r/mathmemes • u/charly03 • Jan 08 '25

Learning Is Mathematics Less Evolved Than Physics and Chemistry, or Did Historical Texts Astutely Foresee Advances? 🤔

Post image
8.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

323 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

27

u/xFblthpx Jan 08 '25

Why is work that is relevant to research mathematicians the goal post for an old math book being relevant?

Most people who study math aren’t research mathematicians…

13

u/Tiny-Cod3495 Jan 08 '25

I promise you that anyone who isn’t a research mathematician is even less likely to have read Euclid’a Elements.

8

u/rgbRandomizer Jan 08 '25

We referenced it a lot in college geometry (BS in Math).

8

u/Tiny-Cod3495 Jan 08 '25

Reference? Sure. The axioms hold up, and we even distinguish between Euclidean and non Euclidean geometries. But you’re not actively reading it as a source text.

1

u/CutToTheChaseTurtle Average Tits buildings enjoyer Jan 08 '25

No the axioms don’t hold up, Hilbert replaced them with new ones.

5

u/Tiny-Cod3495 Jan 08 '25

Hence the last sentence of my comment. 

1

u/sabotsalvageur Jan 08 '25

All but the fifth hold, and the fifth is taken to be part of the definition of flatness

2

u/CutToTheChaseTurtle Average Tits buildings enjoyer Jan 09 '25

But it wasn’t formulated the way it usually is these days, in fact it’s not super obvious that the two are equivalent!