wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Bob Acker from NYC January 12, 2009 - 11:11AM

  Let me quote Leopold Kronecker (in the Berliner Naturforscher-Versammlung 1886):

  "Die ganzen Zahlen hat der liebe Gott gemacht, alles andere ist Menschenwerk"

  A loving God made the integers... everything else is the work of Man

  Bob "A"

  
  
• [2] hjs from 11211 January 12, 2009 - 01:02PM

  i thought he was a watchmaker.

  
  
• [3] Hugh from Crown Heights January 12, 2009 - 01:29PM

  Wow. A mathematician and physicist who knows of Michael Dummett. Years ago, a (quite well-known) physicist professor of mine responded to a question with "But that's just philosophy".

  
  
• [4] Amy from Manhattan January 12, 2009 - 01:34PM

  There's a button that says, "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero." Does Dr. Livio have any comment on that idea?

  And to Bob "A": I'd say humans invented all the different kinds of numbers to describe the world that God created (e.g., the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is what it is by its own nature, but people called it pi & calculated what that irrational number is).

  
  
• [5] j from nyc January 12, 2009 - 01:37PM

  so, i'm thinking that if we could really explain gravity via the Higgs-Boson, atleast i think that's the particle that's used, to heck with explaining just smoke, how about smoke-and-mirrors, and let's get onto explaing credit-swap derivatives, since so many physicists, including Neel Kashkarian/former NASA scientist, were used to do the 'math' for that stuff.

  And I read in 'Constants of Nature', by John Barrow, that all of the other dimensions than the 3rd, that we [most of us presently] reside in, are easier to mathematically explain than this one. So maybe the Particle Collider does have more than an aesthetic application after all. Listen up!!Wall Street.

  
  
• [6] Neal from Port Washington January 12, 2009 - 01:42PM

  I wonder if Mario has read Nassim Taleb's 'Black Swan' and how he would react to that work on randomness?

  
  
• [7] John-Paul G from Elizabeth, NJ January 12, 2009 - 01:46PM

  Mr. Lopate, please don't feign ignorance. The circle comment was unnecessary. You knew what he was talking about.

  
  
• [8] Amy from Manhattan January 12, 2009 - 01:47PM

  Thank you, Leonard & Dr. Livio! I'll send my friend who wrote that button the link to this segment so she can hear that comment for herself.

  
  
• [9] perri January 12, 2009 - 02:01PM

  Because I'm mathematically challenged I've wondered how it is that math manages to answer so many scientific questions. I understand that calculus was invented. Is it possible that whatever we think we know about calculus could be wrong?

  
  
• [10] Herb E January 12, 2009 - 04:22PM

  How could everything that is, be an accident?

  What happened before the begining?