From the seventeenth century, many of the most important advances in mathematics appeared motivated by the study of physics, and this continued in the following centuries (although in the nineteenth century mathematics started to become increasingly independent from physics). The creation and development of calculus were strongly linked to the needs of physics: There was a need for a new mathematical language to deal with the new dynamics that had arisen from the work of scholars such as Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. The concept of derivative was needed, Newton did not have the modern concept of limits, and instead employed infinitesimals, which lacked a rigorous foundation at that time. During this period there was little distinction between physics and mathematics; as an example, Newton regarded geometry as a branch of mechanics.
Connections between the two fields sometimes only require identifying similar concepts by different names, as shown in the 1975 Wu–Yang dictionary, that related concepts of gauge theory with differential geometry.: 332
Despite the close relationship between math and physics, they are not synonyms. In mathematics objects can be defined exactly and logically related, but the object need have no relationship to experimental measurements. In physics, definitions are abstractions or idealizations, approximations adequate when compared to the natural world. In 1960, Georg Rasch noted that no models are ever true, not even Newton's laws, emphasizing that models should not be evaluated based on truth but on their applicability for a given purpose. For example, Newton built a physical model around definitions like his second law of motion
F
=
m
a
{\displaystyle \mathbf {F} =m\mathbf {a} }
based on observations, leading to the development of calculus and highly accurate planetary mechanics, but later this definition was superseded by improved models of mechanics. Mathematics deals with entities whose properties can be known with certainty. According to David Hume, only statements that deal solely with ideas themselves—such as those encountered in mathematics—can be demonstrated to be true with certainty, while any conclusions pertaining to experiences of the real world can only be achieved via "probable reasoning". This leads to a situation that was put by Albert Einstein as "No number of experiments can prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong." The ultimate goal in research in pure mathematics are rigorous proofs, while in physics heuristic arguments may sometimes suffice in leading-edge research. In short, the methods and goals of physicists and mathematicians are different. Nonetheless, according to Roland Omnès, the axioms of mathematics are not mere conventions, but have physical origins.
Rigor is indispensable in pure mathematics. But many definitions and arguments found in the physics literature involve concepts and ideas that are not up to the standards of rigor in mathematics.
In recent times the two disciplines have most often been taught separately, despite all the interrelations between physics and mathematics. This led some professional mathematicians who were also interested in mathematics education, such as Felix Klein, Richard Courant, Vladimir Arnold and Morris Kline, to strongly advocate teaching mathematics in a way more closely related to the physical sciences. The initial courses of mathematics for college students of physics are often taught by mathematicians, despite the differences in "ways of thinking" of physicists and mathematicians about those traditional courses and how they are used in the physics courses classes thereafter.
Uhden, Olaf; Karam, Ricardo; Pietrocola, Maurício; Pospiech, Gesche (20 October 2011). "Modelling Mathematical Reasoning in Physics Education". Science & Education. 21 (4): 485–506. Bibcode:2012Sc&Ed..21..485U. doi:10.1007/s11191-011-9396-6. S2CID 122869677. /wiki/Bibcode_(identifier)
Francis Bailly; Giuseppe Longo (2011). Mathematics and the Natural Sciences: The Physical Singularity of Life. World Scientific. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-84816-693-6. 978-1-84816-693-6
Sanjay Moreshwar Wagh; Dilip Abasaheb Deshpande (27 September 2012). Essentials of Physics. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. p. 3. ISBN 978-81-203-4642-0. 978-81-203-4642-0
Atiyah, Michael (1990). On the Work of Edward Witten (PDF). International Congress of Mathematicians. Japan. pp. 31–35. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-03-01. /wiki/Michael_Atiyah
Lear, Jonathan (1990). Aristotle: the desire to understand (Repr. ed.). Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge Univ. Press. p. 232. ISBN 9780521347624. 9780521347624
Gerard Assayag; Hans G. Feichtinger; José-Francisco Rodrigues (10 July 2002). Mathematics and Music: A Diderot Mathematical Forum. Springer. p. 216. ISBN 978-3-540-43727-7. 978-3-540-43727-7
Al-Rasasi, Ibrahim (21 June 2004). "All is number" (PDF). King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 December 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20141228132248/http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/math/irasasi/Allisnumber.pdf
Aharon Kantorovich (1 July 1993). Scientific Discovery: Logic and Tinkering. SUNY Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-7914-1478-1. 978-0-7914-1478-1
Kyle Forinash, William Rumsey, Chris Lang, Galileo's Mathematical Language of Nature Archived 2013-09-27 at the Wayback Machine. http://homepages.ius.edu/kforinas/K/pdf/Galileo.pdf
Arthur Mazer (26 September 2011). The Ellipse: A Historical and Mathematical Journey. John Wiley & Sons. p. 5. Bibcode:2010ehmj.book.....M. ISBN 978-1-118-21143-4. 978-1-118-21143-4
Shields, Christopher (2023), "Aristotle", in Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2023 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2024-11-11 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/
E. J. Post, A History of Physics as an Exercise in Philosophy, p. 76. http://www22.pair.com/csdc/pdf/philos.pdf
Arkady Plotnitsky, Niels Bohr and Complementarity: An Introduction, p. 177. https://books.google.com/books?id=dmdUp97S4AYC&pg=PA177
Roger G. Newton (1997). The Truth of Science: Physical Theories and Reality. Harvard University Press. pp. 125–126. ISBN 978-0-674-91092-8. 978-0-674-91092-8
Eoin P. O'Neill (editor), What Did You Do Today, Professor?: Fifteen Illuminating Responses from Trinity College Dublin, p. 62. https://books.google.com/books?id=h8TaAAAAMAAJ
Rédei, M. "On the Tension Between Physics and Mathematics". J Gen Philos Sci 51, pp. 411–425 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-019-09496-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-019-09496-0
Timothy Gowers; June Barrow-Green; Imre Leader (18 July 2010). The Princeton Companion to Mathematics. Princeton University Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-4008-3039-8. 978-1-4008-3039-8
David E. Rowe (2008). "Euclidean Geometry and Physical Space". The Mathematical Intelligencer. 28 (2): 51–59. doi:10.1007/BF02987157. S2CID 56161170. /wiki/David_E._Rowe
Read, Charlotte (1968). "Alfred Korzybski: His contributions and their historical development". The Polish Review. 13 (2). University of Illinois Press: 5–13. ISSN 0032-2970. JSTOR 25776770. Retrieved 2025-01-01. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25776770
""Riemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard" Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2025-01-08. https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/mathematics-biographies/bernhard-riemann#2830903674
Bourdeau, Michel (2023), "Auguste Comte", in Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2023 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2024-11-08 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/comte/
Gorban, A. N. (2018-04-28). "Hilbert's sixth problem: the endless road to rigour". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 376 (2118): 20170238. doi:10.1098/rsta.2017.0238. ISSN 1364-503X. PMC 5869544. PMID 29555808. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5869544
Lamb, Evelyn (2018-04-24). "The coevolution of physics and math". symmetry magazine. https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/the-coevolution-of-physics-and-math
Wu, Tai Tsun; Yang, Chen Ning (1975-12-15). "Concept of nonintegrable phase factors and global formulation of gauge fields". Physical Review D. 12 (12): 3845–3857. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.12.3845. ISSN 0556-2821. https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.12.3845
Zeidler, Eberhard (2008-09-03). Quantum Field Theory II: Quantum Electrodynamics: A Bridge between Mathematicians and Physicists. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-3-540-85377-0. 978-3-540-85377-0
Rasch, Georg (1960). Probabilistic Models for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests. Danish Institute for Educational Research. p. 37. ISBN 9780598554512. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) 9780598554512
Feynman, Richard P. (2011). "Characteristics of Force". The Feynman lectures on physics. Volume 1: Mainly mechanics, radiation, and heat (The new millennium edition, paperback first published ed.). New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02493-3. 978-0-465-02493-3
Ernest, Paul (2003) [1991]. The philosophy of mathematics education. Studies in mathematics education (Reprint ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-85000-667-1. 978-1-85000-667-1
Russell, Paul, ed. (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Hume. Oxford University Press. pp. 34, 94. ISBN 978-0-19-049392-9. 978-0-19-049392-9
Fundamentals of Physics - Volume 2 - Page 627, by David Halliday, Robert Resnick, Jearl Walker (1993)
MICHAEL ATIYAH ET AL. "RESPONSES TO THEORETICAL MATHEMATICS: TOWARD A CULTURAL SYNTHESIS OF MATHEMATICS AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS, BY A. JAFFE AND F. QUINN. https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1994-30-02/S0273-0979-1994-00503-8/S0273-0979-1994-00503-8.pdf" https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1994-30-02/S0273-0979-1994-00503-8/S0273-0979-1994-00503-8.pdf
Redish, Edward F.; Kuo, Eric (2015-07-01). "Language of Physics, Language of Math: Disciplinary Culture and Dynamic Epistemology". Science & Education. 24 (5): 561–590. arXiv:1409.6272. doi:10.1007/s11191-015-9749-7. ISSN 1573-1901. https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11191-015-9749-7
Roland Omnès (2005) Converging Realities: Toward a Common Philosophy of Physics and Mathematics p. 38 and p. 215 /wiki/Roland_Omn%C3%A8s
Gusein-Zade, Sabir M.; Varchenko, Alexander N (December 2010), "Obituary: Vladimir Arnold (12 June 1937 – 3 June 2010)" (PDF), Newsletter of the European Mathematical Society, 78: 28–29 /wiki/Sabir_Gusein-Zade
Euler M. (2004). "The role of experiments in the teaching and learning of physics" [JB]. Proceedings of the International School of Physics (Research on Physics Education), pp. 175–221. https://doi.org/10.3254/978-1-61499-012-3-175 https://doi.org/10.3254/978-1-61499-012-3-175
Arnold, V. I. (1999). "Mathematics and physics: mother and daughter or sisters?". Physics-Uspekhi. 42 (12): 1205–1217. Bibcode:1999PhyU...42.1205A. doi:10.1070/pu1999v042n12abeh000673. S2CID 250835608.. /wiki/Vladimir_Arnold
Jaffe, Arthur; Quinn, Frank (1993). ""Theoretical mathematics": toward a cultural synthesis of mathematics and theoretical physics". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 29 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-1993-00413-0. ISSN 0273-0979. https://www.ams.org/bull/1993-29-01/S0273-0979-1993-00413-0/
Sober, Elliott. "Mathematics and Indispensability." The Philosophical Review 102.1 (1993): 35–57. https://doi.org/10.2307/2185652 /wiki/Elliott_Sober
Steven Weinberg, To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science, pp. 9–10. /wiki/Steven_Weinberg
MICHAEL ATIYAH ET AL. "RESPONSES TO THEORETICAL MATHEMATICS: TOWARD A CULTURAL SYNTHESIS OF MATHEMATICS AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS, BY A. JAFFE AND F. QUINN. https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1994-30-02/S0273-0979-1994-00503-8/S0273-0979-1994-00503-8.pdf" https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1994-30-02/S0273-0979-1994-00503-8/S0273-0979-1994-00503-8.pdf
Kevin Davey. "Is Mathematical Rigor Necessary in Physics?", The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Sep., 2003), pp. 439–463 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3541794 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3541794
Mark Steiner (1992), "Mathematical Rigor in Physics". https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203979105-13/mathematical-rigor-physics-mark-steiner https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203979105-13/mathematical-rigor-physics-mark-steiner
P.W. Bridgman (1959), "How Much Rigor is Possible in Physics?" https://doi.org/10.1016/S0049-237X(09)70030-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0049-237X(09)70030-8
Mitra, Asoke N.; Dyson, Freeman J., eds. (2000). Quantum field theory: a twentieth century profile. New Delhi: Hindustan Book Agency [u.a.] ISBN 978-81-85931-25-8. 978-81-85931-25-8
Zeidler, Eberhard (2006). Quantum Field Theory I: Basics in Mathematics and Physics. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-34764-4. ISBN 978-3-540-34762-0. 978-3-540-34762-0
Jaffe, Arthur; Quinn, Frank (1993). ""Theoretical mathematics": toward a cultural synthesis of mathematics and theoretical physics". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 29 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-1993-00413-0. ISSN 0273-0979. https://www.ams.org/bull/1993-29-01/S0273-0979-1993-00413-0/
Albert Einstein, Geometry and Experience. /wiki/Albert_Einstein
Pierre Bergé, Des rythmes au chaos. https://books.google.com/books?id=umFTtQAACAAJ&q=%22Des+rythmes+au+chaos%22
Gary Carl Hatfield (1990). The Natural and the Normative: Theories of Spatial Perception from Kant to Helmholtz. MIT Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-262-08086-6. 978-0-262-08086-6
Gila Hanna; Hans Niels Jahnke; Helmut Pulte (4 December 2009). Explanation and Proof in Mathematics: Philosophical and Educational Perspectives. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-1-4419-0576-5. 978-1-4419-0576-5
"FQXi Community Trick or Truth: the Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics". Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20211214170940/https://fqxi.org/community/essay/rules
James Van Cleve Professor of Philosophy Brown University (16 July 1999). Problems from Kant. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-19-534701-2. 978-0-19-534701-2
Ludwig Wittgenstein; R. G. Bosanquet; Cora Diamond (15 October 1989). Wittgenstein's Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics, Cambridge, 1939. University of Chicago Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-226-90426-9. 978-0-226-90426-9
Pudlák, Pavel (2013). Logical Foundations of Mathematics and Computational Complexity: A Gentle Introduction. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 659. ISBN 978-3-319-00119-7. 978-3-319-00119-7
"Stephen Hawking. "Godel and the End of the Universe"". Archived from the original on 2020-05-29. Retrieved 2015-06-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20200529232552/http://www.hawking.org.uk/godel-and-the-end-of-physics.html
Mario Livio (August 2011). "Why math works?". Scientific American: 80–83. /wiki/Mario_Livio
Karam; Pospiech; & Pietrocola (2010). "Mathematics in physics lessons: developing structural skills" http://www.univ-reims.fr/site/evenement/girep-icpe-mptl-2010-reims-international-conference/gallery_files/site/1/90/4401/22908/29476/30505.pdf
Stakhov "Dirac’s Principle of Mathematical Beauty, Mathematics of Harmony" http://www2.fisica.unlp.edu.ar/materias/algebralineal/documentos/mathharm.pdf
Richard Lesh; Peter L. Galbraith; Christopher R. Haines; Andrew Hurford (2009). Modeling Students' Mathematical Modeling Competencies: ICTMA 13. Springer. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-4419-0561-1. 978-1-4419-0561-1
"Why is Amp`ere's law so hard? A look at middle-division physics" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-08-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20230803043155/https://bridge.math.oregonstate.edu/papers/ampere.pdf