Nobel laureate and SFI Science Board member David Gross says although math and physics share the same underlying concepts, it is important to remember that there exist important differences between the disciplines. Gross is Director of the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, California.
Making a case for stronger collaboration between the disciplines in a January 6 lecture hosted by the Chennai Mathematical Institute in Chennai, India, he said mathematics has its foundation in generalisation, abstraction, and proof while physics has its thought processes rooted in simplification, guesswork, and prediction.
This difference starts at the level of basic education where mathematics adopts a top-down approach while physics is taught bottom-up, he said.
Read the article in The Hindu (January 6, 2011)