General Question

Steve_A's avatar

Can there be a mathematical formula for everything?

Asked by Steve_A (5130points) May 26th, 2010

Is it possible to do so?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

21 Answers

Otto_King's avatar

I don’t think so. Definetely not for languages. I think it’s impossible to translate them mathematicaly.

Lightlyseared's avatar

@Otto_King The limitation is not with math but with peoples current ability to use it.

noodlehead710's avatar

There’s a physicist Garrett Lisi who proposed a “Theory of Everything” in which four fundamental forces of nature could be found to behave as subgroups embedded in a large algebraic structure called E8. Then another physicist along with mathematician Skip Garibaldi managed to prove that no such structures could actually lie within E8. I’ve got basically no understanding of any of this, but here is a press release about the article, and the article itself.

It might be that the limitation is with ability to use math, but it’s also possible that the limitations lie with math itself.

Otto_King's avatar

I still don’t believe that instead of dictionary, we’re gonna use “calculator” in the future… :) if that theory was true, by now all the languages would be mathematicaly decodable by machines of course.

LostInParadise's avatar

There will never be a formula that will be able to compare one work of art to another.

Otto_King's avatar

LostInParadise! You talk from my heart… :)

tinyfaery's avatar

Love
Truth
Justice
Friendship

Really, any human emotion, creation and/or relationship will never be deducible to a formula.

Ivan's avatar

@tinyfaery

That’s pretty much what Psychology is.

tinyfaery's avatar

No numbers involved. Math is definitive; psychology is subjective.

Ivan's avatar

Psychology is a science (or it can be), and math is the language of science.

tinyfaery's avatar

Psychology is a soft science. And to many hard scientists, it is a pseudo-science.

Ivan's avatar

I hear that. I’ll say this: if done correctly, our explanation of human emotion would involve mathematics.

lloydbird's avatar

The mathematical formula for everything is ONE.
All the things that everything is comprised of, add up to the
ONE EVERYTHING. And that is ALL that there IS.

ONE

kenmc's avatar

@lloydbird What about zero?

lloydbird's avatar

@boots There is no such thing.

nisse's avatar

No, there can never be (this is actually proven in math itself). Even simpler systems than current mathematics (for example using only number 1,2,3.. and + and – could never be “complete”, there are always things in the system which can never be proven). See the Gödel incompleteness theorem.

If you want a light and funny explanation of why it is so, I can warmly recommend the book Gödel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstader.

mattbrowne's avatar

In the 1920ies the famous mathematician David Hilbert tried exactly that with his search for the ultimate formula. He proposed to ground all existing theories to a finite, complete set of axioms, and provide a proof that these axioms were consistent.

As @nisse already pointed out, this effort failed, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert's_program

Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

No, there is no equasion of formula God.

Lightlyseared's avatar

@Hypocrisy_Central Haven’t you heard of the God Equation? It shows a constant, unchanging relationship between the speed of light, the ratio between the circumference and diameter of a circle, and the radio frequency of hydrogen in space.

(OK so it only works if you measure the speed of light in “megalithic yards”, intsead of meters per second, but who doesn’t these days?

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