What is the future of mathematics in understanding the universe?

[Chad134]

Let me start off by saying I am only a high school graduate. (Was never great with English and Grammar but i'll try my best)

Here recently I've been reading a lot of books on Physics by some well known authors. Not only have I been doing that, but I've been using Khan Academy to try to master math to the fullest extent I can before returning to college as well. I have always had a passion for Astronomy but never Physics until recently.

I've already re applied to college and I will be attending next year for Physics, but while reading these books I have come to an understanding that a lot people believe as a civilization we still are in the "early stages" of math. With all of the various Physics fields I can go into whether it being Atomic/Molecular, Astronomy, Electromagnetism, QM, Relativity, etc. I started to wonder where I could be the most help at, and I really can't decide. To be completely honest, I would like to learn them all if it will help my understanding of how everything works.

More than anything I would just like opinions, if we truly are in the "early stages of math" I believe it will be very difficult to determine where to go next without knowing what comes next. This is why I believe so many people have tried to make theory's and theorem's but time and time again they aren't 100% accurate or maybe that one doesn't support this one but parts of them still are accurate.

So I ask what comes next?

 

[Borek]

a lot people believe we still are in the "early stages" of math

Who "we"?

 

[DennisN]

More than anything I would just like opinions, if we truly are in the "early stages of math" [...]

I can not remember having heard anything like that. It sounds odd to me... who can claim that what we have today is early, middle or late? Those are terms usually used by historians (after things have happened). That's not saying I don't think science and mathematics will evolve, though, but predicting the future is difficult at best and impossible at worst. "Even the wisest can not tell."

 

[Chad134]

I'll just keep it short then, in your opinion, in what field can I be the most help to the advancement of physics?

 

[DennisN]

I'll just keep it short then, in your opinion, in what field can I be the most help to the advancement of physics?

Impossible for me to say . But my two cents would be the field you find yourself enjoy the most and/or the field you find yourself to be best at.

 

[Borek]

Don't worry, you are quite far from making any meaningful choice. Learning math is a good path for now, as math is a common language for every branch of physics (and you will be overwhelmed when you find how much we already know). I would suggest following a good texbook, as far as I remember Khan is good at explaining specific problems but his videos are not meant to be a systematic lecture which shows how things are related to each other.

 

[Krunchyman]

When you put things like the fundamental limits of observation and Godel's Incompleteness Theorems into consideration, it seems like all we could ever know about the world just an infinitesimally small portion of all there is to know. There could be many things that exist in this universe and go unnoticed simply because we cannot experience them or observe them, not even with instruments...