Encyclopedia > Experimental mathematics

  Article Content

Experimental mathematics

Experimental mathematics can have two meanings:

Some people define it as a new field in mathematics which uses computers to carry out calculations which are too involved or lengthy for human calculation.

The proof of the four-color theorem was one of the first major results of experimental mathematics in this sense.

Some others define "experimental mathematics" to mean the application of the experimental part of the scientific method to mathematics, where mathematicians develop hypotheses[?] before attempting proofs, and then see if their calculations is consistent or inconconsistent with their hypotheses. An inconsistency effectively disproves an hypothesis, by providing a counterexample; consistency suggests that it is worthwhile to attempt to prove the hypothesis rigorously.

External links



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Flapper

... worse still, get old. In addition to their irreverent behavior, flappers were known for their style, which largely emerged as a result of the musical style of jazz and ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 26.7 ms