From Ian Duerdoth
Martin Rees’s article on mathematics (14 February, p 36) prompts the question: why is mathematics so effective in explaining the physical world?
We observe that the natural world is not entirely random, and see lots of structure and organisation – patterns, in other words. We observe that snowflakes often have a hexagonal structure, and that in spring the sun rises a few minutes earlier each day. Mathematics can be considered as the study and classification of all possible logical structures and all possible patterns, including those we see in nature.
This helps to explain why nature is described by mathematics. It should of course be added that in mathematics there are many patterns, such as complex numbers and string theory, that are not apparent in nature. This might be because nature does not use them, or because we have not yet observed them.
Henbury, Cheshire, UK
