# Insights Interview with Mathematician Fresh_42 - Comments

#### Greg Bernhardt

I think the economist comments are interesting. Certainly there is a lot of math in economics, but it's interesting they have s more fluid ranges of acceptable solutions.

#### OmCheeto

Gold Member
I think the economist comments are interesting. Certainly there is a lot of math in economics, but it's interesting they have s more fluid ranges of acceptable solutions.
hmmmm..... Perhaps "Economics" should be a sub-category of "Quantum Physics"?

#### AlexCaledin

... Perhaps "Economics" should be a sub-category of "Quantum Physics"?
- indeed, why not? Feynman suggested that Physics / Nature might well be something like the Great Game played by some hidden Players - and the most interesting games have some "economical" aspect - suppose that those Players have to pay somehow for making improbable quantum choices - and that's how the Born Rule actually emerges . . .

#### cosmik debris

One economist at my institution claims economics is a social science.

Cheers

#### manjuvenamma

Interview with Mathematician Fresh_42. Nice. Enjoyed reading it.

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#### Telemachus

One economist at my institution claims economics is a social science.

Cheers
I think it is in many aspects, but I also think that the social sciences are going to be endured by mathematics at some point, you can do, and it is actually done, some hard predictions in social sciences. You can actually model some social phenomena and behavior using physical models, I have seen some papers on this kind of topics, applying some statistical mechanics equation that describes some nucleation process to the formation of the centers of cities, or some kinetic gas equation to describe evacuation in emergency situations for some building and staff like that. It is pretty gross for what "social" means, but as science advances, I think we are going to see more and more of this. At this point people can see the activation of neurons one by one, all this techniques will have an impact in psychology and sociology, all the advances in neurosciences will have an impact in the future on how all those disciplines like social sciences and psychology are driven.

#### OmCheeto

Gold Member
Ummm......

"Economics is regarded as a social science because it uses scientific methods to build theories that can help explain the behaviour of individuals, groups and organisations."

ref: http://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Competitive_markets/What_is_economics.html

ps. I didn't believe it at first either. But if you think about it for about 15 seconds, it makes sense.

-----------
Student; "What the hell is Economics, really?"
Professor Om; "Economics is the study of herding human cats."

#### jedishrfu

Mentor
One small nit: The Euler formula is not showing up as it should:

$e^{ipi} + 1 = 0$

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