Math - the Toolkit of the Sciences

Modern science parted ways with ancient science, from the 17th century, with the dawn of rationalism at the end of the Renaissance. It can be called the Scientific Revolution.

Before this time, science was mostly speculation, with a firm “church stricture” not to ruffle religious feathers. There were no experiments or observations.

Scientific Revolution started with the publication of the book by Nicolas Copernicus, who placed the Sun at the centre of the Universe. He based his science on observations and mathematics.

With Renaissance & Reformation, the stranglehold of religion on science loosened up. Scientists got the freedom to think independently. They started making observations of natural phenomena and proposed theories which could explain the observations.

As a result of observations, numerical data was available which could be analysed for patterns using math.

The invention of the printing press also helped in spreading new ideas far & wide.

The major scientist-mathematicians of this era, who were at the forefront of developing the scientific approach and the sciences were Galileo, Brahe & Kepler.

Kepler studied the astronomical observations of Tycho Brahe and proposed his laws of planetary motion. Galileo actually made observations of a falling body by dropping objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

At the same time, math also developed its capabilities to document observations and analyse data.

In fewer than 400 years, humankind has shaped science and reached the current scientific achievements. This miracle can be attributed to the synergy of math & sciences working together.

But before mathematics could provide the conceptual scheme on which modern science could be based, it had to undergo a major change.

Math changed from rhetoric math to symbolic math.