It could be both. If you just describe it in terms of t-shirts then it is an empirical scientific law. You can claim to have discovered an empirical scientific law If you now express it in mathematical terms, and the mathematical community accepts it as true, then it is then a mathematical axiom. Now (and nobody else has previously discovered it) you can claim to have discovered a mathematical axiom.
Then, as I mentioned earlier, if you prove your mathematical axiom, using formal mathematics, then only have you made a mathematical discovery. Example Bertram Russel started with the axiom 1+1=2 and then used 300 pages of formal mathematics to prove it, On Fri, 3 Sept 2021 at 19:07, <thompnicks...@gmail.com> wrote: > OK fine. Is it an empirical thingamabob or a mathematical one. > > > > Nick Thompson > > thompnicks...@gmail.com > > https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ > > > > *From:* Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Eric Charles > *Sent:* Friday, September 3, 2021 11:38 AM > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < > friam@redfish.com> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Can empirical discoveries be mathematical? > > > > I mean... I feel like "discovery" if the first challenge for your > classification system to justify... ;- ) > > > > On Fri, Sep 3, 2021, 11:24 AM <thompnicks...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Colleagues, > > > > Years ago, my daughter, who knows I hate to shop, bought me a bunch of > plain T-shirts. The label’s on the shirts were printed, rather than > attached, and so have faded. Each morning, this leaves me with the problem > of decerning which is the front and which the back of the shirt, and even, > which the inside and which the out-. After years of fussing with these > shirts I decerned a pattern. Up/down, inside-in/inside-out, left/right, > front/back, crossed arms/uncrossed arms, you can’t do one transformation > without doing at least one other. > > > > Is this an empirical discovery or a mathematical one? > > > > I guess it boils down to whether “front/back” entails in its meaning > another transformation. Should we call empirical discoveries > “discoveries” and mathematical discoveries “revelations”? > > > > Nick > > > > Nick Thompson > > thompnicks...@gmail.com > > https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ > > > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >
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