Trick or Truth The Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics [Hardcover]

The prize-winning essays in this book address the fascinating but sometimes uncomfortable relationship between physics and mathematics. Is mathematics merely another natural science? Or is it the result of human creativity? Does physics simply wear mathematics like a costume, or is math the lifeblood of physical reality?

The nineteen wide-ranging, highly imaginative and often entertaining essays are enhanced versions of the prize-winning entries to the FQXi essay competition Trick or Truth, which attracted over 200 submissions.

The Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi, catalyzes, supports, and disseminates research on questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a deep understanding of reality, but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.

The entries were rigorously judged and this book is a collection of the best entries. & the content is accessible to the general, albeit knowledgeable, reader. These essays are very well written. The result is a great book in the philosophy of science, the relationship between the human brain and its ability to abstract to the way the universe runs as a consequence of the values of the fundamental constants of physics. (Charles Ashbacher, MAA Reviews, maa.org, August, 2016)

The prize-winning essays in this book address the fascinating but sometimes uncomfortable relationship between physics and mathematics. Is mathematics merely another natural science? Or is it the result of human creativity? Does physics simply wear mathematics like a costume, or is math the lifeblood of physical reality?

The nineteen wide-ranging,  highly imaginative and often entertaining essays are enhanced versions of the prlM