultimate triumphs of human intellectual achievement. A classification theorem provides a complete list of all objects in a given category as well as a scheme for matching an unknown object from the category with exactly one of the canonical examples." (Robert Messer & Philip Straffin, "Topology Now!", 2006)

"The easiest way to show two figures are homeomorphic is often to construct an explicit homeomorphism between them. But what if two figures are not homeomorphic? Surely we cannot be expected to check every function between the sets and show that it is not a homeomorphism. One of the goals of the field of topology is to discover easier ways of detecting the differences between spaces that are not homeomorphic." (Robert Messer & Philip Straffin, "Topology Now!", 2006) 

"The Simplicial Approximation Theorem is a concise statement of the general result for functions between any two triangulated spaces. It says that on a suitable subdivision of the domain, any continuous function can be homotopically deformed by an arbitrarily small amount so that the modified function sends vertices to vertices and is linear on each edge, face, tetrahedron, and higher-dimensional cell of the triangulation." (Robert Messer & Philip Straffin, "Topology Now!", 2006)

"The triangle inequality is perhaps the most important property for proving theorems involving distance. The name is appropriate because the triangle inequality is an abstraction of the property that the sum of the lengths of two sides of a triangle must be at least as large as the length of the third side." (Robert Messer & Philip Straffin, "Topology Now!", 2006)

Set Theory IV

"In many branches of mathematics - in geometry as well as analysis - it has been found extremely convenient to have available a notion of distance which is applicable to the elements of abstract sets. A metric space (as we define it below) is nothing more than a non-empty set equipped with a concept of distance which is suitable for the treatment of convergent sequences in the set and continuous functions defined on the set." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963) 

"It is sometimes said that mathematics is the study of sets and functions. Naturally, this oversimplifies matters; but it does come as close to the truth as an aphorism can." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"The study of sets and functions leads two ways. One path goes down, into the abysses of logic, philosophy, and the foundations of mathematics. The other goes up, onto the highlands of mathematics itself, where these concepts are indispensable in almost all of pure mathematics as it is today." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"At first glance, sets are about as primitive a concept as can be imagined. The concept of a set, which is, after all, a collection of objects, might not appear to be a rich enough idea to support modern mathematics, but just the opposite proved to be true. The more that mathematicians studied sets, the more astonished they were at what they discovered, and astonished is the right word. The results that these mathematicians obtained were often controversial because they violated many common sense notions about equality and dimension." (John Tabak, "Beyond Geometry: A new mathematics of space and form", 2011)

"A very basic observation concerning a fundamental property of the world we live in is the existence of objects that can be distinguished from each other. For the definition of a set, it is indeed of crucial importance that things have individuality, because in order to decide whether objects belong to a particular set they must be distinguishable from objects that are not in the set. Without having made the basic experience of individuality of objects, it would be difficult to imagine or appreciate the concept of a set." (Alfred S Posamentier & Bernd Thaller, "Numbers: Their tales, types, and treasures", 2015)

"Moreover, there is still another important observation that seems to be essential for the idea to group objects into a set: This is the human ability to recognize similarities in different objects. Usually, a collection, or group, consists of objects that somehow belong together, objects that share a common property. While a mathematical set could also be a completely arbitrary collection of unrelated objects, this is usually not what we want to count. We count coins or hours or people, but we usually do not mix these categories." (Alfred S Posamentier & Bernd Thaller, "Numbers: Their tales, types, and treasures", 2015)

George F Simmons - Collected Quotes

"A special role is played in the theory of metric spaces by the class of open spheres within the class of all open sets. The main feature of their relationship is that the open sets coincide with all unions of open spheres, and it follows from this that the continuity of a mapping can be expressed either in terms of open spheres or in terms of open sets, at our convenience." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"A topological space can be thought of as a set from which has been swept away all structure irrelevant to the continuity of functions defined on it." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"Analysis is primarily concerned with limit processes and continuity, so it is not surprising that mathematicians thinking along these lines soon found themselves studying (and generalizing) two elementary concepts: that of a convergent sequence of real or complex numbers, and that of a continuous function of a real or complex variable." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"Determinants are often advertised to students of elementary mathematics as a computational device of great value and efficiency for solving numerical problems involving systems of linear equations. This is somewhat misleading, for their value in problems of this kind is very limited. On the other hand, they do have definite importance as a theoretical tool. Briefly, they provide a numerical means of distinguishing between singular and non-singular matrices (and operators)." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"Historically speaking, topology has followed two principal lines of development. In homology theory, dimension theory, and the study of manifolds, the basic motivation appears to have come from geometry. In these fields, topological spaces are looked upon as generalized geometric configurations, and the emphasis is placed on the structure of the spaces themselves. In the other direction, the main stimulus has been analysis. Continuous functions are the chief objects of interest here, and topological spaces are regarded primarily as carriers of such functions and as domains over which they can be integrated. These ideas lead naturally into the theory of Banach and Hilbert spaces and Banach algebras, the modern theory of integration, and abstract harmonic analysis on locally compact groups." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"In all candor, we must admit that the intuitive meaning of compactness for topological spaces is somewhat elusive. This concept, however, is so vitally important throughout topology […]" (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"In many branches of mathematics - in geometry as well as analysis - it has been found extremely convenient to have available a notion of distance which is applicable to the elements of abstract sets. A metric space (as we define it below) is nothing more than a non-empty set equipped with a concept of distance which is suitable for the treatment of convergent sequences in the set and continuous functions defined on the set." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963) 

"It is extremely helpful to the imagination to have a geometric picture available in terms of which we can visualize sets and operations on sets. […] Diagrammatic thought of this kind is admittedly loose and imprecise; nevertheless, the reader will find it invaluable. No mathematics, however abstract it may appear, is ever carried on without the help of mental images of some kind, and these are often nebulous, personal, and difficult to describe." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"It is sometimes said that mathematics is the study of sets and functions. Naturally, this oversimplifies matters; but it does come as close to the truth as an aphorism can." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"It seems to me that a worthwhile distinction can be drawn between two types of pure mathematics. The first - which unfortunately is somewhat out of style at present - centers attention on particular functions and theorems which are rich in meaning and history, like the gamma function and the prime number theorem, or on juicy individual facts […] The second is concerned primarily with form and structure." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"The essence of analytic geometry lies in the possibility of exploiting this identification by using algebraic tools in geometric arguments and giving geometric interpretations to algebraic calculations." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

"The study of sets and functions leads two ways. One path goes down, into the abysses of logic, philosophy, and the foundations of mathematics. The other goes up, onto the highlands of mathematics itself, where these concepts are indispensable in almost all of pure mathematics as it is today." (George F Simmons, "Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis", 1963)

Mental Models LXIII (Limitations VIII)

"Beliefs are generalizations about the past projected onto the present and future to shape it in the image of the past. [...] When we generalize from incomplete or unrepresentative experience, we form mental models that make the wrong predictions, but because beliefs act as self-fulfilling prophecies it is hard to find out, because we are less open to counter examples." (Joseph O’Connor, "Leading With NLP: Essential Leadership Skills for Influencing and Managing People", 1998)

"People’s mental models are apt to be deficient in a number of ways, perhaps including contradictory, erroneous, and unnecessary concepts. As designers, it is our duty to develop systems and instructional materials that aid users to develop more coherent, useable mental models. As teachers, it is our duty to develop conceptual models that will aid the learner to develop adequate and appropriate mental models. And as scientists who are interested in studying people’s mental models, we must develop appropriate experimental methods and discard our hopes of finding neat, elegant mental models, but instead learn to understand the messy, sloppy, incomplete, and indistinct structures that people actually have." (Donald A Norman, "Some Observations on Mental Models" [in "Mental Models", Ed(s). Dedre Gentner & Albert L Stevens], 1983)

"To begin with, we must understand that any mindset consists of mental models, or concepts, that influence our interpretation of situations and predispose us to certain responses. These models, which are replete with beliefs and assumptions, thus strongly determine the way we understand the world and act in it. The irony is, they become so ingrained in us, as tendencies and predispositions, that we seldom pay attention to them." (Stephen G Haines, "The Manager's Pocket Guide to Strategic and Business Planning", 1998)

"Our mental maps are often not terribly accurate, based as they are on our own selective experience, our knowledge and ignorance, and the information and misinformation we gain from others; nevertheless, these are the maps we depend on every day." (Peter Turchi, "Maps of the Imagination: The writer as cartographer", 2004)

"The most serious problem in applied ethics, or at least in business ethics, is not that we frame experiences; it is not that these mental models are incomplete, sometimes biased, and surely parochial. The larger problem is that most of us either individually or as managers do not realize that we are framing, disregarding data, ignoring counterevidence, or not taking into account other points of view." (Patricia H Werhane "A Place for Philosophers in Applied Ethics and the Role of Moral Reasoning in Moral Imagination", Business Ethics Quarterly 16 (3), 2007)

"Although good ethical decision-making requires us carefully to take into account as much relevant information as is available to us, we have good reason to think that we commonly fall well short of this standard – either by overlooking relevant facts completely or by underestimating their significance. The mental models we employ can contribute to this problem. As we have explained, mental models frame our experiences in ways that both aid and hinder our perceptions. They enable us to focus selectively on ethically relevant matters. By their very nature, they provide incomplete perspectives, resulting in bounded awareness and bounded ethicality. Insofar as our mental modeling practices result in unwarranted partiality, or even ethical blindness, the desired reflective process is distorted. This distortion is aggravated by the fact that our mental models can have this distorting effect without our consciously realizing it. Thus, although we cannot do without mental models, they leave us all vulnerable to blindness and, insofar as we are unaware of this, self-deception." (Patricia H Werhane et al, "Obstacles to Ethical: Decision-Making Mental Models, Milgram and the Problem of Obedience", 2013)

"Mental models serve to conceptualize, focus and shape our experiences, but in so doing, they sometimes cause us to ignore data and occlude critical reflection that might be relevant or, indeed, necessary to practical decision-making. [...] distorting mental models are the foundation

or underpinning of many of the impediments to effective ethical decision-making." (Patricia H Werhane et al, "Obstacles to Ethical: Decision-Making Mental Models, Milgram and the Problem of Obedience",  2013)

"We identify and analyze distorting mental models that constitute experience in a manner that occludes the moral dimension of situations from view, thereby thwarting the first step of ethical decision-making. Examples include an unexamined moral self-image, viewing oneself as merely a bystander, and an exaggerated conception of self-sufficiency. These mental models, we argue, generate blind spots to ethics, in the sense that they limit our ability to see facts that are right before our eyes – sometimes quite literally, as in the many examples of managers and employees who see unethical behavior take place in front of them, but do not recognize it as such." (Patricia H Werhane et al, "Obstacles to Ethical: Decision-Making Mental Models, Milgram and the Problem of Obedience",  2013)