Why the laws of physics are actually really good at math

It might sound strange to think about physics (which often involves a lot of theory and hypotheticals) helping people solve mathematics problems. However, physics follows many math patterns very closely, and in the past, math has also provided a lot of service to physics.

And that has continued for years—with mathematics consistently underpinning some of the greatest breakthroughs we’ve seen in physics—including Albert Einstein’s understanding of gravity and even the creation of calculus by Isaac Newton and his contemporary, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Lately, however, it seems the tables are turning, and the laws of physics are starting to help us better understand the math patterns that keep cropping up. It’s an interesting development that has further highlighted just how intertwined these two parts of the educated world are, and it’s heavily detailed in a new report shared in Nautilus.

In that report, the writers discuss how mathematics and physics continue to work together to help us understand our world. For example, they say mathematics doesn’t just help us describe the universe; the universe is also made up of all these mathematical patterns, which we can understand better thanks to our understanding of mathematics.

But, as the Nautilus report outlines, it does raise a question of whether or not physics is feeding math simply because it provides more motivation to explore the world, thus making it a focus for mathematicians, or if the conjunction between physics and math patterns is actually as strong as it appears.

If the motivation is the case, and the intuitions about how our world should work help provide new details about the patterns, then it could very well explain why physics theories that are often considered “bad” or “incorrect” can sometimes lead to breakthroughs in mathematics that we likely wouldn’t have accomplished otherwise.

No matter how enigmatic the relationship between math patterns and physics might be, though, the fact of the matter is that both have done a lot to help one another. And, with that understanding, perhaps physicists will finally find a way to explain some of the biggest mysteries of the universe, like whether or not time is an illusion.