In message
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Dawn
Wolthuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
When this theory from set theory or predicate logic is applied to data
modeling or databases, it becomes applied. So, from a purist
standpoint, I'll vote with Wol on this. However, the Computer Science
community also uses the terms "relational theory" or "relational
modeling" or "relational databases" without placing any of these
strictly within the domain of pure mathematics. So, as used by the CS
discipline, it is applied mathematics. Applied mathematics has no
such claim to objectivity in the sense that if one chooses an
inappropriate mathematical model (many examples of this in the history
of science, but none popping to mine immediately), your applied
mathematics is flawed.
Want a good example? Galileo!
The reason he wasn't believed by many people when he said that the
planets go round the sun, was that he said the planets *circle* the sun.
Not his fault, I think he was contemporary with or pre Brahe, and it was
Kepler who solved the maths of ellipses. So while the Copernican view
that the "celestial sphere" went round the earth was a mathematical
mess, so also was Galileo's theory that the planets circle the sun.
Of course, today we remember him for the idea that the planets go round
the sun, but that wasn't the theory as he advanced it ...
Cheers,
Wol
--
Anthony W. Youngman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
'Yings, yow graley yin! Suz ae rikt dheu,' said the blue man, taking the
thimble. 'What *is* he?' said Magrat. 'They're gnomes,' said Nanny. The man
lowered the thimble. 'Pictsies!' Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett 1998
Visit the MaVerick web-site - <http://www.maverick-dbms.org> Open Source Pick
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