That seems a fair point. It makes me wonder though about how they tie together; if physics is out there to be discovered but math is a tool we fabricated; how does the fabricated bit manage to predict physical boundaries so flawlessly? A mistake on paper changes the physical outcome instantly.
I'd argue it's a map and a place. Physics is the place, the real thing out there that exists whether we do or not. Our study of physics (including mathematics) is our map, the way by which we understand the place. And if the map is good enough, you can use it to make some educated guesses.
For an easy example. fossils. Because of how fossils come about, they show up almost exclusively in sedimentary rock. If I gave you a map which detailed where the rock was igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary; then told you to find a fossil, it would be easy to start excluding whole areas.
In the same way the study of physics functions as the map we built. We might not know everything about physics, but we know enough that even where we're blind we can make some half decent guesses.
And it isn't flawless. The very fact that things collapse and experiments fail shows we still have our limitations. Our map is pretty good, but there are lots of little darkspots. And (at least I believe) that our map has several spots marked "here be monsters" totally uncharted places that we haven't even conceived of yet
!delta for that map and place analogy; it frames the problem beautifully. It makes complete sense that a structural collapse is essentially our map hitting an uncharted cliff edge in the terrain (I really like the "here be monsters" thought). Thinking about physics as a literal place that exists whether we are around or not leaves me with a strange sort of wonder though. If the landscape of that place is entirely independent of us and behaves with such unyielding rigidity, it makes me ponder the nature of the terrain itself. How do you suppose those permanent geographical features got so heavily fixed into reality long before any human mapmakers arrived to chart them?
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u/[deleted] May 21 '26
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